with never a whisper in the sea

February 27, 20108 Comments

I got up early on Sunday morning, to see what San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf looks like without all the slow-walking touristy people milling about. It looked better. I thought of how much more I like it, being near the sea. But it was very foggy, and then it started raining. It was ‘mizzly’. I went back to the hotel for a bit, and drew the view from the window, looking out towards Coit Tower (below). I went back out, when the sourdough-bread-and-sealion-photographing masses had emerged, and I drew a boat (above), while tucked away under some shelter. I like drawing boats these days; if it hadn’t been so rainy, and if I’d had more time, I’d have drawn boats all day long.

Telegraph Hill reminds me of a Provençal hill town, such as Gordes or Lourmarin, in this drawing.

Incidentally, the Pier 39 sealions appear to have gone. I’d heard that they had moved on from their home, which they have occupied since the 1989 earthquake. A few remain, honking for the cameras, but the rest have swum away.

Here’s the Moleskine spread, after drawing at Fisherman’s Wharf. I’m quite pleased with how these pages look.

mission accomplished

February 26, 2010February 27, 2010Leave a comment

Last weekend in San Francisco, continued… After another stop at a trendy cafe, we walked up the slopes of Mission Dolores park to enjoy the incredible views over the city. I stopped to sketch the tower of the Mission school yet again, while behind me pit-bulls tried to mate with chihuahuas (please, I know what the offspring would be called, don’t go there). We left that image behind and walked up Church, and towards the Castro district, where I drew the corner of Market street while my friend searched for a 3-day Muni pass (he’d been looking everywhere, with no luck). He did find one eventually, at a magazine kiosk on Castro Street (I noticed one magazine had what looked like Cristiano Ronaldo on the front, but, um, it wasn’t about football). Why you need to know all this I don’t know, but it’s a fun enough story, and means I get to call this entry ‘mission accomplished’, rather than ‘mission impossible’, which is what I thought I’d call it at the time. To be continued…

missionistas

February 24, 2010February 24, 20101 Comment

We went to the Mission district of San Francisco. For those who don’t know, the Mission is historically a large Mexican and Central American area of the city, full of colourful houses and even more colourful murals. It is one of the oldest parts of thSan Francisco, one with a slightly sketchy reputation, but which is becoming increasingly gentrified and artist-oriented, especially on its western fringes. It’s also where the world famous burrito was invented. I was eager to find a good taco truck, and there was one down at Garfield Square, on the corner of 25th and Harrison, and we both sat and drew it; ‘Goza Goza Goza’ it was called; no relation to Gozer the Gozerian. That’s my friend Simon above, sketched by me on some airmail envelope paper I had in my bag. I badly wanted to show my guest from England a real Mission burrito. I think he was impressed. I think he was more impressed by the fact the spanish-speaking taco truck guy called him ‘Ese’ (a reference that went over my head, but don’t tell him). I think he was possibly most impressed by Philz Coffee on 24th; he was in there for a good long while, while they carefully constructed his perfect coffee, so I grabbed a sketch while waiting outside. I don’t drink coffee, as I have mentioned in these pages before, so the whole coffee seeking experience is lost on me. Give me a mission burrito and a pint of Anchor Steam any day! That day, in fact; we had much of it that evening. I love San Francisco.

pull the other one

February 19, 2010February 20, 20103 Comments

Old Town Sacramento has lots of candy stores and saloon doors, but it also has a big railway heritage – there is the railway museum and an old steam train that chugs up and down on weekends. Not so on quiet Thursdays. My friend is visiting from the UK so we swent down there to talk Back to the Future III and do some sketching. That’s him there, Simon, on the right. I didn’t draw the bus transfer ticket, though you know I would. I sat and drew a yellow Union Pacific train engine, which had a logo on the side which we found amusing: “America, We’re Pulling For You”. A family of tourists came up while sketching and took my photo (that’s not it below, by the way). That’s the second time that has happened on this same spot, funny enough.

white house experience

February 16, 2010February 17, 20105 Comments

Pancake Day was a success. In otherwords, I had pancakes, proper pancake-day pancakes with lemon and sugar (and one with nutella). My two-year-old excitedly shouted ‘pancake day! pancake day!’ and giggled as I flipped the pancakes up in the air from the pan, but he wouldn’t even eat a nibble. Ah well. I often say that Davis, my current home city, is flat as a pancake, and it is. But it has some nice old houses, like this one on 1st Stret – I have wanted to draw it for ages, and so today at lunchtime (70 degrees warm folks, not bad for winter) I got out and sketched it. I just love that big roof, it’s so ‘America’, it’s so ‘Not Burnt Oak’. I don’t know if it’s a frat house. There are so many on this row I wouldn’t be surprised. Either that or it’s from a horror movie.

does that star-spangled banner yet wave

February 15, 2010February 15, 2010Leave a comment

First Valentine’s Day, then President’s Day; what next, Pancake Day? (Oh yeah, it is, tomorrow… I promise, this is not a food blog, I won’t post photos of my lovely scrummy proper pancake-day pancakes, they’ll be eaten too quickly)

So anyway, Pres’s Day, I got out into this gorgeous Californian February weather (69 degrees and sunny; how’s that snow, everywhere else?) and cycled about a bit, slowly and aimlessly, before settling on the corner of C and 5th to sketch Newman Chapel (I have drawn it before, a few years ago). there was a flag, as there were on many of the streets, so I added it to the frame. It’s funny, I’m not into the whole flag-waving business, flag-fuelled patriotism, in whichever land, and yet I have always been obsessively interested in flags of all countries. Vexillology is one of my favourite subjects, I can’t get enough of it. That, and football shirts, so I’m already gearing up for the World Cup. Anyway, there I am below, giving the post-sketch analysis with Moley #5. David Devant was on my headphones, though I’d spent most of the sketch listening to Joni Mitchell, and I think it shows.

dome alone

February 9, 2010February 9, 20102 Comments

I’ve been meaning to draw this building for a while, the Islamic Center of Davis; an unusual structure in this town, as it is painted in a very bright sky blue, and it features a striking dome above the entrance (but not actually part of the main building). It was built in 2006. Taking advantage of a sunny Friday lunchtime I cycled up Russell and sketched it. You can see the possibly storm-driven clouds passing in the background. We’ve had some winter weather lately.

really useful engines

February 7, 2010February 7, 20104 Comments

So I had another birthday. I don’t feel a year older though, but I do feel a day older than yesterday. Tomorrow I might feel a day even older. Anyway, I went out on my bike to enjoy the sunny super-bowl Sunday weather, and was attracted (not acttracted per se, but you know what I mean) by the clunkety-clunking noise coming from the railroads down by 2nd street. I don’t know what these things are properly called (which considering my two-year old is an expert on such matters, and an avid Thomas fan), but there were loads of these yellow maintenance railtrucks out, busy at work, rolling slowly down the track, making a good old noise. Some were huge complicated loking engines, others small crane-type machines, like this one, picking up wooden sleepers and doing whatever it was supposed to be doing. I sketched it as it clunkety-clunked by.

from here to fraternity

February 4, 2010February 6, 20102 Comments

One of the many fraternity houses that line Russell Blvd, on the edge of the UC Davis campus. This was drawn over a couple of lunchtimes; I had to cycle back up today to finish off the drawing and add the colour. It was however grey today, so I kept in the fluffy clouds and blue skies from yesterday. And wow, that was some gnarled up tree! This is the Chi Phi frat house. Chi Phi is an old national frat, founded in 1824, but the UC Davis chapter’s been here since 1969. Ok, enough facts. If you’re interested in how it looked after the first lunchtime, the work in progress is on the right there.

And here is the whole spread. Also posted at Urban Sketchers.

the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face

February 1, 2010February 1, 20101 Comment

The last day of January; it was a long, busy month, wasn’t it? Long, cold and dark, with not as much drawing as normal. Well the Sun came out and so did I, with the sketchbook.

The last day of January; it was a long, busy month, wasn’t it? Long, cold and dark, with not as much drawing as normal. Well the Sun came out and so did I, with the sketchbook. Wandered town looking for something to draw; I was not inspired by anything new, so went somewhere old. It’s the time of year when trees are like bare spindly bones, just asking to be sketched. Of course drawing them out in the open takes time and patience. I may have to photograph a few while they’re still leafless and draw some complicated pictures of branches at home in the warm (like I did here and here and here, a couple of years ago). No branch left behind. Doing them outside is fun too (like here and here) but going for branch accuracy in chilly weather can be a struggle on the old fineliners. Still, in yesterday’s cold sunshine I gave it a shot.

I’m making a habit of revisiting old spots. I last sat and sketched this corner, 5th and E Streets in Davis, about two and a half years ago. Here’s how it looked back then, on a hot July day (in moleskine #1, when for some reason I didn’t want to draw powerlines):