Another view of the Varsity, but this time from the side. It’s a bigger one than usual at 8″x10″ (on Canson illustration board – lovely for the pen, bit too smooth for a nice wash) sketched while sat on one of the benches outside. I’ve not drawn from this angle before, and yeah it was a fun angle, but I also realized that the bit of the Varsity that I like drawing the least – the underside of the roof – takes up most of the drawing. I’ve always hated that bit, with it’s peculiar angles, uneven shading and lights I can never quite line up. You don’t want these buildings to be easy now do you. Oh Varsity, I’ve been sketching you for years now, I feel like I am doomed to draw you forever, but you’re a great building, and in many ways I’ve only started. I did take a pretty long time drawing this though, longer than I’d have liked (funny how bigger drawings take longer). Hard to tire of this iconic structure. All it needs though is a holographic shark to come out and try to swallow me up.
Tag: varsity theater
the varsity, but bigger
Hey remember a couple of weeks ago I went and drew a panorama in my Moleskine of that stretch of 2nd St with the Varsity Theatre? I intended to redraw it larger, in colour, and submit it to the Pence Gallery for their annual Art Auction next month. I got cracking on it this weekend past, and learned an important but obvious lesson – larger drawings take longer to do. But it means you get to spend more time enjoying it!
Which meant a couple of late nights, but I couldn’t sleep anyway. I drew on a large sheet of thick Strathmore watercolour paper, whose inherently rougher feel than my watercolour Moleskine made my micron pens cry a little bit, but the uniball signo dx um-151 super-accurate-fineliner-pen and the trusty laugh-in-the-face-of-watercolour-paper uniball vision micro came to the rescue (yes there should be a superhero comic about pens, and I might write it) when the microns were starting to feel the strain, like relief pitchers. I took photos for a step-by-step, in case you absolutely have to know whether I drew left to right or right to left or middle to out (it’s that one, though I painted it in reverse order).
And here is the final thing, framed and ready to go. Larger than I usually draw, at roughly 10″ x 20″. I hope it sells!
in the middle of our street
On Sunday I had to get out to draw. I cycled downtown and stood on a bench (yes, stood, so I could see over the large vehicle in the way) on 2nd Street and drew a famiiar scene, but this time as a double-page spread in that lovely brown pen I have. I do like drawing these panoramas. This took about two hours, maybe less, stood in the shade on that bench. The funny thing about standing so high is that people don’t look over your shoulder quite so much. One other thing about sketching these panoramas is you have to scan them in two sections, stitch them together, and then they are so hard to post. If you want to see a bigger version, click on the image above. Below, you can see how big it is in real life. And the thing is, I intend to redraw this as a bigger and more colourful drawing.
Here is a close up of the middle section, for those who can read the tiny writing and are interested in the movie times…
look around, round, round
(Click image to see larger size)
Here is something I drew a while ago (Martin Luther King Jr Day, in January, hence the flags), in my panoramic accordion sketchbook, but did not scan and stitch together until now. I sat out there for a couple of hours, followed by another hour or so on a day later that week, and just sketched and turned and curved as best I could. It’s a good exercise, but tricky all the same. It looks even more different now it’s on a computer screen. The plan is to fill the whole book with similar scenes from Davis as the seasons change. Other seasons may be more colourful, but this represented sunny winter. There is a detail below. All drawn on an accordion sketchbook from Cass Arts in London in uniball vision micro pen.
varsity blues
The Varsity Theatre in Davis, drawn last Friday evening after work. I had considered finishing this at home with some additional colour, but I got back and realised I quite like it like this. This place shows a lot of art-house and independent movies, though I’ve only been to see a film there the once (An Inconvenient Truth back in 2006). In fact it only reopened back in 2006 (I was working at the bookstore acros the street the day it opened), but the building dates back to 1950. It makes this place feel very ‘Hill Valley’; I fully expect that it will be showing Jaws 19 with a holographic shark some time in the next four years (but only if Jaws 19 is considered art-house, which is unlikely. More likely we’ll see a Jaws reboot before then – you heard it here first!). People always have great memories of cinemas. For me they are like Tardises, you step inside and suddenly space and time mean nothing, I can never fathom how so many big screens fit into what look like fairly smallish buildings. They are full of memories too; sweeping movie moments, first (or last) dates, that smell of popcorn. This place is no different, is a beloved Davis part of the Davis community. I should know, I’ve drawn it enough times.
boo to the business world
In case you didn’t know, I occasionally sell some drawings on my Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/petescully. I’ve actually had the store for a while but not really added much to it, but lately I’ve been adding some more and plan to add more original drawings (and prints) in the coming weeks. If you’re interested, please visit my Etsy shop…
Above: the Varsity theatre on 2nd St, Davis; see the Etsy listing here. It’s a nice view of the old theatre before they put the new Mishka’s cafe next door. That would look nice in a frame on your wall; something to remember Davis by.
So anyway… I would really like to go to the Lisbon Urban Sketching Symposium this year, and so I’m planning to raise the money by selling some drawings. I’m also open to commissions; I don’t really draw people, but if you’d like a nice drawing of your house or shop, or of somewhere particular in Davis or London or anywhere else, let me know! Etsy even has a ‘request custom item’ feature.
Cheers!
movies, comics and frilly underwear
Worldwide Sketchcrawl 30, Davis Caliornia, continued… after lunch, I was eager to get back outside and do some sketching in the glorious sunshine. And I did, too – I sat right in the sun, almost getting burnt. Forgot my hat; colars went up, and sketched quickly. January in Davis, lads, gotta love it. I sketched the Varsity theatre on 2nd St, yet again. Against a blue sky, it’s impossible to resist.
I then sketched the window display of Luxury OutHouse on F St, which sounds like a showroom for RVs or garden sheds, but actually sells fancy bathroom soap and dressing gowns and stuff, and interesting looking lingerie. I had to sketch it.
And my last sketch of the day, Bizarro Comics on E Street (because lingerie and comic shops seem to go together, for some reason). As I crossed the road after sketching this, an SUV with cowboy-hatted driver almost ran me over, though I was on the crosswalk already – he wasn’t looking ahead, and didn’t see the crosswalk. I raised my eyebrows at him as he passed without stopping, and he shouted ‘asshole how am i supposed to see you?’
‘If you were looking where you were going, you would have,’ I replied, but he was already driving off making unnecessary hand gestures at me.
At which point I used my super lazer eyes to shrink his car to mouse size, and my mutant powers over magnetism to force lift him into a tree full of crows. That might make a good comic…
Photos from the sketchcrawl to come!
when she walks by she brightens up the neighbourhood
Spread 2 of my Davis Moleskine project: the classic feeling Varsity Theatre on 2nd Street, an oft-sketched building as you know. I sat outside Outdoor Davis on a Saturday afternoon, people stopped to chat as I drew, new students were everywhere spending time with their families before classes begin, there was the air of ‘new’ about the city as the 10-11 year kicked in. For me, just another afternoon of drawing while my son napped. We had been down to this spot just that morning because there is a cool little toystore on 2nd street called Alphabet Moon. This street is changing even since this was drawn though – on the right of the theatre, where you can see just trees, there used to be the old Pump House, but it was moved (I drew it a little while back) to make way for the new relocated Mishka’s Coffee. I passed by yesterday and building is well underway.
This building though is the star of downtown Davis. An old movie theatre, especially one that is actually in use, brightens up the area, gives real life to small-town America. At least, it’s what I always imagined when thinking of small-town America. That and a clock-house, and a corner diner, and hover-boards.
hang on a second
Part two (of two) of the ‘downtown snapshots’ spread of my (almost completed) fifth moley; this is Second Street, Davis, night and day. That’s the cool historic Varsity Theatre there, I have drawn it before, and the Avid Reader right opposite, an independent bookstore I worked at in the first half of my years in Davis. Second Street is probably where the heart of this small college town is.
second thoughts
Second Street, Davis; the Varsity Theater. Today was hot and bright; I sat and drew this in the shade of a tree. The Fall quarter began this week, and there are lots of new students milling about in packs, impressing each other. It’s new year’s day in a college town.
I remembered that exactly ten years ago I moved over to Belgium for my year abroad, and it rained constantly for the first couple of weeks that I was there. A million miles from here, with nigh-on 100 degree weather. And another thought: it is exactly four years since I emigrated from the UK to live in America. The first job I got here was in the bookstore on this very street, directly opposite the Varsity. I don’t think I imagined we’d still be here now. Funny how the years go by. I got myself a strawberry lemonade smoothie, and went home.
petescully 