it’s all over now

January 1, 2009January 1, 20095 Comments

Went out on the bright, cold and sunny boxing day for a walk, to show my baby son where I grew up. Sat opposite Woolworth’s in Burnt Oak Broadway to record this soon-to-be-departed store in the throes of its death. I think we all enjoyed Woollies at some point, particularly as a kid, when they had pick’n’mix, toys, records, chocolates, and stationery galore. Whose knees would not go weak at all those fountain pens and geometry sets? Plus it was the only place you could find to get passport pics done (the one in the tube station never worked), in a photo machine hidden inexplicably at the back behind the t-shirts and gym slips like some dark secret.

And by tomorrow, or maybe the day after, it will all be over, at the start of it’s 100th year. When I first saw the news reports about it online, there were people queuing for aeons just to get some nick-nack slightly cheaper, and then moaning about the lack of bargains to over-pressed staff who had all just been told, just before Christmas, that they were all losing their jobs. What will replace this bit-of-everything high street store? And who will go next? MFI, Zavvi (the old Virgin Megastore), Whittard’s, all closing shop. There goes the High Street. The times they are a-changing.

while we were getting high

December 23, 2008January 5, 20093 Comments

I’ve been back in London almost a week now, and done a fair bit of sketching; but not much scanning or getting online. I did post this picture on the urban sketchers site though – it’s the Gatehouse pub in Highgate, an area I used to live in, and one which I love. The Gatehouse is right on top of the hill, and while the wetaher has been really mild and bright since we arrived, it was a little nippy while I sat drawing this.

I hadn’t intended on going to Highgate that day. I was on my way in to the City to go to an exhibition (This Tiny World, by my cousin, and it was very good) but the tube stopped in Golders Green (typical; welcome back to London). So I detoured to Highgate and had a little mooch around my old stomping ground: Highgate Village, Waterlow Park, Hornsey Lane, Archway. I used to go to this pub sometimes, but I didn’t on this day – I finished the wash in the warmth of the nearby Angel Inn. I miss this part of the world a lot.

did yer mama always tell ya that the old ones are the best?

December 18, 20085 Comments

It’s Christmas, here in Burnt Oak, back where i grew up, and here’s the big tree at my mum’s house, drawn this morning after the baby went down for a nap. It looks so Christmassy here! I haven’t been outside yet; it’s been sunny, and cold, and cloudy, and I just know it will rain when I do go out. Urban sketching! I turned on the TV last night, couldn’t sleep, and on came “Merry Cliffmas”. Yes, he is still around (I won’t write his name because the search engines will bring a load of people here looking for him), but I suppose he is at least someone I’ve heard of. The longer I’ve been gone, the fewer ‘celebs’ I’ve heard of here.

My son however discovered the Tweenies this morning.

down all the years, down all the days

December 16, 2008December 16, 20084 Comments

I’m re-posting an old one today: the heart of Soho, London. I used to tell people it was called Soho because it was South of Hoxford Street. It’s really an old hunting cry (like tally-ho), because it used to be a hunting ground (well, it still is really). The grounds used to be marked with blue posts, and that is where the name of this old pub comes from. This is from over a year and a half ago. I sat on the very dusty street and started a new sketchbook as people stepped over me, as Londoners do. I went off for a pint afterwards, as Londoners do, in the nearby Ship (an old fave of mine).

I’m posting this because tomorrow I’m flying back to London for Christmas, and I am going to go on a sketch crawl around Soho (and environs) this Saturday. I’ll start at Soho Square and follow my nose. If any London-based sketchers want to come along, I’ll be starting about 10:30am by that funny little shed in the middle of the square (even if it rains). So if you fancy it, do come along! I’m the guy with red hair and a scarf crouched over a moleskine holding his pen funny.

And if it rains, well there’s always the pub.

at my dear land of story books

December 13, 2008December 13, 20089 Comments

Some of my baby son’s toys and books and things. He particularly likes “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?” The large toy at the top is the French one, but his current favourite toy is not pictured: a colourful guitar toy from the backyardigans, whoever they are (apparently they sing a song about the “movers of arabia”, whatever that is).

Drew this in his journal. And this is my entry for Illustration Friday this week, theme “Rambunctious“. I had to ask my wife what that meant, as I think it’s more common a word over here than where I’m from. Full of energy. Babies who are on the verge of walking are certainly that, we are finding.

and the dead tree gives no shelter

December 11, 2008December 11, 20083 Comments

We’ve been here before, once or twice. The Silo, UC Davis. A cold December day, in fact turned too hot by the bright winter sunshine, my shade being muscled out until my ears were hot and red. The sunlight was too warm. It was uncomfortable. I even knocked my water pot into my paint set; I didn’t like that much. I thought of all the urban sketchers out there freezing their fingertips off in colder and wetter climes, and there’s me complaining about the heat. Hey, I’m British, that is what we do.

I posted this on Urban Sketchers, so I did. Incidentally this is post number 150 since I started this blog in April. that’s 750 since April 05, including my old blog. I’m still managing an average of 50 posts every three months. Statto.

take me to the bridge

December 10, 2008December 9, 20082 Comments

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what this bridge is called. I nearly did this in black and white, but decided on colour at the last minute. I like how it turned out. Another drawing done as un cadeau.

ladies and gentlemen

December 8, 2008December 9, 20081 Comment

Remember when I drew this scene while sitting in Alamo Square back in July? No? Well I did (here it is to prove it). And here is the same scene again, drawn this week, but in sepia wash. The ‘painted ladies’.

Drawn on a 5×7 canson watercolour postcard with a copic 0.1 pen and cotman watercolours. And a whole lotta love.

it’s chriiiiiiiiistmas…

December 6, 2008December 7, 20082 Comments

Christmas has come to Davis. The christmas tree was lit on Thursday amid a crowd of about sixty million kids (there or thereabouts) with all sorts of festivities going on, santa, carol singers, candles, etc. My ten-month old loved it, particularly the person dressed as a dinosaur. I came back next day to draw it; I’m not one for big crowds (me being from, you know, London), so you’ll just have to imagine what it was like. But here is the tree, on the E street plaza, as seen from the window of Chipotle across the road.

there might be a parallel universe

December 5, 2008December 5, 200810 Comments

Ok. Thing is, I wanted to draw the new apartment in a kind of tryptich (or is it triptych?), and so I did, in three sepia blocks, each of which I’m showing separately here, along with the whole thing, and for bad measure, a photo of me holding the book (while watching ‘spaced’).

And this is also my entry for Illustration Friday this week (theme: ‘similar’). Our new apartment is very similar to our last one – it’s on the same complex, has all the same fixtures and fitting, but for one big thing – everything is reversed. It’s like walking into a mirror, but I like it inside this mirror, I much prefer it. even if there are more bugs (such as a centipede crawling up through the plughole – do I not like that!)

I was inspired because this week I got back my sketchbook from August’s Art House Co-Op Sketchbook Project, the theme of which was “How to Save The World”. My little book, which you can browse here, was filled with drawings of our own little world, the apartment where we spent all our time. I was saving the place I lived in, in the sense of recording it, so that in years to come I might look at it and say, yes I lived there, I remember that. Now we’ve moved I can do that already. And I can compare drawings of the new apartment to the old. The kitchen (above) is the other way round from how it is in this picture, for example. Even the hot and cold taps are reversed, not that you can tell, but I still get it wrong.

The first frame shows the baby monitor. Baby was sleeping soundly. That is, not making much of a sound. The second frame shows Mr Salt, the saltpot, and his lover Mrs Pepperpot. Mr Salt has very big trousers. He is either grossly deformed or carries a lot in is pockets (perhaps he too is an urban sketcher?). I think Mr. Salt is Dutch, but he comes from England. He is also into the lost practise of trepanning. You can also see the Christmas Tree, put up last weekend, hopefully out of the reach of little mischievous hands (I don’t mean those of Mr Salt, whose hands are stuck to his trousers). The final frame, looking over at the CD tower and the music players and the calendar of new york city, has a bottle of the local Sudwerk beer in it. This is purely decorative. I was actually drinking a cup of tea, but thought a beer bottle would look better. I pulled it from the recycling. I like Sudwerk, the Märzen variety, it’s a nice German style amber beer brewed just down the road from bei uns. One of the things I really like about living out here in the American West are the micro-brews – not as big a thing on the East coast. Back in London, we have the pubs alright, but I way prefer the beers out here. You can see also a Micron Pigma pen on the table; you can’t get those in England either (or at least, I couldn’t). Incidentally, I drew this in a copic multiliner 0.1.