Dec 30, 2018

Huatoki eels

I decided that I wasn't done with the Huatoki Plaza so I did a watercolour sketch of the people feeding the eels that live the Huatoki stream. Most people that cross the pedestrian bridge like to stop and have a look over the edge to see how huge and freaky these things are looking today.
(The 2nd half of the video looks a bit strange with the walkway and the sky reflection; it's like the eels are in the sky or something.)

Nov 29, 2018

Huatoki Plaza

Huatoki Plaza was a retail building that was removed to expose the covered stream beneath it. New Plymouth made a reasonably boring urban space for people to ignore. One day, an artist put up a paste-up image of a face to try to make it better. It probably did because these days, the Plaza has several artists' work on various buildings that face it. I've sketched one of the buildings a few times and currently has artwork by Phil 'Suspect' Jones and his studio is actually in the Plaza and his murals are all around town.

Nov 25, 2018

Retro Robots: IQ9

This one was a doodle of a robot from a cartoon* that I watched as a kid. I haven't seen it in some time so it's how I remembered him looking. I added some watercolours to finish it off. Someone pointed out to me once that if a movie had robot in it, I probably liked it. While not 100%, this is more true than I realised. I guess I am fascinated by robots; Maybe I should draw more!
*Starblazers/Space Battleship Yamato

Nov 14, 2018

Rainy Villa


On a covered deck in the rain I got a cold that lasted a week. Now, the sun's back and so am I.

Nov 3, 2018

Salmon Building

I only see this place in winter even though it's painted a bright salmon orange. The plants and moss growing on the side of it camouflage it into the fresh spring leaves. I did this one in September and the building's already starting to disappear among the trees.

Oct 22, 2018

Waitara Whitebait

Whitebait fishing means lots of big nets and tiny fish. It sounds like cheating if you say it that way.

Oct 14, 2018

Good & Bad Parking

Even though these racks are for bicycles, the scooter beside the upright rack shows an example of good parking. The bent over one adjacent to the parallel car park area shows a past-tense example of bad parking.

Sep 16, 2018

Ava the greyhound

At the 'We Love Dogs Expo' I was drawing the dogs that I loved the most - the greyhounds.

Sep 2, 2018

Rover 3500

I was talking to the owner of this car as I drew this. He said that he bought the Rover 3.5 brand-new in 1972. He's also had several cars since then, but always kept this one. I really liked it too.

Aug 22, 2018

Hong Kong Fast Food

A couple of sketches ago I posted the Broadway Fast Food in Stratford. Today, I'm bringing you the Hong Kong Fast Food from New Plymouth. I don't know why it's called that really. They specialise in meat and potato roast dinners. (Just like the ones you can get in Hong Kong?)

Aug 12, 2018

New Plymouth Coastal Walkway


"...and at the first sign of sun, the urban sketcher leaves his studio of hibernation to once again draw and paint the world." (It seems bit early for weather this nice, but I'll take it.)

Jul 27, 2018

Broadway Fastfood

This is a sketch of the signage for a takeaway restaurant in Stratford. My favourite part is the hand-painted signage since we're seeing that kind of stuff less all the time. Most businesses these days have computer printed signs and the hand-painted sign is a bit of a lost art. My second favourite part is the claim of the "Great Tasting Healthier Takeaway". That seems a pretty gutsy, yet hard to prove, boast. Finally, the fact that this place is "Fully Licensed". So basically if you're there to pick up some fish & chips, you can probably get a gin & tonic.

Jul 16, 2018

Moturoa BP

Five years ago, I did this sketch of a weird BP service station in Moturoa. Since it was kind of a house with fuel pumps in front of it, I wondered how long it would last in today's safety regulated world. It turns out, about 2 years. The new modern replacement looks like any other in the world and has a bit less charm. It does have a small cafe inside the kiosk though, in case you want to sit around and watch people pump gas*. 
(*like me)

Jun 26, 2018

Turquoise

Winter sketching means having a cooked breakfast in a warm cafe and sketching from the window.

May 22, 2018

New Plymouth Airport (NPL)


If you are ever sketching people at an airport and you hear someone using a phone say, "Where are YOU?.. I'm at the airport... You haven't left yet?" This means that they are there way too early and are about to not only move, but go back home.

May 7, 2018

Len Lye Selfies

What to do on a New Plymouth weekend? Take a selfie in the stainless steel surface of the Len Lye Centre. (Long exposure, above, and short exposure, below. The third one was from about 18 months ago.)

Apr 16, 2018

Chinese Garden

Here's my sketch from the Chinese Garden, here in New Plymouth. I did the watercolour on the mid-left a while ago and the top-right one was sketched by Scott Wilson. It shows me sitting in the pavilion, getting the one last sunburn of the summer.

Apr 5, 2018

NZ Army Truck

There's a New Zealand Army recruitment office in New Plymouth. Sometimes, it will have a cool truck parked around the back. It's a type of older 1980's Mercedes-Benz Unimog with big tires and awesome tread.

Mar 2, 2018

2016 Ford Mustang Shelby


The American car festival, AmeriCARna, came around again. I ended up chatting with people, got distracted and mucked up a few sketches. That's the bad side to using a pen. I did get one sketch from the 2018 show though: a 2016 Ford Mustang Shelby.

Feb 20, 2018

Summer's Closed

We've been having such great summer days that it's hard to find time to see the indoor exhibitions at Puke Ariki museum. We went to the show, "At the Beach: 100 years of summer fashion in New Zealand" on the last weekend before it closed and was refreshed by a new exhibit. The next day, we got tons of rain, here in New Plymouth, from a front of a cyclone. The day after that, we lost power for four hours due to strong winds. So... can we have an extension on the show and get our summer back?

Feb 17, 2018

Pukekura Park Tea House

In the attempt to stay out of the heat, I went into Pukekura Park to sketch in the shade. As I sketched the Tea House on the lake, I kept thinking how they sell ice cream. Of course I was too weak to resist.

Feb 13, 2018

Fitzroy Lifesaving Club Kiosk

I drew this one last summer but waited until it was coloured before I posted it. Turns out that it took me a year to bring it back out. I remember sketching it. Last year we had a terrible rainy summer with that one day of sun. Well, this was that day and it was a scorcher. I had a tons of sunscreen on but in the end, it was pretty brutal just sitting in the sun drawing. The worst part was that I kept looking at the "ice cold drinks" sign the whole time. I promised that when I was done, I was going to walk over there and buy one. It was maybe one of the best drinks of my life.
So here we are one year later and it's been very warm every single day. The Fitzroy Surf Lifesaving Club Kiosk is in colour. I've actually printed and framed this one and is now added to the window at the Bookstop Gallery as part of my display for the month of February.

Feb 10, 2018

Some of my work on show


I have some work in the window of the Bookshop Gallery on Brougham Street, here in New Plymouth. I'll be adding and changing the selection throughout the month of February.

Jan 4, 2018

Gill St buildings and taxis

Here is a set of three sketches showing the construction of a new inner city motel and the buildings that used to be there. I had to go back multiple times for these since they were done at lunchtimes and I wanted to get a newer style of taxi in the same place as the first 2012 sketch (which also has the old style parking meters too).

Jan 1, 2018

Sushi Ninja Express


I had some time to kill at the local mall so I went and did a sketch of the sushi restaurant on the top floor. It's the kind that has the plates circulating on conveyors so that you can choose as you are seated. Normally when I'm there (eating, not sketching), I can be a while since I like seeing the selections go by and I just like, you know... eating. The two people in my drawing just came in and started on the first plate in front of them. They had their business faces on, had multiple plates and were gone in 10 under minutes. So I learned that this place is really good if you don't have a lot of time. It was also a reminder that when drawing people, when you start, commit to it! You don't know when anyone can move or leave.