Super Bowl Monday

I can't believe it. I'm not really a sports guy but I have to say I love the Seahawks. As a true Seattle fan, it's a novelty just to see them IN the playoffs, but to be in the Super Bowl and actually win it is another thing again.
To watch it in New Zealand, Super Bowl Sunday becomes Super Bowl Monday due to the International Date Line. All the 12th Men need to take the day off to watch it live. (Sorry, Work!) Sometimes, New Zealand's national holiday, Waitangi Day, lines up and is on a Monday at the right time. This happened the last time that Seattle was in the Super Bowl and on that day, a New Yorker named Frank was also at the pub that I was at. We watched the Seahawks lose together. Randomly, he just happened to be at the same place as me again today and we caught up. Frank was showing me a few of the bets that he had made just before the game. One of them was a $5 bet for the first points in the game to be made by a safety. Even though it had 50 to 1 odds, it happened 12 seconds into the game and I'm still in disbelief that you can make (and even win) such a thing. Apparently he has even made and won this wager once before too!
(PS the people in this sketch are not Frank and I. I was wearing my Cortez Kennedy 96 jersey!)
Two years ago, I did this sketch while watching it and it had a strange end to the game.

Devon Street Sidewalk

One last one from January. Warm summers days with bright day sunlight. I usually like to find some place in the shade to draw during these months. Devon Street, with the storefront overhangs and rows of trees is always appealing. As I looked down the sidewalk, I was trying to draw the very bright sunny bits and the oasis-like shady bits. I really wanted this to be a drawing of shade, I guess.

Tupare Garden Market

New Plymouth organised a garden market set up at Tupare Garden. For those that don't know the place, there's this reasonably large old house set on this manicured hillside. Once a large residence, this park now makes a pretty good location for country market stalls, food and music. From my perch under a tree, I could sketch people from above while listening to the different musicians. There was one who was singing current popular music in a slow and jazzy style. A mellow lounge singer version of Daft Punk's Get Lucky still pops into my head from time to time.

Power Pole

When I was younger, I thought that in the future... there wouldn't be any telephone/power poles. All wires would be below ground. It's like that in some cities and newer subdivisions but I don't think they will disappear in my lifetime. A good part of the world is pretty wired up and by this I mean lots of slapdash looking jobs. Way too many wires on some. No design. Unplanned. Just keep adding more and more weird crap to them.

This pole that I drew is near where I live. A big cement-y pole with some wood beams cross-strapped here and there. This one also has some heavy-duty lines on the top that go in all directions before being herded down a tube that runs the length of it. It's not going to win any engineering awards. I also like how the streetlight is just bolted to the side of an old piece of wood that is bolted to the centre. 

The newest addition to the Pole of Shame is the bottom bit. Nationwide, New Zealand is currently being hooked up to fibre-optic broadband internet. That bottom pod thing is what that is. With that of course comes another hefty cable. You can follow that one down, and then up, and then to the right. The funny thing is that even though everyone is around digging holes and laying underground cables everywhere, our pole gets one of these babies. Well, you wouldn't want to ruin the current aesthetic that we already have going on here.

Nasty cabling isn't unique to this country. I know some countries load up their points with even way more wires. However, I think that each place does it their own way and that you can tell what part of the world you're in just by the style of crappy wiring that is around you.

Old and New

An old grave behind the cathedral with a new headstone.  The top of this one has the same sculptural 'cloth over an urn' that was on the stone from a sketch in August. The other one didn't seem that new so maybe this style is one of those 'timeless classics' that families keep choosing throughout the years. 

(This is also a similar view to a sketch from a couple years ago. A hot day and drawing in the shade under a tree. The tree on the right here is the same tree on the left in the red sketch.)

August

'Red' sketch from 2012

2014 Te Kupenga Stone Sculpture Symposium

Almost two weeks ago, we were down at the water's edge to draw the 2014 Te Kupenga Stone Sculpture Symposium. This basically is stone carvers from around the world getting together in one public place here in New Plymouth to make a bunch of work in front of an audience. I drew Nigel Scalon working away on his first cuts. I saw him again yesterday working like crazy to finish up. He had one day left before all work was stopped, tools removed and the public is allowed to freely walk around to see (and touch) the different pieces. After another week, there is an art auction at the site.

This event happens every two years. Last year, I ended up colouring my sketch and the two blue ones are from even a little bit earlier when we went to go draw at their club working site. (Click the pics to enlarge.)

 

Volkwagen Kombi at the beach

About two more weeks until lots of people (and most businesses) shut down for up to a month. Combining Christmas, the New Year and plain old Kiwi summer holidays into a concentrated dose of serious time-off. But why wait? That's what weekends are for.

Pohutukawa tree

When the Pohutukawa trees turn red, you know it's summer.

Airwolf

As a kid, there was a helicopter that you could see in the air from time to time. It was this one, combined with re-runs of M*A*S*H, that led me to believe that all helicopters were basically exposed steel frames with a clear bubble cockpit. As I got older, the TV show, Airwolf, pointed out that not all helicopters look like this. Even though it was a modified civilian helicopter, it looked very cool and modern compared to the basic and skeletal Bell-47. Fake rocket pods, other attached film props, and visual & sound effects made it even better.
So here I am, decades later, sketching a helicopter, that still looks a lot like Airwolf. While the TV star was a Bell 222, this one before me is an AgustaWestland AW109. Even years ago, as an avid watcher of the show, I had to look that up. The overall body-shape is very similar, and to me, it's close enough. When I was reading about it on the internet, I read that the actual vehicle in the series had a brief stint as a charter helicopter and then, in Germany, also became a rescue helicopter. Unfortunately, it crashed on its way back to base after an otherwise successful mission when it was caught up in a storm. While it is a risk here that an accident could happen too, this one has very safe specifications. After all, the response team here is a very capable crew piloting 2 decades of flight technology improvements, such as GPS and night vision. The real stuff this time... not TV trickery!

Amusement Park Rides

This week a bunch of us gathered to have a look at some amusement park rides that were set up on a patch of grass by the sea. Even though it was predicted to rain this weekend, it was very sunny and there were lots of people. While some of the others were drawing the rides, I thought that it was the people, especially the kids with ear to ear grins, that make something like this really happen.

Security Pipe

To get to the New Plymouth Marina, you would need to go out on one of the breakwaters at Port Taranaki. About halfway out there is this weird security gate. It really is just a large pipe with a closed top and two sections cut out of the sides to make a couple doors. As I was drawing it, some boatie arrived at the front with a couple of bags to take on board his boat. He put them down and unlocked the door. He then picked up the bags, entered and closed the door behind him. From my point of view, I could barely see the gangway on the other side that leads down to the floating wharves. It gave me the impression that he was entering his tiny windowless apartment or that this pipe has some sort of Doctor Who Tardis quality where it is much roomier on the inside.

Metro Plaza

The Metro Plaza is a pretty cool old-timey building that goes unnoticed. The two trees that I drew in this sketch are actually in front of the words, "Metro" and "Plaza". By moving them out a bit, you can now see the retro features, such as the type and the strange half circle design feature (which I am guessing to be made of steel). Also, it has oddly prominent front double doors that comes out of the upper floor. Stairs comes down on BOTH sides of the awning in case there is tons of people that need to get to safety in extravagance. It seems like a stage set to me where a musical could be performed.
At the bottom is an arcade with shops (not the kind with Pac-Man) that lead to a parking building. I remember that there used to be an American-themed bar in there that was closed once because it was a New Zealand public holiday. Still, other pubs were open and I though it was weird that an American bar wouldn't be open for the Super Bowl, which was the same day. Well, today it isn't there.