Urban Sketchers Event in central Sydney

Urban Sketchers February Event was on Saturday and I wouldn't miss it. We met at the Town Hall steps....right in the centre of Sydney. Lots of concrete and HOT. Next to the Town Hall is St Andrews Cathedral and that was what I chose to sketch first, due to the shade and my current predeliction for doors.

I chose my new purple Copic Multiliner (anny opportunity) and the way it works with the sandstone colours amuses me. I guess purple is the complement of yellow ochre, or close enough.

The sketch of 149 York street was done while perching on my small stool in the doorway of Citibank, shrinking back from pedestrians. Lots stopped to look, but I was engrossed.    Buses hampered the sketching while they idled at the traffic lights blocking our view, then they went off with a roar. I hadn't realised how noisy the city is because I am normally not sitting in one spot with the noise washing over me.

I was going for a  more organic style...well, no, not exactly going for it. It seems to have taken over me.

The Lightship Carpentaria

Just realised I forgot to post my sketch from the National Maritime Museum a couple of weeks ago. I love this ship. It is a lightship. Trivia: a lightship's birthday is the anniversary of the day the light was first turned on. This one was on duty on the Queensland coast for many years, and now is at Darling Harbour. It is the brightest of bright vermilions. It is one of those things I like to draw at least once a year. My waterbrush was playing up and flooding the paper at times. A warning to me to take a new one on my travels.
I drew this back in 2010, as seen here, with the light falling on it in different ways.  Then I turned one of the sketches into a solar plate etching which (so far) I have printed in two different colours.

I am always happy to draw this little ship. It has such a strange barrel-like shape that it is always a challenge.

Cockatoo Island and the Pipes Book

 I spent last Saturday at Cockatoo Island. We went out on an early ferry and though it was a beautiful day, it was cold on the ferry. A sign that autumn is coming.  I wanted to do some more work on my Pipes Book. I started it nearly a year ago, but a lot has happened since then. You can see what the cover looks like and read more about it here. It has ten pages in a concertina format and this image is of five of them, pretty much complete. I am keen to get back there and sketch some more, though with winter coming it gets cold out there on the harbour.

I have located many wonderful pipes in my local area, and the book is not totally devoted to Cockatoo Island, so as long as I can sketch outside I can proceed with the book. The trick will be to know when I have finished and leave enough white space, balanced throughout the ten pages.

Just time for another sketch before catching the ferry back to Circular Quay. The sun was hot by this time and we needed to be in the shade, so went inside the Industrial Precinct to sketch another one of the machines there. 

Rozelle Bay

This is the first page of my new sketchbook made of toned papers  and it now has my name and contact details in case the book is lost. The composition with the tall chimneys was perfect for the title page, as it forced me to leave quite a lot of blank space. The chimneys belong to White Bay Power Station, sketched there  from the other side on an Open Day.
This sketch is done from Bicentennial Park near the end of Glebe Point Road. It was very hot, but we found a breezy spot on the point under the shade of a big Moreton Bay fig tree.That's the tree on the right in the Bicentennial Park photo.
Lunch followed at Glebe Deli Cafe, where we've been before and can very much recommend the spicy fish. That's why we went back.

 I too was at the Sydney 38th Worldwide Sketchcrawl in the Botanic Gardens. I'm sketching in a handmade book of toned grounds. I had to choose whether to work consecutively as I usually do, or whether to choose the ground for the subject. 

It had been 46.4C degrees the previous day (that's 115) and the Gardens were looking a little more ochre than green as they usually are, so I chose those colours for the background. Luckily it was much cooler and cloudy, so we went first to the succulent garden where it usually gets very hot, very early. I felt like drawing something hard edged after that, so we went to the statue. And finally we went to a stand of bamboo where we could sit in the shade (sun out by then).

The other two sketches are from another visit to the Botanic Gardens the previous week. I was still finishing my previous sketchbook then, and playing with selective colour.  We got eaten alive by mozzies while sketching the spiral ginger, then we moved on to a spot near Twin Ponds to draw this little woodland area with paperbark trees.

Callan Park Fire Hydrant

Out sketching at this time of the year in Sydney, I'm always looking for a patch of shade. I went sketching at Callan Park recently under the shade of a big tree.

Callan Park is a large area of parkland that goes right down to the harbour. It is dotted with buildings, most of which are not in use. It was once Callan Park Hospital for the Insane. It has only been closed since 2008. Fortunately there is a very active group of local residents trying to keep the developers out.

To one side along the main road, there is some sort of emergency services base, where ambulances and fire engines are parked. All along the very quiet side street, there is a collection of old fire hydrants. I plan to draw them all.
I started a book of pipes nearly a year ago, and now it has a new drawing in it.

Just before Christmas....

We had planned to go out sketching in the Botanic Gardens. But in the days leading up to Christmas, the traffic in inner Sydney is horrific and we needed to cross the city to go to the Gardens. We decided to move on to Plan B.

We went to Iron Cove, just down behind the Leichhardt Pool where I used to swim. They used to tie the boats up on a wooden jetty, but they have them tied to a railing now. Not so picturesque, but still interesting with all the colours.

The sky was a bit cloudy and it was very hot. There was a strong wind, and we had to hold our sketchbooks firmly, and even so they occasionally did an inadvertent jiggle. That is why we drew in pencil and finished them at home. In fact the wind grew stronger and chased us away, so we went to Leichhardt (Italian area) for a coffee at the Locantro.

The view from Birkenhead Point

Birkenhead Point is a shopping centre that was converted from some old  warehouses in the 80s. There used to be a pub where you could get a BBQ lunch and sit on the lawn & watch the view. The pub has long gone and there are blocks of high rise apartments everywhere blocking the view.

The shopping is factory outlets, so we went over there looking for a few things and planning also to sketch. The shopping centre has been completely modernised recently and we had thought perhaps to draw inside.

Unfortunately the shops were not of interest so we walked down to the foreshore where they have now made a long narrow park. There is a marina on one side and just around the corner is this view of Cockatoo Island  with Spectacle Island in the foreground. I've previously drawn this building, while on the island and also the drawing office, right at the top. And the cranes if course.

So, a satisfactory day though NO new jeans and NO new sketching jacket.

35th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

Last Saturday I too was at Cockatoo Island. on the 35th Worldwide Sketchcrawl It was my fourth trip out there in three weeks and every time I go I see more things I want to sketch. Way back last year when we went to the Powerhouse Museum a few times I decided I wanted to draw pipes. I made myself a concertina book to fill with pipe drawings but there was nothing in it till now.

The morning was very foggy but it lifted in time for the ferries to be running and once out there it was a beautiful warm day. Most of these pipes were in the shadow of a cliff, and it can be very brisk out there on the harbour if there is a breeze. On Saturday though, it was just lovely.

There were about 30 sketchcrawlers, and although the island is not that big, people just disperse once you get off the ferry. We all met in the cafe for lunch at 12.30 and there were enough of us to pretty much take it over.  I had another very yummy BLAT. Very generous with fillings!

And a third time to Cockatoo Island

At Cockatoo Island on Easter Monday we had to stay out of the wind. We settled on this sheltered spot between two buildings and it just happened to be the place that just epitomises Cockatoo Island for me. I've photographed it before, but never sketched it. I used my new WINE coloured Copic Multiliner pen, and I must say I LOVE it.

In the same sheltered spot, but against the building opposite I found this interesting conglomeration of pipes.

After that, lunch. Lunch is always good at Cockatoo Island and their BLATs are probably the best I've ever had. By that time it was hot in the sun, so we moved around to 'Easter Island' and sketched there. If you look at this photo you will see why we call it that.

Cockatoo Island - twice.

It was a unanimous decision on the part of my Keeping a Sketchbook class to go to Cockatoo Island. They were so keen they were at Circular Quay for a ferry earlier than the one we'd planned. Homework had been to read Cathy Johnson's art tip about working on a toned ground and I supplied a number of colours of paper. These buildings on the terracotta ground are what you see as soon as you arrive. I've been meaning to draw them for ages, and now I need to do them again.

Cockatoo Island cranes always appeal to me. Each one seems to have its own personality and when you've sketched them, you add even more personality. Unfortunately they are cleaning them up and painting them. They were so beautifully distressed, but they were falling apart.
This one is on the east side looking back towards the city, the harbour bridge and Centrepoint Tower.

The sketches on blue were done when I went back a few days later. I still had plenty of coloured paper. This crane is on the west side of the island with Iron Cove bridge in the background.

Lastly, we went inside the turbine workshop to sketch the old machines. The afternoon sun was coming in a window high up on the left and catching the left top of the machine. Many more fantastic old machines in there. I hope to sketch in there again soon.
Canson Mi-teintes paper with Copic Multiliner black pen and Prismacolour white pencil. (No pen on the machine).

Trocadero again

I want to draw this amazing building again and again. On Monday we went to a cafe opposite and took our time in drawing a section of it. This is the central section of the upper floor where a bay window area is standing out from the rest of the building. It is very long and narrow and the main concern was to get it narrow enough to show how long it was. I'd love to be able to have a look out from that little top balcony up by the roof line.

This building is in King Street, the main street of Newtown, on 4km from the centre of Sydney proper. It was once a dance hall and has been abandoned for many years up until recently. You can see more here .

The paint job they have given it is very bland, though there are two shades of cream. I enhanced them a bit for the sake of the picture.

Newtown Post Office

Early in the week Alissa and I had a late lunch at Cafe C (with the red chairs) where we had a great view of the Newtown Post Office. This is my local post office - you can often find me standing in a queue there.
We ate hamburgers - mine was a lamburger - very delicious. Later I had a berry frappe that was too delicious to draw. I had to drink it right away. Cafe C is a great cafe. They didn't mind us sitting there taking up a table in their busy cafe for much of the afternoon.