Luna Park - The Carousel

We arrived at our USK Sydney meet last Saturday to a surprising sight.  Bushfire smoke had descended all around us, and at one stage the harbour looked to be covered by a white blanket. The contrast of environment, between sailing boats navigating their way through the haze outside, compared to the bright colours and loud sounds inside the fun park was like two different worlds.

 

Having missed sketching the carousel the first time I came to Luna Park, this time I made a beeline  to it. It's hard to ignore the response to all these colours when drawing Luna Park, so it seemed to be a good opportunity to once again go over the top with bright colours and wavy lines.

 

 

 

Commander Baldocks Galloping Horses and Racing Cockerels Carousel was originally built in the late 19th century in England and was installed at Luna Park in 2004.

 

USKSYD Smoked out at Milsons Point!

Today we met at Milsons Point on a day when the smoke from bushfires (and back burning) in the surrounding areas of Sydney) had a big impact on the air quality and also our ability to see the subject that we were sketching!

A group sketches meet - some sketched the harbour views and some sketched Luna Park- I did a bit of both.

I started with the entrance to Luna Park which has a special moustache as part of Movember.

I then tackled the Opera House... seems I can't come to Milsons Point without doing a sketch of the most iconic building in Sydney.

I am currently using the new zeta sketchbook from Stillman and Birn which is a beautiful smooth paper and is SO lovely to use with ink. So I thought it was a good excuse to get some of my non-lamy fountain pens out and test them. My hero and sailor pens aren't flowing so well for me so the smooth paper really helps. I love mixing it up and trying new stuff out!

Another enjoyable USKSYD event - next month Dec 7 at Cockatoo Island again! More details soon.

Luna Park Sydney

Front Entrance - Ethna Gallacher

Luna Park Sydney is an amusement park situated near the North end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The park was originally constructed in the 1930s and although it has undergone various rebuilds it still holds an old day charm. Keen to play with colour last week, Ethna Gallacher, Suzi Poland and I (Chantal Vincent) found this a fun place to explore and discover unusual structures and a lively vibe.

 

Luna Park's prime location - looking back from the front gate

 It felt a little strange to turn our backs on two of Sydney's famous icons whilst sitting to sketch the garish face.

 

Ice Cream and the Big Dipper - Suzi Poland
 

Once we'd sketched the main entrance we each ventured inside and were happy to find further bright colours and fun designs. 

 

Coney Island - Chantal Vincent

 Mostly unchanged in concept, games and décor style since being built in 1935, Luna Park's Coney Island is the only operating funhouse of it's era left in the world.

 

Having only just scratched the surface of what can be sketched here we are all looking forward to returning on another day soon.

 

Random ramblings

Work has been frantic lately and I realised I have all these one off sketches I have done over the last month and not uploaded them to anything. They are all disconnected from each other but worth sharing.

Still thinking about my architectural struggles, I took my sketchbook with me on a grocery run and stopped at a local park to draw the aquatic centre. I spent a few minutes studying the scene before launching into it, reading the patterns, etc. It worked out okay but it is very clinical and lacks a lot of character.

Catching a bus all the way from town in peak hour on a rainy day can be a very long journey. Initially I was going to draw whatever I could see out my window whenever the bus stopped, but as the bus filled up that became more interesting.

Met up with a few other Urban Sketchers on the nastiest last night in winter, what a performance Mother Nature put on. We found some refuge on the ferry pier, and I found the rain splattered windows looking out across to the Opera House really exciting. It was like an Impressionist's painting because it was softening the definition of the scene.

The first Sunday in Spring was too good to stay indoors, so I headed out for a few quick sketches. I had thought some more about my architectural studies and wanted to practice another approach. I hate putting in pencil lines but obviously the benefit of that is everything is in proportion and it all fits on the page. To avoid that I decided to paint very faint gestural strokes enough to give me some guidance. It seemed to work quite well, and by doing that it also took the pressure off "will it fit? have I left enough room?" and can now enjoy the sketch more thoroughly.

I did a two stage breakdown of another building (from a photo) on my blog if anyone would like to see it.

Cheers,
Meegan

Luna Park, Sydney

Luna Park, Sydney, a photo by david.jack on Flickr.

Nice meeting of the Urban Sketchers in Luna Park. It was freezing, but sketching in company is always nice. It was raining and I probably sit into something that I shouldn't. Anyway, I loved it!

Luna Park - Just for Fun

After all the amazing weather we have been having lately it was a shock to the system to be freezing cold (speaking like a Sydneysider) and wet this evening.... Just when a few of us decided to meet at Luna Park for an hour or so of sketching. Thankfully we were able to kinda shelter in the ferry wharf and have some light as well. Night sketching is not something that I do regularly so a nice challenge....and the paper in my Canson Universal Art book is holding up very well considering it is only 96gsm. But my hands were going numb while I was doing this...feeling me with admiration of those who go out sketching in truly cold winter weather. It was very nice to meet Nono – it is a real privilege to have a member from the amazing Malaga Urban Sketchers group with us for a year! Welcome Nono! I was very impressed that the others all stuck with it as well, Meegan, David, Chris. Thanks all for a crazy hour of sketching!!! Please excuse the terrible photos... my hands very shaking!