Urban Sketchers Sydney: Saturday 02 August

Our next get together will be at the Australian Museum on Saturday 2 August.
Meet outside the entrance opposite Hyde Park at 9:45 for its 10:00am opening.

August is renowned for its winds so this provides a warm inside venue if required. You might like to look at the current display by the Scott sisters of watercolours they painted over a 20-year period for their father’s scientific publication on moths and butterflies. Also on display are some new additions to the skeletons exhibition.

If you aren’t interested in these, then of course there are lots of sketching opportunities in the city all around the museum.

Meet back at the foyer at 12.30 for a show and tell

Museum admission Adult $15 Concession $8  more details here

The Kokoda Track to Rivendell

Another great morning with the USK SYD gang - this time at Rhodes



We started the morning at the Kokoda memorial trail during a quick sketch in 45 minutes - most people sketching the Memorial Centrepiece.



Then we headed to Rivendell - Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital. Chris gave us a great introduction at the gatehouse before we headed on down to the main building. A magnificent Free style Classical mansion on the shores of the Parramatta River..and a wonderful spot to spend the rest of the morning sketching.



Wonderful show and tell at the end of the morning as well!
A special thanks to Chris H for organising!
I have written a little more about the day on my blog

Cockatoo Island afternoon sketching - Saturday 22 March

To coincide with the first official Urban Sketchers workshop in Australia we are pleased to announce a sketching event open to everyone - both to sketch Cockatoo Island in the late evening and also to provide an opportunity for those that where unable to attend the workshop to check out what was done.

Meeting at 4:00pm in order to catch the end of the Expressive Urban Sketching workshop and then start sketching at 4.30pm till 7:00pm. We will meet back at the cafe at 7pm for a show and tell and finally heading off for dinner for those that are interested.

Please note Saturday 22 March is the opening weekend for the Biennale of Sydney  and it is expected that the island will be packed with people visiting the exhibitions.

There are special ferries operating but you need to book a ticket beforehand for these and might not be still operating at 7.30pm…but normal ferry services will be operating as well so recommend you use those instead. Although it will be very busy we do not expect that arriving at the island at this time will be quite as crazy.

Please note exhibitions close at 5pm.

USK SYD event on Saturday 8 March - St Peters

Special thanks to Rod Byatt for offering to host March's USK SYD event in St Peters. 

Sydney Park is like no other park in Sydney (its stark contours are used for tv adverts) and the Graffiti Zone is not to be missed -  it is the best in Sydney and amongst the work are examples by artists who have gone on to become international prize-winning artists outside the graffiti field. I personally don't know this area well and whenever I drive past the bricktowers of Sydney Park have always wants to stop and sketch…so very excited at this chance to have an opportunity to do so.

Details:
Saturday 08 March
Meeting Point: The meeting point at 9.30am is the Sydney Park carpark off Princes Hwy, Note: The carpark is nearly full by 8.45am on Saturdays given the popularity of the park, so arrive early or look for street car parking in nearby St Peters or the carpark off Sydney Park Road.

Two sketching options for the morning
1) to stay near the brickwork towers and parkland beyond, OR
(2) spend half the time at the brickwork towers/Sydney Park and half at the May Lane graffiti zone.
If anyone's interested in more sketching options than just the bricktowers and park, they can join Rod on a quick 20min walking tour (9.40-10.00am) covering the local built environment in nearby streets (pointing out subject matter used by other artists), ending up at the graffiti laneway and Sydney Park. This will be a quick walk-around with no time for sketching: individuals can return to locations if they want - they're all just 5mins away from the Brickworks.

Please note: Sydney Park is very exposed so please bring adequate sun protection(sun screen, hat etc) and your own seating!

More details: Sydney Park ( http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/explore/facilities/parks/major-parks/sydney-park)

Getting there:
If you’re heading to the park by public transport, St Peters train station is just across the road. There are also a few bus routes that stop nearby, such as the 370 and 422. Look for routes that travel down Sydney Park Road, Princes Highway and King Street. Three car parks are available but as mentioned above fill up quickly.

Everyone is welcome - no need to RVSP. Please invite anyone else you think might be interested.


Finally….
Mark the date: Saturday 21 March we are planning an evening public sketching event at Cockatoo Island 4.30-7.30pm at the end of the Expressive Urban Sketching 2 day workshop. It will a be great opportunity to sketch the island, visit the Biennale exhibitions and meet other sketchers that are visiting for the workshop. We have people coming from regional NSW,Victoria, South Australia, Queensland AND Canada coming - not to mention the guest instructor Paul Wang from Singapore.  More details will follow shortly.

Sydney Town Hall

On Saturday the Urban Sketchers Sydney group gathered at Town Hall. Sydney Town Hall is one of Australia's finest examples of French Second Empire architecture. Designed by architect J H Willson in 1868, it is said to be inspired by Hotel de Ville in Paris.



 

In anticipation of Paul Wang and Liz Steels' expressive sketching workshop in March, I tried a loose watercolour sketch with some parts wet on wet, others wet on dry. The iron work at the top was too pretty to not attempt with more detail, so in between layers drying, I made a second sketch of the top with a new Hero pen Liz picked up on her Penang/Singapore trip.

 

 

 I love the varied lines from this bent nib pen. They lend themselves well to the intricate forms. This separate sketch was also helpful to determine what features to add in the watercolour only sketch.

 

If you are travelling to Sydney to sketch, this area offers more grand buildings nearby such as St Andrews Cathedral and the Queen Victoria Building. The difficulty is in choosing what to leave out.

USK Sydney Cockatoo Island

 Yesterday, about 15 sketchers met at Sydney's Cockatoo island (a quick ferry ride in the harbour)for the final Urban Sketchers Sydney event for the year. The weather was all blue skies and sunshine, as summer has finally decided to arrive in Sydney. We have visited Cockatoo Island regularly as is so full of inspiration and potential sketching opportunities

 

 

I always like to arrive  a little early to start sketching before everyone arrives and I start talking. I sat the café with Phil & Chris and looked back to Sydney, sketching the panorama in watercolour pencil. Is was so peaceful.

 

 

 

Often when I visit Cockatoo Island I feel the need to draw BIG-  the buildings are big, the cranes are big . I draw everyday on a 20 x 13 cm moleskine watercolour sketchbook. So this time I came prepared with some larger sheets of paper, Unfortunately, I was in the mood for drawing small....so the papers were left untouched this time. But I will return in the New Year to experiment with size and equipment

 

The Drawing Office is one of my favourite buildings on the island. And that was even before I knew that it was called the Drawing Office and then that just made if more special. The Drawing Office was established in 1914 as part of the dockyards of the Royal Australian Navy, which were based there.I love the colour and textures, the greens and the rust .I have sketched it a few times previously. We only had about half and hour for this one before meeting everyone for lunch.

 

some of the sketchbooks from the morning

We chatted, compared notes on what and where we sketched and the experience of the morning.

 

Liz Steel reminded me that Cockatoo Island was the first place we met and sketched together way back in 2008. It was an International Sketchcrawl and we were the only two that turned up. How much has changed in our sketching lives since then! So many wonderful art adventures, meeting some interesting and inspirational people. There have been opportunities in the art world that I never would have dreamed of.

Certainly my sketching has changed. I think that I am more confident in my line and colour. I feel like I am capturing a lot more character of the object I am drawing. Below are my sketches from 2008.

I can see that my subject matter has not altered at all, and I could have chosen the same objects this weekend.  That would have been interesting!

 

I am still using watercolour pencils, as I had only just discovered them then and am now a complete aficionado.

 

I was using Pitt pens and Micron pens then, whereas now I love my Lamy Safarfi Joy ink pen. The flow of ink off the nib is so smooth and suits my drawing style.

 

I also drew on castoff sheets of A4 card stock then, and now I am up to Moleskine watercolour sketchbook number 37 since December 2008. I will be starting on sketchbook number 38 as I fly home for Christmas in a short time. I sketched at the airport for my Christmas flight in 2008 in the first pages of my first Moleskine. I am getting nostalgic thinking about it!

USK SYD at Cockatoo Island

We finished off the year back at Cockatoo Island on a glorious day. Here are 2 of my sketches from this morning.

Once again a wonderful group of sketchers turned up and it was great to see everyones work at lunch. I had to rush off but I hope that others stayed on in the afternoon.
Here are a few photos from the day....

Reminder- Jan 11 we are planning to go to Newcastle for the day. More details will be posted next week. Hope everyone has a wonderful Xmas and summer break!

Barcelona Symposium Debrief

Monthly USKSYD meeting this month was a BCN debrief!

Alissa, Chris and I shared our symposium experiences and described the workshops we did and what we got out it. Here is a combination image of all the sketches I did during the workshops (I didn't do anything on other pages or in another sketchbook …but most of the notes have been added since I got home)

It was then lunchtime …so no sketching got done as a group today. Still it was great to get the USK buzz going and have friends to share our experiences with (non sketching friends don't quite understand what the fuss is about!) It was a lovely warm day of about 30C so lovely to spend a morning in the gardens! Wow - warm weather for early spring.

On the way out I did a quick crazy sketch… couldn't come to the Botanic Gardens and not sketch! Then I had to remember to vote on the way home!  I was planning to sketch the queue to vote but at 2.30pm there wasn't queue at all (so no sketch)…

USK SYD 7 September - BCN Debrief!

This month we will combine our usual sketching event with an informal 'debrief' from the three of us that attended this year's International USK Symposium in Barcelona. We will give a brief run through the workshops we attended, what tips we picked up and some general comments…in short it was amazing!!!!

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Meet at Botanic Gardens Kiosk at 9.30am.  If a nice day we will head to the nearby band  lawn area where  Alissa Duke, Chris Haldane and Liz Steel will share their thoughts and experiences from the USK symposium in Barcelona that they attended in July. 
Afterwards we will sketch in the gardens till 12.30 or beyond.

If raining we will try to make do inside the kiosk (hopefully at 9.30 it will not be too busy) or try to grab one of the pavilions.

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Please RSVP if you plan to attend so we have an idea of numbers.

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And yes, I know it is election day so don't forget to vote before or after!

USK SYD June- Sydney Uni

Details of June's event …everyone welcome! Please feel free to invite anyone that you think might be interested.

Cockatoo Island

I wasn't going to be able to make it for the USK Cockatoo Island day yesterday so with the day off I had last week after Anzac Day, I made a solo trip over to make up for what I'll be missing! It was a beautiful, sunny day and I had the whole afternoon to just explore and sketch. The first sketch was done standing on higher ground in a sandstone covering what used to be a military guardhouse looking out to the southern docks. What caught my eye was the unexpected red container next to all the browns and greys.

For the second sketch, I choose somewhere closer to the wharf so that I can keep on going right up to when the ferry comes. It was getting dark by the time I left. There were people getting off the ferry with pillows and eskies when I was boarding, probably heading to the camp site.

Both sketches were done on location and colour applied at home.

Newtown

Sketches from last month's USK day at Newtown. It was a wet day but nevertheless, it was still a good sketch outing with great enthusiasm from everyone. A friend and her young daughter joined me for a couple of hours and we did some drawing from a small coffee shop along the main street when it started to rain. I caught up with the rest of the USKers after the rain stopped for a little more sketching and lunch.

Some more sketches from Newtown

a little late in sharing these...sorry!

From Ethna:

In spite of many visits to Newtown, I had never ventured far from the main thoroughfare of King Street, so it was exciting to plunge into the back streets and lanes of this lively suburb with the Urban Sketchers group in Sydney.
I'm often attracted to the narrative of the place when I'm looking for inspiration........so the open gate to a house here made me stop and I felt I'd found my sketch.....someone perhaps had just left through that gate, or someone was about to go in......
Cars abound in these narrow back streets so between dodging both them and a few showers, I managed to get something done........

Further down the lane I saw two apartment blocks very close together with a bit of sky inbetween (that blue sky is wishful thinking). It's amazing that even with all the bricks, concrete and glass, a bit of greenery from a balcony or aroung a corner somehow pops up and tends to soften the view.

From Peter Rush:


Looking down Victoria St.
The Sydney Urban Sketchers met up this month in my home ground - Newtown!

Newtown is well known for its urban grit . It's a feast of graffited back lanes with exposed pipes and ductwork behind the busy shops of King St. Perversely I couldn't help myself and sketched a remant of it's arcadian origins. This church is famous for its overgrown cemetery - well worth a visit for a future Urban Sketchers meet up.

USK SYD May - Cockatoo Take 2

A number of people were disappointed to miss out on the Cockatoo Island event in March and it was such a wash out that we thought we would try again before winter starts. Hoping that it will be better weather this time.

Suggested options for ferries – check 131500.com.au for more details
Parramatta River ferry:   Dep: 8:52am  Circular Quay, No. 5 Wharf, Arr: 9:13am Cockatoo Island
Balmain ferry: Dep: 9:10am  Circular Quay, No. 4 Wharf, Arr: 9:39am Cockatoo Island
Parramatta River ferry:   Dep: 9:52am  Circular Quay, No. 5 Wharf, Arr: 10:13am Cockatoo Island

If you missed out on seeing this…. Chantal made a brilliant video of the day in March. Thanks Chantal!


USK Sydney at Cockatoo Island - Crane Crawl. Saturday 02 March 2013 from Chantal V on Vimeo.

USK SYD Newtown Photos

Great day on Saturday despite the rain in Newtown...here are a few photos.

The hardy sketchers sat out the little shower under their umbrellas, others went to the nearby Pie Shop,. At 12.30 we had another wonderful show and tell session - we shared our work standing around in a circle (like the NYC group do) and then got the group photo of the combined sketches afterwards.

It was time then for us all to get out pies (please note these are MEAT pies - yum! they were great) and then a number of people were to be seen in the local art store!
Great day- thanks to all that came and made it such a success!

BTW- Saturday 13 is the International Sketchcrawl and I will be in Melbourne. If anyone in Melbourne is interested in coming along we will be meeting at 10.00  at the giant 'wave' sculpture in between the Art Centre and Hamer Hall. Thanks to a number of local sketchers for helping in the organisation of this. Leave me a message or email at lizsteel (at) gmail (dot) com if you want more details.
attempt at a second one that I didn't finish) This is the most outrageous building! Love it!

The pink building in Newtown

It is nearly impossible not to want to draw this magnificent example of the architecture (and services) of the back lanes of Newtown. This was my effort from todays wonderful (but rain affected) USK SYD event.

Cockatoo Island

In Cockatoo Island, we had a pretty rainy day which didn't want to let us sketch. In a little shelter for the cars, some of us could refugee from the wind and rain. From there, I sketched this perspective trying to capture the contrasting materials of the old sandstone building and the more recent warehouses in top of it. 

 After lunch, I made my way inside the purple warehouse that appears in the right top corner of the first perspective. I passed some fences an found this this piece of machinery.

Looking forward to the next UrbanSketchers meeting.

Video from Saturday

USK Sydney at Cockatoo Island - Crane Crawl. Saturday 02 March 2013 from Chantal V on Vimeo.

It is very very exciting to have our first video from Saturday - special huge thanks to Chantal for putting this together (and managing to sketch as well!)

Group Photos from Cockatoo Island

Once again a great group of people and amazing variety in the work done....

Next month 6th April - more details soon

Cranes and Machinery at Cockatoo Island

My sketches from a wet and wild and cold(for an Australia summer) day at Cockatoo with the USK SYD group. We were going to have a crane crawl today but it was just too wet (at times)...I ended up sitting insde the big sheds and sketching the machinery.



Great day - thanks to all that braved the weather! We had a lot of fun...but all got very wet feet ....