More sketches from USK SYD Feb

Sorry I have been slow in posting other peoples work from the USK SYD Feb event but here are some of them...


Ways Terrace by Peter Rush.
Some of us desperately want to go back and sketch this building again.
Peters description:
"I used a 6B pencil first as an outline, then added the colour to minimise smudging. To finish I heavily used the 6B to shade and tone. (squeezing in some more colour when needed) Size A2.

Ways Terrace is a public housing building completed in 1925. The architect Professor Leslie Wilkinson had a very strong conviction that Sydney architecture should be Mediterranean. So no, this is not Italy. It really is a very clever building, a big variety of flats, a lot of them two story with loggias and balconies. Pretty much unchanged since construction."



Pyrmont Intersection by Rod Byatt
"USk Sydney organised a sketch crawl through Pyrmont, a visually stimulating harbourside suburb. Most of the suburb has been re-developed which makes anything 'old' stand out even more than it otherwise would. The many public houses were homes-away-from-(miserable tenement) home for most of the resident industrial workers of last century and the century before that.

I gridded up this RH page for a routine 'slow' sketch, working each of the nine panels for about 10 minutes each. I was pleased with the visual variety/interest created in the bottom RH corner (invariably the weakest in most people's work) but attention quickly turned to the centre panel with the 1897 Terminus Hotel, now closed and overgrown with ivy, and building construction behind it. I was pleasantly surprised to find the ANZAC Bridge in the upper RH corner. After about an hour, I started drifting across the gutter because the former bakery and its roofline were as intriguing as this intersection. I found the interplay of greys very attractive (shadows, bitumen) but they're impossible to translate into watercolour effectively. Being a "sketch", a lot of aesthetic problems go unsolved for later resolution over time, e.g. moving from spot watercolour; trees invariably occupying the top third of Sydney streetscape sketches these days - trees being noticeably absent in street sketches and paintings of the city done fifty years ago, by comparison.

I notice Jane Bennett, long-time visual recorder of this suburb, has tackled this pub and bakery."

Sketches by Ethna...who wrote 
"It was those chimney stacks atop the sandstone cottages which caught my eye at Union Square…perhaps a touch of nostalgia (from someone who grew up in a cold  northern city in the UK)….. and well, I also like sash windows. Someone popped his head out of the open window but he was too late to feature in my sketch!

This pub, The Royal Pacific, beautifully positioned on the corner of Harris and Jones Street was too good to pass up with the old and modern lettering and was perfect to fit the format of my open sketchbook. As I was sketching here, I was a little bemused when a passer-by stopped asked me if I was recording the traffic flow!…….hmmm."




"So much history, so many lovely old homes, shops and pubs."


Reminder next event in Sydney is this Saturday 2 March. We are doing a crane crawl at Cockatoo Island. We would love you to join us if you are in Sydney. However, if you are not, we would still love you to join in the fun and go out and sketch a crane close to you, wherever you are in Australia or the world!

Photos from USK SYD in Pyrmont

 Group Photo thanks to John and Meegan ( there were a number people missing from this photo)

Show and Tell  - it is really great the way everyone is so happy to share their sketches- what caught their idea and/or their process or techniques. It is very inspiring to us all!

  

 Action shots of a few of the USKers

Looking for a sketch in the afternoon

See you all again on Saturday 2 March - details of location will be advised soon!

Pyrmont Urban Sketchers event : Alissa Duke

A beautiful summer Sydney day to be sketching outside with friends as part of this Urban Sketchers Sydney event . We started in historic Union Square, and I was determined to only spend a short time here (I could easily stay here for hours) as I really wanted to sketch the Terminus Hotel a few blocks down Harris Street. There is so much history in my own suburb of Pyrmont that I was proud to be sketching  it and see so many others enjoying it as well

 I decided to use my Lamy pen only for this one.

Then after 20 minutes Kaz & I walked down to the Terminus Hotel, a derelict hotel, covered in ivy, and with all glass and tiles still intact. I drew the building in ink from diagonally across the street and then crossed the street to sit opposite and draw some features in detail in watercolour pencil. I could have stayed there for hours......

And then it was suddenly time for our lunch catch up and chat. There were lots of families in the park enjoying the sunshine, so I drew some.

A few more sketches from Pyrmont on Saturday

A few more photos thanks to Erin. I also want to once again thank everyone who came and especially for sharing during our show and tell. I think we all found it very inspirational to hear people share about their techniques and what caught their eye in Union Square. As much as I love comparing notes about 'what pen is that?" " where did you get that sketchbook?" it is good to get beyond that art supply junkie type of conversation and talk about how we actually use the tools!

Sketches from Alissa (click on images to read more about them on flickr)






It was great to meet Peter Rush and see him in action. A number of us have been following his work on flickr for a while.(click on images to read more about them on flickr)






Sketches from Rod (click on images to read more about them on flickr)

Sketches from Ethna

DATE FOR FEB: Saturday 9th. We will do the sketchwalk down Harris St as proposed for January. Details to follow soon.

Pyrmont

This is my Pyrmont sketch with fellow Urban Sketchers having a great time with their own pictures :) 

Union Square, Pyrmont

Yesterday I attended my first USK meeting along with 9 other enthusiastic Sydney sketchers at Pyrmont. A supposedly very hot day turned into a close to perfect summer's day for sketching outdoors. We sketched at Union Square which is lined with very quaint old sandstone terraces. Some have been turned to commercial use while others are still homes. There are getting more high rise residential apartments around the area but it's good to know that there are many old buildings that are recognised as heritage and well retained.

USK SYD at Pyrmont

Today was the second meeting of the new USK group in Sydney and despite the scary weather forecast of 40C (which was wrong!) we got a great group of 10 sketchers turn up.. a wonderful day of sketching and sharing!

Here are my sketches in detail...(yes, still trying new things and not falling back into my usual style..not sure where I will end up but these sketches were SO much fun today!)




Lunch at Concrete cafe.



And a few photos...

Pyrmont, Sydney; Alissa Duke

Sydney, inner city industrial heritage. Caneite balls installed in local park (meters in diameter. I will have to go and measure them). They were used to pulp the sugar cane fibre (after the sugar, molasses alcohol had been extracted) to make Caneite (like masonite) in the 1950-1960's.The CSR factory was in Pyrmont from 1875 and played a large part in shaping it. I went to a talk today by the local history group.

Also lunching at Pyrmont

I was also at Pyrmont lunching and sketching with Alissa. I didn't draw my food because of the ennui of the endless white cups. I had delicious and enormous corn fritters and I wanted to eat them while they were hot.

When we moved off into the square to draw, I was sitting a bit closer than the others and my sketch reflects that. After days and weeks of rain, every time there's a blue sky I have to put it in my sketch.

Union Square, Sydney

Union Square is in the inner city Sydney suburb of Pyrmont.

A delightful place to sit in the sun and sketch. Some of the buildings in the square are cafes, so I sketched my lunch as well.

I wanted to use my Lamy Safari Joy ink pen, as I have been using watercolour pencil for days. It was tempting to draw the lovely sandstone buildings, but then I saw the roofline, then I made the decision to include the antennas !







The buildings in the square are on the National Heritage Register. Below is their desciption:
This terrace of five houses, dating from the Victorian period, has historical significance for its association with the development of Pyrmont Ultimo as a primarily industrial and warehouse district of inner Sydney. Large areas of working class housing, built by wealthy landowners, came to characterise the suburb and a close social environment evolved .

The houses are constructed of ashlar sandstone and the roofs are gabled (and clad with recent terracotta tiles). The houses are relatively intact, with rectangular door openings (surmounted by top lights) and windows fitted with eight pane sash frames. Chimneys are brick and are topped by pots. The dividing walls rise through the roof line.The row appears in fair general condition. In the 1970s the unsympathetic roof tiles and iron decoration to the facades were added.

The terrace is a good example of a Victorian era terrace row and it is a major feature on Union Street, being part of the registered Pyrmont Square Group. It consequently plays a significant role in the streetscape of this central Pyrmont precinct.