Saturday, August 22: I hooked up with the East Bay Sketchers at Preservation Park in downtown Oakland. Sixteen beautiful old Victorian houses - saved from demolition - inhabit this park. The site includes lush gardens, period park benches and more. Not only does it enable visitors to step back in time, back to the humble beginnings of Oakland, it serves as a venue for meetings and events like weddings. It's also a great place to sketch.
My urban sketching crew totally enjoyed our visit to Fairyland - after closing time. Here we are with smiles on our shiny faces.
Thanks to local Urban Sketcher Sonia our sketchers visited Fairyland yesterday evening (August 20). No children were needed! But the little child within all of us were raring to go. Fairyland is - for the uninitiated - theme park in the middle of Oakland. When it was created in 1948 Disneyland didn't exist, nor cell phones, video games or Nickelodeon or other means of entertainment enjoyed by kids today. According to Fairyland web site - Fairyland.org -Walt Disney himself came to check out little world himself and "incorporated" ideas came for his "magic kingdom." I came upon this whimsical castle and just had to sketch it.
This is an attempt to draw statutes. I gave Abe Lincoln center stage at the Champions of Humanity monument in downtown Oakland. My Abe looks kinda spooky and it in no way resembles what I saw but I had fun trying to make this look like Abe.
