My completed drawing of Hersheypark (for now)

I finally got some images of the completed drawing I was working on over this past spring and summer and that I was also updating you guys too. Many thanks to Flying Phils Photos, Bing aerial and satelite imagery, as well as my own photos from the past few seasons. After I show you these photos, I have a little surprise in store, so keep your eyes open!

Sorry about the yellowishness quality of the pics. I edited them in Picture It but stupid Photobucket wasn't uploading the edited images after I saved them. They are pretty clear though, just the yellowish tint is the annoyance on here.

**EDIT** Looks like the images appeared correct after all.

HERSHEYPARK 2009 - complete aerial done entirely in pencil by me:


The space at the top will be left blank at the moment as I may add the HP logo there to help balance things out.




Entrance area


Founder's Circle


Comet Hollow and Minetown


Minetown and ZooAmerica


Pioneer Frontier


The Boardwalk


Midway and the Boardwalk

I also plan to do a Candylane overlay of this drawing sometime after I go this weekend. The overlay will be done on tracing paper with the open sections of the park only drawn. Stay tuned for the surprise!

Now for the surprise! I found one of my very first attempts of ever drawing Hersheypark back in 1997. These photos show the whole thing updated for 1998 because I have Great Bear drawn into it. I'm sure you can see a big change between the two drawings, but I'll let the images speak for themselves.

HERSHEYPARK 1997 - One of my first attempts at drawing the whole park, drawing was dated 1997, but these images have 1998 updates on them.


Park overview


Stadium


Entrance area


Carrousel Circle


Minetown, Music Box and Comet Hollow


Pioneer Frontier


Midway

I found several more drawings of the park that I've done around here, but I wanted to share the current (most recent that I'm working on) along with one of the first attempts I've ever done. Let me know what you all think.

Really, I'm speechless. Those are amazing! Great detail, even on the earlier one. You should consider submitting it as a park map. Definitely beats the computer-generated one that HP has.

Most of the people over at Theme Park Review (including the coaster celeb Robb Alvey himself) have told me the same thing. I'd love to submit it over to Hersheypark for them to see it but I don't know what would happen there.

Maybe you'll get some money in for it, but maybe they'll rip you off on the other end, too. Anyway, keep on doing what you do because the pictures are awesome!

Well I did email them the images today, I don't expect that much to happen. We'll just wait and see it.

Have you heard back about this, and is there anyway you can upload higher resolution images? Maybe even onto Wikimedia Commons?

What's Wikimedia Commons? Never been there, at least I don't think I was.

Nope, haven't heard anything back yet. I don't know what would be going on.

This is Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Commons is a wiki for uploading pictures and other images. If you needed upload large high resolution images, you can upload them there after you create a user name and login.

Thanks for informing me about it. I'll check it out when I have a chance.

Well it's almost Christmas and that means it's time to reveal my tissue layover of my Hersheypark drawing - Christmas Candylane edition:



Here's an overview of what I've done. As you can see, I simply traced over the open areas of the park, added some decorations here and there, as well as the N.O.E.L. light show. Rides that only operate during the event are shown.




The entrance area. I've added little decorations in there, something that you would see if you visited the park at Christmas.




As you can see, there's no Comet or Great Bear.




Comet Hollow, along with the N.O.E.L. light show, the Kissmas Tree, and one of the Fun Slides they set up under Great Bear's barrel roll.




Santa Clause Lane, the Santa-themed overlay to the back of the park during Christmas.




The Twilight Express, as well as Santa's Stables.

I hope you enjoy the pics. Let me know what you think.

That's very cool looking. Especially without some of the major rides, it looks great!

this is a very cool drawing. I remember what it looked like in 2004 when we first met each other. Its amazing that you have kept up with it all these years. I would like to know when you started this drawing

I hope there will be enough changes done in 2011 that will result in me changing this around. The Lemon Drop Shop doesn't really do it justice. We'll see.

I came up with an idea of re-transforming my drawing of Hersheypark. A lot of you may recall the thread over at TPR where I've been showcasing it in its entirety of how the park looks today in its current form. I've been thinking of how a lot of us may like to see how the park looked in the 1980's so I sat down and gave this some thought. I would like to do a vintage 1989 version of the drawing showcasing of what the park looked like during that season.

Here is what the drawing looks like right now:



What I plan on doing is tracing the park over to where it stopped then (Western Chute Out and Canyon River Rapids) leaving areas where former rides were blank. After this stage is done, I'll draw in the removed/relocated rides and structures in those areas, followed by the final stage which would be to retrace it via carbon copy paper onto a sheet of paper that would roughly fit that area of the park onto it. But before I can begin this project, I need your help. I'm creating a list of all the changes I can think of regarding how things were in 1989. Feel free to edit this list and let me know if I'm wrong anywhere:

RHINELAND:
-Sky Ride
-Small kiosk inside the main entrance that is no longer there.

CARROUSEL CIRCLE:
-Giant Wheel
-Tilt-A-Whirl (old location)
-Starlight Arcade
-Carrousel Cone
-Old shade arbors
-Small kiosk that was located between the Craftbarn and Dutch Fudge shop. The Get the Picture booth resides a few feet from where this kiosk existed.

MUSIC BOX WAY
-Old Music Box Theatre
-Starship America (old location)
-Earthmovers
-No Milkmen stage (can someone help me out as to what was in this area around this time)
-Cyclops

COMET HOLLOW
-Rotor
-Whack-A-Mole stand looked different, more like how the game stands out in Music Box/Midway look like now
-No Great Bear...weeping willow trees that used to reside along the creek
-Mini Golf Course that used to reside where Great Bear's barrel roll and S-turn are now
-Comet's old exit

TOWER PLAZA
-Name of whole area changed to Minetown in the 90's but was still referred to Tower Plaza I believe prior to that
-Himalaya
-Coal Shaker (does anyone know where I can find a pic of the ride building)
-Old Penny Arcade/Minetown Restaurant
-Sky Ride
-Coal Cracker's old exit and on-ride photo booth

PIONEER FRONTIER
-No Sidewinder (what was here before it was built? My thoughts were a catering area?)
-No Storm Runner (area was off limits to the public)
-Rodeo
-Canyon River Rapids
-Western Chute Out
-Wells Cargo
-Conestoga
-No Food Court (although all the buildings were there, several housed kiddie rides, food and other things I believe)

If anyone can help me out via photos or sites that have photos from around this time period, your help would be greatly appreciated! I do have some photos that were donated to the old HPCrazy site that I've kept and I'll use those as reference. I'd like to see this project become a success and need all the help I can get!

Check out the vintage photo collection inside the photo gallery. I think there are a few that you're talking about.
http://keystonethrills.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=7789135

Yeah, I think a lot of those were originally donated to me for the old Tripod HPCrazy site (also donated to HPSlappy). They just remained and became a part of the new site which evolved into Keystone Thrills. I do have some other ones that were also donated to me which feature Minetown in 1996/97 which features the old Skyride station at that end, as well as the old Coal Cracker exit/on-ride photo booth.

I've started to work on step one (the tracing process) which will include tracing all of the park that existed in 1989, leaving out spaces where defunct rides/structures stood or were relocated. There will be no detail with this step, just basically a simple line drawing to give me some help perspective and proportion-wise for when I go to add the final version to the paper. Will include a pic of step one once completed to give you an idea on what I'm informing you about.

I'm almost positive I've said this before but that drawling is absolutly amazing! That must have taken forever and it looks great.

Thanks! What I'm working on now will be a vintage version of the same drawing but will be of the 1989 season. I'm doing all the research I can to make this thing as realistic as current drawing. I'll be informing you all as each step is completed leading up to the final stage of the project.

You truly are talented in this. I enjoyed your current drawing, but this might be even better! I always wanted to see a detailed vintage map of HP (I have an old brochure from back then but the pictures aren't even 2d - lol), and now you're making one! And I know it will come out detailed as ever.
Looking forward to it!

I have most of the south side of the park traced. Thank goodness for my S.O.S. and Images of America books because without those, I would be lost with how Minetown looked pre-1990. There is no timetable with this project, I'm just working on it as I have the time to do so.

I wouldn't put a time on the project, either. It's going to take time anyway, and it's better you don't rush it for a deadline.

Just to let you know that the tracing stage is done. This phase will look inaccurate with empty spots for removed/relocated rides, removed structures, etc. I'll try to get a pic up soon.

Wanted to bump this topic and show you guys some of the recent work done to my drawing.


Park overview




Close-up of Skyrush construction site.

All I can say is wow! Very well done! Will you add Skyrush when it opens?

Yes, Skyrush, the new path and renovated Comet Hollow will all be featured. If Looper returns to its original tan paint scheme, that could be a problem though.

That is indeed nice work!

Very nice work once again! I see you touched it up quite well.

On another note, how large exactly are your drawings?

Holy C*** these are amazing. You really have a talent for this.

Here are some better images of my drawing:





Entrance area




Comet Hollow before the remodeling, as well as the Skyrush construction area.




Food court, Sidewinder and Storm Runner




Fahrenheit, The Boardwalk - The Shore, Intercoastal Waterway and Roller Soaker.




Midway, The Boardwalk - Coastline Plunge and East Coast Waterworks




Midway and Lightning Racer

The attention to detail is phenomenal!
The rooftop features and windows make your map extremely well drawn.
I also really like the angles you have drawn the rides on, as they give a full and detailed view.

Thanks Fanatic.

I've now motivated myself to work on more of the parking lot portion. Right now I currently have the Giant Center completed as well as the surrounding parking lots about half complete. Expect some photos of these areas once I'm finished with them.