31st SketchCrawl Johannesburg

The Johannesburg venue couldn't be more different to the lovely coastal ones of Malaga and Sydney! Six of us met at the faux Italian style entertainment complex, Montecasino, on a cold, wet autumn day. 
The casino was my first stop - we split up as we had been warned that the management wasn't too sketcher-friendly but as it turned out no one took the least bit of notice of us. I leant on the wall surrounding the flashing lights and bells of the casino, fascinated at the single-mindedness of the gamblers as they fixated on the machines in front of them - and came away from there after a couple of hours with a throbbing headache!

 After lunch and a look at everyone's drawings, four went home, marathon sketcher John and I went over to the movie theatres to people watch and sketch. We had to sit at the ice cream parlour to get the best view, and of course have an ice cream sundae!

I'd had my eye on this balloon man all day, but he'd been a moving target selling his wares from one end of the centre to the other. At last I found him in a spot where he had run out of steam and stood still, letting his customers come to him, as this small girl happily did just when I was ready to add something else to the drawing.

We tackled the outside facade last thing on the wet, dismal day - I added watercolour at home as the cold was getting to our bones, though when I see brave Liz there in the rain, I think we were a bit wussy!