Joburg Carnival 2012

 A few of us went into town to sketch the old year out on Monday at the annual Joburg Carnival, where groups of inner city residents with the help of local artists and art students, make floats, dress up and parade through the streets. The procession got to our meeting place nearly an hour sooner than I thought they would. I was a bit early, so dashed over to where they were coming down the next street and scribbled off a couple of quick impressions. Luckily the parade ended nearby at Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, where we caught up with it and carried on sketching as the groups competed for best costumes, floats and performances through the afternoon. Onlookers crowded around some of the sketchers, fascinated, but blocking their view, and ran off to tell the subjects they were being drawn, who then came over to have a look. Quite chaotic, but lots of fun.

I took too many sketching implements and couldn't decide which to use - I've posted the ones I did with the multi-coloured crayon my son brought me from Barcelona here, for uniformity's sake - will put the rest up on my blog.

Wishing all the Urban Sketchers community a very happy and sketchful 2013!! Hope to see you in Barcelona!