Not my typical sketch outing

Dia de Muertes,  or Mexican Day of the Dead, is celebrated at the Seattle Center every year but this is the first time I've ever gone, at Tina's suggestion that we could find interesting things to sketch there.

We certainly found a lot of interesting things, though it turned out to be very difficult to do any drawing -- too many people, hard to find good vantage points, way too many subjects to choose from.  It was still a fascinating time.

Shrines are created, with food offerings for the dead, and marigolds (the flower of the dead) were much in evidence.  These made for very colorful, complex scenes that were not easy to draw -- I tried, and gave up (Tina did much better by choosing smaller portions of the shrines to sketch, which was a smart approach).

On the main stage there was a lot of dancing, again very colorful and fun to watch.

I wanted to sketch the costumes, but of course, the people wearing them kept moving around!

Finally, I spotted a group of dancers standing still at the edge of the stage, and plopped down on the floor to sketch them.

I had about three minutes before they moved -- sometimes an urban sketcher has to be fast!

I took a break from the crowds and wandered around the center grounds taking photos -- more on that tomorrow.