#Oneweek100people2019 Wrap Up

4/10/19

By the end of day 2 of the #Oneweek100people2019 challenge, I wanted to up my game a bit and look for more active people to draw. On day 3, I headed for Northgate Mall and decided I would focus on the motion of walking, which is complicated to break down. In Thomas Thorspecken’s book, Urban Sketching: The Complete Book of Techniques, he breaks down the movement very effectively with simple illustrations (refer to my review to see the illustrations). 

I had these in mind as I closely observed people walking. When the front foot is planted firmly, the front leg is under the body weight, the back leg is bending, and the back foot is getting ready to lift. When the front leg is at an angle, only the heel should be touching the ground, and the back leg is distinctly bending with the foot sharply flexed. I found that these two phases of the walking motion are the easiest to see and therefore draw, but I still missed subtleties in some of these (is the toe up at a sharp angle, or is the foot nearly flat?). It’s easy to end up with the keep-on-truckin’ look (like No. 61) if the front leg sticks out too far. Most people walking at a comfortable mall pace seem to have a fairly short stride, making it even more difficult to see the subtleties among the various walking phases.

4/10/19

4/10/19

I also tried to sketch people walking toward or away from me. Although these are easier in that I can’t see (and therefore don’t have to draw) the varying leg motions, it’s much harder to show that a person is walking and not just standing. I think I did the best job on No. 64 in showing the bent knee and bottom of the shoe.

In about an hour and a half, I made 30 sketches, bringing my total to 87. The best part about this excellent practice is that I think I’ve developed my “vocabulary” for the walking motion that I can apply to future sketches.

4/10/19

4/10/19

After that marathon of walkers, I took it easy the next day and went to Starbucks. With the usual cast of characters – texters, a talker, a sleeper, a flirter, a couple of kids – I finished up my hundred. (I still had a few minutes left on my parking meter, so I did a couple more.)

How did your week of a hundred people go? I hope you had as much fun as I did! As always, taking on this annual challenge taught me new things about drawing one of my favorite subjects.

4/11/10

4/11/19

4/11/19

4/11/19

4/11/19