Time for #oneweek100people!

March 2017

The online sketching challenge, One Week 100 People, begins today! Initiated by Marc Holmes and co-led by Suhita Shirodkar and Liz Steel, the annual event is a fun way to challenge oneself to practice sketching people. It’s not limited to urban sketching – it’s fine to draw from photos, models and even a mirror! (Shown here are a few sketches from previous challenges.)

This will be my third year participating. Usually I sneak in a life-drawing session at Gage during the challenge, where it’s easy to rack up 30 or more drawings in three hours. Unfortunately, there’s no session scheduled this week that fits my schedule, so I’m going to have to work harder at catching people in “real life.”

 

March 2018

I also usually give myself a personal goal within the challenge, such as making as few marks as possible while still evoking an individual and not a generic symbol. So far, I haven’t come up with a new goal, so I’ll stick to that one. In fact, I’m going to make it even more basic: Use fountain pens! With my current emphasis on colored pencil and graphite, I’ve missed using my fountain pens. I’ve inked up my Sailor Cross Point, which hasn’t seen daylight in quite a while. It’s one of my broadest nibs – so broad it’s practically a marker – and I’m hoping it will be just right for quick gestures, which is what I intend to do for this challenge. 

Join us online by using the hashtag #oneweek100people2019. And remember, the objective is “practice, not perfection”!