Gearing Up for #OneWeek100People2020

3/3/20 North Seattle Costco

As soon as the news media started reporting the first US deaths from COVID-19 as being in Washington State, the media also reported on panic buying and hoarding of supplies. Anecdotally, local friends on social media mentioned seeing grabby shoppers and empty store shelves.

All of that made us trepidatious about hitting Costco, but I had a prescription to pick up, and we were getting low on a few things, so we decided to brave it. Shortly after opening time on a Tuesday morning, the parking lot looked like a Saturday afternoon. Inside, the lines were longer than I had ever seen. The Kleenex was completely gone, and nearly all the toilet paper. I saw three shoppers wearing masks.

We refused to join the hoarding and bought only what we would have purchased anyway in normal quantities. I didn’t see any crazy, panicked behavior, so my overall anxiety went down. While waiting for Greg to return from the restroom, I sketched a few people pushing their loaded (but not over-loaded) carts toward the exit.

It was a good lead-up to One Week 100 People, which begins today! This will be my fourth year participating in the annual social media challenge that encourages practicing drawing people. The goal is to make 100 sketches of people in five days, and this year it goes from March 9 – 13. Although it’s not strictly urban sketching – you can use photos, live models, or even yourself – I’ve always done mine from life. With my current focus on botanical drawing, I haven’t been to life drawing practice at Gage since November, so I’m feeling rusty again. I’m looking forward to this week of focusing on drawing people – a good distraction from all the disturbing news we’re bombarded with each day.

As I have in the past, I’ll save up my drawings and post them here at the end of the week, but you can watch my progress on my Instagram account.