Another Hundred-Plus in the Books

 

3/11/24 Bellevue Square

On March 10, 2020 – only days before Gov. Inslee shut the state down for the potentially deadly “novel coronavirus” – Urban Sketchers Seattle met at Bellevue Square. Planned weeks earlier when most of us were still uncertain and confused about COVID-19, the outing suddenly seemed more ominous, now that it was upon us. The day before the outing, the other admins and I discussed at length whether we should go forward with it or cancel. Although we did go ahead with the outing, it was not without trepidation on my part. In retrospect, I’m happy that we did because we would not see each other in person again for a year and a half.

All of that was still a vivid memory almost exactly four years later when USk Seattle met at Bellevue Square again. Like last time, the objective was to sketch people for the One Week 100 People online drawing challenge – except this time we all did so without anxiety; in fact, we all had a great time. Meeting there again for 100 People felt like an important circle to close.

As always with this challenge, my goal was to capture quick gestures: not much more than stick figures, really, except that I wanted them to be unique, individual stick figures – not generic.

I thought I got 50 that first day of the challenge, but after I posted my sketches on social media, someone pointed out to me that I had counted wrong – I actually got 54!

The second day I caught a few at Green Lake before my walk, then managed a bunch from my car in the Metro Market parking lot. Remembering that tactic from a previous year, I found the grocery store lot to be especially fruitful. I parked in back facing the entrance. I could see the regular stream of people going in and out of the store. Especially fun and challenging was trying to sketch them as they loaded their hatchbacks with groceries. I polished off 55 – 81 on Day 2.

3/12/24 Green Lake

Metro Market parking lot

On Day 3, I met Roy at Project 9 Brewery for lunch. Unfortunately, I may have oversold it: I told him it would be a great place to sketch people because my prior visits had been fairly busy. On this day, however, the lunch hour seemed slow, and I had to attack several victims more than once (including Roy) to hit the golden number: 82 – 100 people (and one dog) on Day 3!

3/13/24 Project 9 Brewery

I was hoping to get all 100 in the green Uglybook, but I didn't make it, so I started this dark purple one, which is the last of my partially used books that I want to fill before starting a fresh one. This color is going to be tough to finish, though... the gold Posca works as the lightest tone, but purple is too dark to be a mid-tone, so I might need a second Posca.

After my sprint was over, I kept going for the rest of the week (I’ll show those sketches soon), but I could stroll instead.

As it is every year, the 100 People challenge was great practice and a lot of fun! How did you do?