One Week 100 People 2020: The Challenge

Who’s up for #OneWeek100People2020?
If you’ve never done it before, #OneWeek100People is a challenge hosted by Marc Holmes and Liz Steel. This year it runs from March 9-13th. It’s a work week, Monday to Friday, during which you draw 100 people. That’s 20 quick people sketches a day.

The point is a week-long sustained practice, focussing on an aspect of people drawing you want to work on: it could just be that you want to draw people for a week because you don’t draw them enough, or that you want to practice drawing from life, or drawing from photos, capturing faces, or action…it all works. The focus is on putting hand to paper; practice, not perfection. And there’s a facebook group you can join and post to, or just follow to stay motivated.

The thought of a hundred people in a week can be overwhelming. I always wonder how I will find the time. So today I went through my sketches from this last week, a week in which I drew in bits of time in my day, by turning up a half hour early for a meeting at the coffee shop a couple of times, and just drawing where I was… and I found I got (almost) halfway there.

These cafe sketches are done in watersoluble graphite and pen & ink.

This guy came to repair the fridge when it died.

Waiting room sketches from when my daughter visited the orthodontist.

And from when my son (finally!) got a haircut.

I did these two selfies one day just by turning my phone to selfie mode. You can do these anywhere you are if your phone and sketchkit are with you.

And I sketched a friend as we chatted.

These two sketches are at Recovery Cafe, where I sketched two portraits stories last week. I did these between portrait sessions.

And because that barely gets to 40 people sketches, I could count in my cat sketches because cats are people too? (I’m joking, I don’t think drawing Samson the cat will pass muster.)

But I’m thinking that if I can get to 40ish without thinking about it, I could get to a 100 with a little bit of planning?

I’ll give it a shot: Will you? 
I’ll try and add a few hour-long sessions to my week, around a lunch break: a coffee shop one day, the nearest mall another day. Maybe I’ll attend a figure drawing session that week. If I run out of time and don’t get out of the house, I’ll draw my husband and kids, or I’ll work from photos. (It’s all allowed, this isn’t an urban sketching challenge.)

If you live near San Jose and feel like you might want to sketch together, I’m happy to share a schedule of where I’ll sketch and you can join me. Wherever you sketch, hashtag your work #OneWeek100People2020 when you post it. In yet?