#OneWeek100People, March 8-12, 2021 – Pandemic Relief Edition!
Hey Everyone!
It’s me Marc! It’s been a while hasn’t it? But here I am, breaking a long silence to shout out about #OneWeek100People – our annual event, where we sketch one hundred people in a single week.
My friend Liz Steel and I came up with this project in 2017. We think 100 sketches is the magic number. Enough challenge that you push yourself, but not so hard that you can’t do it in your spare time.
Need a reminder how to do #OneWeek100People? You can watch last year’s video or, have look at my own past marathons: here’s the year-by-year index. I’ve approached the challenge slightly differently every year. There’s as many ways to do this, as there are artists, and art supplies :)
Please note:
This event comes from my time with the Urban Sketching movement, so it’s usually done by drawing on location. There’s lots of great reasons to do your sketching from life, but of course, we’re still in the midst of the global pandemic, so:
PUBLIC SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT!
If you live in an officially declared healthy population right now – I don’t know – maybe parts of Australia and New Zealand? – Antarctica? – then please, I hope you’ll dive into the spirit of #OneWeek100People and send us all your lovely street-sketches. It would be wonderful to see.
However, if you live in an area that has experienced widespread community transmission in the past year, PLEASE DO NOT go sketching on public transportation, or in any indoor public spaces.
I know this sucks. All my favorite people-sketching places – the metro, the museums, libraries, restaurants, sporting events – these are off the table right now for me.
That being said, I hope to use this year’s event as a big re-set. A way to get out of a long, sad COVID winter.
For me, #OneWeek100People has always been an early-spring retreat (or boot-camp!), where I can focus on tuning up my hand-skills, checking in with my personal approach to sketching and watercolor, reminding myself that less-is-more, and sketching is foundational to finished work – in general, recharging myself for the upcoming plein-air painting season.
Even though I personally won’t be able to follow the event’s original spirit of drawing from life, I’m planning to enjoy myself, and push my watercolor sketching at home, and I hope a bunch of you want to come along for this ride!
Let’s have a great fifth year of #OneWeek100People – sketching from social media, youtube, movies – whatever it takes to reach our goal.
As in past years, I want to mostly share our work, and our comments in the Facebook Group.
But, if you’re not a Facebook user anymore, that’s fine – just hashtag #OneWeek100People on the social media of your choice and we can find each other by searching the tag.
Feel free to drop me a blog comment below, especially if you come up with some interesting sketching projects you think other people might want to try.
Thanks everyone! See you soon.
~Marc
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Oh and, here’s some clip art. People in the past have enjoyed using these to make a ‘progress bar’ below their sketches.
Citizen Sketcher 
Glad to see you back!
So glad it is that time again!! Yes, I will hit the markets, parks and mall to sketch people on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. Thank you for this annual event!
Congrats on your city being open! I’m doubly jealous (nice weather and health!)
So excited to see this, Marc. It’s been a long winter of lockdown here in Ireland. And we’ve got about 8 weeks more I believe. Last year, I found all sorts of inspiration, including on a busy tram. This year will be virtual. But it will lift my spirit! Thank you! Marie-Hélène.
In Florida, I can sketch neighbors from my front porch or driveway when they walk by, sometimes with their young children or their pets. If you have Zoom groups or meetings, you can sketch portraits from the grid. “Pinning” each person, rather than using speaker view, gives you time for a good sketch.
I didn’t know about “pinning” – that’s a great tip, thanks!
I just found out about this iniciative and I’m in! I’ve been unemployed since COVID hit the tourism core of the Canary Islands and got back to painting and drawing after many years. I started following urban sketchers on IG and am definitely ready for 100 people next week! Thank you!
Terrific! Great to have you join us! Very much looking forward to your reportage of the Canarys. Looking out my window at the frozen streets of Montreal – I think you’re the smart one. I hope you’ll join the facebook group and share your work with everyone :)
Sorry, imploded my facebook account a few years ago, but will definitely follow you all on IG and on my own wordpress blog. As for outdoor sketching in March: the subtropics are the place to be!
Hello Marc ,
I would like to participate this year.Thank you for the opportunity! Margarita