Day 02: #OneWeek100People: Tea Milk and Honey!

Click the video for a flip-through of my Day 02!

I very much wanted to do a *second* 100 people – – but I only managed 50.

I had some grandiose goals of getting 100 people EVERY DAY! Imagine doing 500 people a week? I’m not sure I could maintain my focus. Maybe? maybe if I was on vacation! Maybe if I booked five live models in five days? (That would be kind of fun. I wonder if my local life drawing guy would be interested in sponsoring a marathon? I should ask him next time :)

But this week, I’ve already given up on that. I got very tired staying up super late on day one – and then immediately did it again today, and I’m super tired now.

If anyone out there actually wants to try it next year (500 people in 5 days), let me know, and maybe we can inspire each other :)

Still! I’m very happy with what I did manage!

They’re (mostly) all painted in watercolor – and it was a very solid, very full day of work, finishing again around midnight. I brought the last few home and finished in the studio. I didn’t want to spend a second night at the 24hour diner, for fear of becoming a local character, so I just went home and finished coloring sketches while eating sea-salt chocolate chip cookies.

It’s my own fault for deciding to use this Three Pass approach, (what I might call Tea Milk and Honey). I know it’s much slower than working Directly. After all, you have to sketch them, then paint them, so it already takes twice as long. But – it’s always a trade-off between speed and accuracy – sooooo. Right now I’m working on hitting that balance the way I like it.

It’s still to cold here to be comfortable, so I ended up spending most of the day at the main branch of our French public library (BANQ). There’s a good mix of university students at work, and regular citizens hanging out in the comfy reading lounges. (We have a very nice public library!) I was impressed with how many people come there to read bandes dessinées (French comics). These books are terrifically expensive as compared to book-books (imported, large format, small print runs) so I can see why people like the library for comics. The selection here is really great. Our public library even has video games! In fact, they even have a maker-lab. You can use a mechanical knitting machine or a CNC cutting table. It’s quite amazing.

So yes! I ended up taking over a table in the study area, and working on big batches of drawings. I could lay out 10 or 15 wet washes, and by the time those were done I could start rotating back for the next layer. It helps that it’s very dry here during winter months. And, I could take breaks whenever I wanted, walking around getting some more poses.

I will say, to be completely clear, I sketched these from snapshots taken on my phone.

I don’t know that it would be any different doing them entirely from life – in fact – I think they’d be *better* from life – but – it’s harder work (concentration-wise) – and you need to carry a drawing board with your paint’s clipped to the panel, and was more worried about trying to get to 100 and a bit concerned attempting that inside the library. They have a lot of security at our downtown branch, which is nice in some ways (it’s an inner city neighborhood with all that entails) but, whatever! I’m just making excuses :)

So that’s it! This my Day 02. Here’s a little gallery of my favorites :)