It starts next week! #OneWeek100People, 2026

Just a reminder – next week is #OneWeek100People! 

For various reasons, this year the official dates for 2026 are Monday March 9th to Friday March 13th. My co-founder Liz Steel and I always choose to do it in five working days, so that we have our weekends free. 

As always, you guys can take a full seven days if you like :) 

And as always – this is a self-motivated, unstructured thing – but if you want to get the most out of participating here’s a few suggestions below.

FIRST: Post the work! 

If you start sharing on your socials, you’ll get those precious precious comments that keep your spirits up :)

Drawing in public is a terrific way to motivate yourself. 

*Announcing* you’re doing the challenge, and getting people to count-down your work with you – that’s SUPER great motivation to continue. 

(Also: I always number my drawings so I can keep track – last year someone gave me the idea – *Start at 100* and then the number counts DOWN to the final ONE. I’m definitely doing that this year. :)

SECOND: Get in the mindset: Prepare for 100!

 Every drawing is a win. Your *only* goal is; *Do 100 Drawings*. 

Some people get (or make) a small sketchbook with close to 100 pages – or a pair of books – sketchbooks are getting thinner and thinner these days. Lately I always start with a stack of cut sheets. All I have to do is whittle down this pile of paper!

Make it a goal to burn through your entire sketchbook, or your pile of pages, in the one week.

Let the pages be your physical countdown. Watching your book fill up or your stack shrink is super motivating!

Plus, you’ll enjoy having this keepsake in future years. 

THIRD: Treat it like a week-long workshop, or even better – an artist’s holiday.

I kind of wish I’d planned ahead and gone somewhere for the week. We should have gone to Mexico or someplace warm! March in Montreal is still not quite street-sketching weather :)

But! I’m retired, so I have the luxury to take a week off, every week.

If I was working, I’d do this:

Draw every day on my commute – skip two trains and be late for work – sketch the people trapped waiting on the platform with you. There’s guaranteed to be a crowd on the morning commute – or the morning coffee shop if you don’t live in a town with public transit :)

Also; go out for lunch every day that week, A workshop is usually an expense. Give yourself the go-ahead to eat out every day! Lunch dates with yourself are a great built-in reward. I met a sketcher from Switzerland who had three deserts-with-a-sketch each day of our workshop. What a great way to keep up the pace of your drawing :)

OK – That’s about all I wanted to say – #OneWeek100People is happening – and it’s the Tenth Year! So I plan to have a great time and really enjoy myself – and I hope you guys will do the same. 

Please participate if you’re at all into online challenges – and please do message me with your favorite sketches. 

Thanks very much!

~Marc