#OneWeek100People 2026: Life Drawing Sesh!

So I did this year’s marathon in three days.

My natural clock is to get up late – say 11? So I can be in the metro by 1pm, wander about like an itinerant sketching-hobo all afternoon, giving me plenty of chances for lunch, snacks, and boba tea – then attending a drawing event at night.

(I’m just going to things on Meetup.com this year, so the events are less diverse than in previous years.)

Tonight was a traditional gesture-drawing session with 2, 5, and 10 minute poses.

I prefer gesture over long-pose, as you get more drawings. Though in the past I’ve done the same in longer poses by moving around the studio and getting multiple angles per pose.

These are the same paper as my subway sketches of course (same day). It’s an A5 (roughly 6×8″) Clairfontaine Aquapad; which is a sized pulp-paper sketchbook sheet – but gummed, not bound. I buy the pads, strip the covers and separate the whole block so they’re just a stack of cut sheets. I like this paper – nice and waterproof – the color can be lifted easily, pigment floats a good distance, and you get nice crisp edges, which I like. I’d buy the paper in large sheets but my local store doesn’t offer it, and this also saves a lot of cutting down!

Quick tips for watercolor during quick poses: >> Work on loose sheets so you can lay them out to dry >> Bring a number of backing boards (4-6) >> If you don’t have a table to work at, sit on the floor so you have enough space to do this >> Just use two or three colors (pink and blue here) and think value, not local skin tones >> A dry climate like Canadian Winter helps – paper doesn’t wrinkle, pages dry fast >> Good lighting helps, just paint the shadow shape, no color in the highlights :) >> If you’re working small like this, you can edit the figure – move limbs, crop limbs, don’t feel you have to fit the whole pose in a small sketch.

So that’s 14 for the evening, and it was 10 on the subway this AM, so 24 is just fine for Day One. You need 20 per day to stay on track to 100.

I have, of course, done all 100 in a day – but you have to either “be expressive” or “sacrifice quality” depending on how you look at things :) I enjoy doing it that fast :) But I’m also enjoying slowing down and working with color. It’s fun to describe form with just color and temperature shifts.

~m