This is my second year of taking part in this art challenge hosted my Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes, and I’m just using my usual A5 Hahnemuhle sketchbook to capture my 100 sketches. I usually fill a sketchbook a month, so looks like this one is going to fill up quickly.

I don’t have a theme or a systematic approach for this year’s One Week 100 People challenge. I’m just seeing what inspiration each day provides.

Here’s the sketches I’ve done so far:

First Day of One Week 100 People

People 1-2 were my most recent sketches in a new series, that happened to fall into the first day of this sketching challenge.

I’ve been working on a series of beach sketches based on photos I took last summer. Mostly they’re people picking up shells from the shoreline, but there’s also a few other beach scenes that captured my imagination

I’ve no intention of doing 100 sketches that are this detailed for this art challenge – I don’t think there’s enough hours in the day! But as this beach project ebbed into the first day of the challenge, I counted these two as my first sketches. But knew that subsequent people sketches would be less detailed.

People 3-5 were sketched at a hotel reception. I didn’t have my glasses on, so couldn’t quite see the detail I was sketching, but they still turned out ok. These urban sketches were sketched live, and then painted at home the next day.

I’m not sure if it’s the rough line style or the colour combination, but I’m really quite taken with this montage of people. Maybe I need to sketch without glasses more often, or try this colour combination again to see what resonates the most.

SKETCHING IDEAS: If you usually need your glasses to sketch, try sketching without them and see how it affects your sketching style. It’s almost like doing a semi-blind contour.

Second Day of One Week 100 People

People 6-15 – I took a bunch of photographs at and Wine and Spirit Trade Expo in Faro yesterday, and compiled these group sketches from those photos.

SKETCHING IDEAS: I decided to use the same colour blue for each pair of trousers, so that your eye is focused on the top half of the body. I think it works well.

I hit an inspiration brick wall after this, so did a random search on YouTube to find videos I could freeze-frame and sketch from.

People 16-21 – I found a TV series I hadn’t heard of, and sketched random people from a couple of the episodes. I wanted to focus on the main character of the series, so he’s the only one I added watercolour too, and the rest I just added some tonal shading.

SKETCHING IDEAS: Try using a single colour, and mirror it in the background, to help you create a cohesive picture as well as a focal point.

After YouTube I just grabbed a couple of photos that were laying around.

People 22-29 were rough and ready sketches to rack up my numbers. The first one was the most realistic, but the others were very cartoony, but I created some continuity between them with my striped top and the pink background.

SKETCHING IDEAS: Sketch quickly and don’t care about the results using a set of photo booth images. Then create some cohesion between them with some spot colour, or consistent background.

People 30-32 was a loose sketch from another photograph of me and two of my friends. I really liked the loose feel of this. Is there a strong resemblance – probably not, but they’re definitely recognisable.

I really liked how loose some of these sketches developed into. It’s got me wanting to loosen up my urban sketching building sketches. I’ll have to see where this is going to lead me.