People

Everywhere you look.

Bipedal sacs of water

– together, alone.

Notes: As mentioned recently, I have been in a bit of a creative slump, so when I saw Liz Steel’s “One Week 100 People” challenge was on again this year, I jumped at the chance. In essence, the challenge is to draw 100 people in a week, and although it’s meant to be over a Monday to Friday period, I took a couple of extra days. Otherwise, the rules are simple: draw people, using whatever medium you want, from reference photo, on location etc. While 100 is the goal, the number doesn’t really matter, which is good because I was not able to get to that number (I was close…). I really enjoyed pushing myself in this way, and drawing people has never been something I have excelled at, so the commitment for a week was a terrific way to refine the skills. Trying to do 20+ people sketches per day also means you are forced to stay loose, quick, and just not get overly obsessed with perfection. I also decided to mostly stick to simple tools i.e., a pen (micron pen), adding a bit of shading with a brush pen or ink wash. I also largely worked from reference photos since most of these were done on the commuter train, on my way to or from work.

So, what you have is some examples of the work. From from perfect, but fun to do anyway, and I hope you enjoy. Maybe you would like to do the challenge sometime? It doesn’t have to be a once-a-year thing. It can be an every-day thing if you want! Just like Haiku, doing quick sketches of people can be a two minute adventure.

Oh, some of you sci-fi geeks out there may have recognized the reference in the Haiku, to a terrific quote in Star Trek: The Next Generation. We are just ugly giant bags of mostly water, after all.

© Christopher M Buddle 2023