One Week, One Hundred People
This last week has been One Week, One Hundred People week. It’s the brainchild of Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steele, two artists from Canada and Australia respectively. I think it sounds like a great idea, and I did partake twice last year and the year before, but I found it really hard to sketch that many people! Life sometimes is choc-a-bloc with commitment and duties and in my experience as a working mother the only way I’m going to get sketches of real live humans done is if they are in front of me, and I don’t have to go looking.
Here are my sketches from March 2023, when I made a few train trips between Galway and Dublin:
Reuben – the little dog on the left – is a terrier, not a human, so he doesn’t really belong but he’s a person to me…he’s wearing a nappy (“male body wrap” in the pet shop) in the sketch because he refuses to stop territory-marking.
I put the time taken on each of these, not sure why. I know some people do but I never bother, so I don’t know what got into me.
This one has people on the Luas (tram) and playing the piano in Heuston Station. I am right back there when I look at these!
And in this one I overheard a young guy – the lad on the right – talking to a friend and mentioning a young man I know (it’s a small country!) so that was fun. Those young guys at the table on the train were American and the cultural idiosyncracies they displayed were fascinating.
Go On, Get Out There With Your Sketchbook!
Do you see why it’s much better to sketch humans in the wild? Don’t bother with the books or the photos online. We’re sketching for fun as much as for learning and the fun is infinitely increased by getting out into the wild.
Or – Start Gently With A Class
My sketching classes, live and recorded over Zoom, are as close as you’ll get to sketching in the wild if you’re not quite confident, because everything I present in a class is a sketch I have done from life. By following along, you’ll pick up so many tried and tested ways to make your experience more fun and more satisfying.
Here are the classes in my sale at the moment – but it is scheduled to end tomorrow, around midnight (I think) on Sunday evening. They cost the princely sum of €4 each so treat yourself to the whole lot – you will be able to access them for another year! And even after that I probably will have them up somewhere. You will find them under “Download Recordings” – just scroll down and you’ll see the ones with a Sale sticker on them. I’ve included a link below to get you started.
Have fun! And if you do decide to launch into my classes, use the hashtag #sketchwithroisin on instagram and I will see it – I would love to!
I cannot figure out how to sign up for sketching peopke
Hi Elaine, there’s no “sketching people” sign up at the moment but there are a number of previously-recorded classes on my website, loads of which concentrate on the subject of people. The best thing to do is to scroll down through “dowload recordings” and see if one takes your fancy, then click on it and take it from there. Alternatively, it’s probably better value to sign up for the monthly membership as you get four live classes (and the recordings) for less than the price of two pre-recorded classes, and for €24.95 per month you get 8 live and recorded classes – plus the whole archive. Now that’s a bargain!