#OneWeek100People2017: Day three

Day three of #OneWeek100People2017: lessons learned.
Lesson one: don’t go to a mall near your home to draw. I ran into a colleague, a friend and a neighbour who all stopped to say hello. That really cut into the drawing time. Also, the mall lighting can sometimes be really flat.
Lesson two: People in malls don’t stay seated as long as people in cafés. I made a few starts (#42, #51) but the models walked away before I was done drawing.
Lesson three: Standing figures are much faster to draw than seated portraits. When I started to get tired I picked a bench near the passport office and drew the people standing in line. The last six for today (54-59) were the most spontaneous and the most fun to do.

#OneWeek100People2017: Day Two

Day two of #OneWeek100People: The good, the bad and the ugly. And by ugly, I don’t mean the people themselves. But some of these drawings are definitely more successful than others. The point of this, though, is just to have fun, not be judgemental and post them all.

Today’s challenges were a little different than yesterday. I wasn’t as relaxed because I only had time to draw between a meeting and a class. Also I noticed that my models (students) move around a lot more, even when seated, than the mostly retired octogenarians I drew yesterday. So there was  lot of start and stop, or start with one person and finish with another. I didn’t have time to finish all 20 at school so I stopped at a crowded Starbucks on the way home,  found a chair but no table and balanced everything on my lap. Maybe because it was the end of the day, or because I wasn’t rushed to get to class, but I managed to do the ones I think are the most successful for today (35 & 38). And despite the fact that this challenge has been taking up more drawing (and scanning) time than usual, I am still happy I have taken it on and I am loving the learning process. It’s great to follow what other sketchers are doing on Facebook and Instagram too.

#OneWeek100People2017: Day one

Day One of #OneWeek100People2017: I wasn’t sure if I would be able to draw 20 brush portraits in a day but I did manage to get it done. On my way to school I started off in a shopping centre but it was too early in the morning and there was no one to draw. My second stop was the McDonald’s across the street — lots of people drinking coffee and eating egg sandwiches, but hardly anyone on their phones which was somewhat of a relief. In 90 minutes I managed to get 16 of these done, so a little over 5 minutes each. After school I stopped at Tim Horton’s to do the last four.

So what did I discover? Lots of things, but not all of them related to drawing portraits.
1: I can’t count (I drew #16 twice).
2: Out of the 20 people sitting nearby while I drew, only three were women.
3: I liked this more than I thought I would. In fact, I was having so much fun I almost missed my class.
4: At a certain point the portraits started to improve and then they slowly went downhill again (my favourites are 7-10)
5: The more you draw, the more comfortable you become with people looking over your shoulder. People don’t seem to mind being drawn and I had a lot of nice chats while I sat there.

All in all, a successful first day. Tomorrow I will be drawing in the school cafeteria during my lunch break so I suspect the cell phones will reappear in the portraits.

After breakfast

In preparation for One Week 100 People 2017 which I will be starting tomorrow, I tried out a new brush, one that I think has a much better point on it than the one I used last week to during my trial run. And since I will be doing all of my drawing with a brush for this challenge, it has to be quite sharp. I wasn’t intending on buying a new brush. In fact I went to the store to buy some half pans and a few little sketchbooks, but I have a weakness for brushes and came home with a tiny Da Vinci Casaneo. I have a larger version of the same brush, but the #2 that I painted with today is quite amazing. It’s a synthetic brush that holds a lot of water and comes to a wonderful fine point. I use the bigger version for large washes and skies but this little one is great for brush drawing.

For today’s sketch I used Payne’s Grey to capture the shapes and values on my kitchen counter after breakfast. It’s a good exercise to attempt to match the values of whatever mess is in front of you, without placing things too carefully. Just let the shapes be your guide.

The almost upright bouquet

I forgot some tulips in my dining room for most of last week. During that time they yellowed, they shrivelled and they curled, but surprisingly they mostly didn’t flop over. And since a little bit of decay is more interesting than perfection, I painted them today.

Gearing up for #OneWeek100People2017

If you follow sketchers on social media, you’ve probably already heard a lot of buzz about the worldwide drawing event that will be on next week. Started by Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel, it’s called One Week 100 People, and the goal is to draw 100 people in one week (March 6-10), as well as share your drawings using the hashtag #OneWeek100People2017. I loved the idea of the challenge as soon as I heard about it, and I can always use some practice drawing figures.

If you decide to participate, it’s probably a good idea to figure out what you want to accomplish at the end of this. I wasn’t sure what my personal goal would be, so I set out today to figure out what materials I would use. If I intend to draw 20 people per day, I need a fast technique to achieve this, materials that I can carry with me at all time, and of course a commitment to follow through.

I am lucky to have plenty of models available at school, so on my break I sat myself down in the cafeteria to see how quickly I could get this done. My aim is to complete these watercolour sketches with no preliminary pencil drawing, just a small travel brush and some Payne’s grey watercolour. I drew the first two figures in a small Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook (3.5″ x 5.5″), spending just a few minutes on each. I think working small is key, at least for me.

The first two sketches came out ok, so I turned the page. The next ones were pretty awful, but the goal for this is to just keep going and see what happens.

The third practice spread was less messy, which led me to think that I may just keep it to one figure per page. If the person walks away — and that will happen often — I can just continue with someone else in the same position. Or leave it unfinished.

The last two figures took me a little longer and ended up overworked. I prefer the simplicity of the simpler lines and shapes. That’s what I will be striving for.

So what’s the hope when all this is done? I would love to develop an ability to draw simple figures with a brush. Figures with some personality, drawn with an elegant line and thoughtful shapes. Will you be participating? What’s your goal? I’ll be posting on Instagram all week using the hashtag #OneWeek100People2017, and I hope to see your work there too.

Corners

What makes a corner view so much more interesting than painting a facade? I’ve been thinking about that today because I always seem to seek out corners to sketch. I’m not always lucky enough to find a parking spot with a corner view, though, because you have to be in a place where someone can’t park in front of you. The best spots are directly behind bus zones because the fines for stopping there are quite high so people rarely double park in them. But back to corners…

I love corners because:
• They give me the opportunity to practice perspective, and you can never have enough of that
• They provide ways to break up the composition into foreground, middle ground and background, and allow you to include close and distant objects, which help with scale
• They give you light on two sides of a structure, and even on a cloudy day there is usually a light and a dark side of building, whereas a facade is almost always bathed in the same light unless there are cast shadows.

Here are some other corners I like sketching: Corner of Sixth, Corner of 9th, Corner of Ste. Marie.