If somehow you missed it, next week Monday 06 – Friday 10 of March, Marc Taro Holmes and I are hosting a sketching challenge to draw 100 people in 5 days. So this week I am mentally preparing for it.

This prep includes deciding on my sketchbook, the tools I am going to use and a few strategies for visiting places for where there will be lots of people. I am going to move from my little book to my big daily sketchbook (less scanning!) but stick to my Lamy White Joy pen as the base tool.

As I did this challenge previously, I know that 100 is an achievable number for me, but as the main point of the challenge is to see some improvement in my work I will be setting a few goals for myself (in addition to the 100 number). I will share these with you on Monday.

Here a few additional points/ reminders in response to a few things that have come up in comments over the past week.

• Can you draw from photos or videos etc?  Yes! As per original announcement: If you don’t want to do it live-on-location, cue up a youtube playlist, sign up for Flickr, or download the iOS app SKTCHY. But really, the main idea for us is to get out drawing people out on location, so that is what we will be doing!
• Does it need to be 100 different people? No – it can be 100 self-portraits if you want.
• How do you share? Post wherever you normally share your work using the hashtag of #oneweek100people2017 – the hashtag will work on instagram, facebook, pinterest, tumblr, google+ and twitter. You can also google it!
  Important Note: If you are posting your work into any sketching groups please check the group guidelines and make sure that it is a good fit before sharing there (eg. don’t post sketches from photos into an Urban Sketches group!)
• You don’t have to be good to take part! The whole idea of this challenge is to improve your skills and the challenge of approximately 20 people per day means that you don’t have time to listen to your inner critic – you just have to go for it and draw, draw, draw!
• Keep your tools simple. They don’t need to be elaborate watercolour portraits – simple line sketches are perfect for this challenge. But you might also want to be inventive and mix it up!

And finally – it’s not a race and there is no shame in not hitting 100, the goal is to stretch yourself in a new fun way and see how you go!

Have fun and keep sketching!