Urban Sketchers<\/a> community, with hundreds taking part around the world.<\/p>\n\u201cLiz and I started the challenge as an excuse to keep drawing together,\u201d Holmes says. \u201cSpeaking selfishly, this event is my free pass to spend an entire week drawing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steel says sketching people wasn\u2019t always her forte, but \u201cit\u2019s no understatement to say that sketching the world around me changed my life and my career\u201d \u2013 an architect by trade, she is now an art educator, as is Holmes.<\/p>\n
A composite of two of Marc Taro Holmes\u2019s drawings. He says the challenge is a way to allow himself to draw for an entire week. Illustration: Marc Taro Holmes<\/p>\n
He was the one who first challenged himself to sketch 20 people a day for a week. Together they turned the personal experiment into a global challenge.<\/p>\n
The goal of 100 is intentionally ambitious. Holmes says high targets encourage drawing without self-criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuantity is the only goal, not quality,\u201d he says. \u201cSecretly, that\u2019s the best way to improve your drawing.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a \u201cspecial type of magic\u201d in the momentum, Steel says. \u201cIt\u2019s about practice rather than perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018My motivation to live a good life\u2019<\/p>\n
Quincy Nadel sits in a Chicago park while her children play.<\/p>\n
Taking advantage of a moment to herself, she starts to sketch \u2013 noticing people leaned into conversation, a parent carrying a tired child, the posture of someone waiting alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a profound, quiet beauty in the way strangers interact with the world,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The one-week challenge is \u201cexposure therapy\u201d for her perfectionism, she says, after teaching herself to sketch in her thirties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was digitally burnt out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSketching is my \u2018permission slip\u2019 to sit and watch the world without the pressure of productivity. My sketchbook has become a record of me being \u2018here\u2019 instead of \u2018online\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nadel documents her journey on Instagram, but says the art is a byproduct of a deeper goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was about recalibrating my brain to notice the people who usually move through my peripheral,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
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Nadel says people-watching is \u201cendlessly interesting if you slow down enough\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to sketch strangers \u2026 anywhere people naturally gather,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Less concerned with capturing a perfect likeness, she aims for simple sketches to reflect the small details she notices that \u201ctell little stories\u201d.<\/p>\n
Steel and Holmes say the slowness of sketching changes how we process our surroundings.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrawing uses the brain in a different way than taking a photo,\u201d Holmes says. \u201cYou\u2019re forced to really look. It\u2019s active and creative, rather than passively consuming media.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrawing is a terrific way to engage with the world. I go places and do things I wouldn\u2019t normally get to. My sketchbook is my motivation to live a good life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steel says it creates a \u201ctactile relationship\u201d with the environment. When sketching on location, she says, she finds the world \u201chappens\u201d around her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see things you wouldn\u2019t normally \u2026 People stop and talk to you, you hear the sounds, and that gets encoded into your page,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
When she looks back on old sketchbooks, she is vividly transported to the captured moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can actually remember what the conversation of the person next to you was about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018By day five I\u2019m in the flow\u2019<\/p>\n
Holmes says the challenge is designed to be accessible, despite the ambitious goal. There are no expensive tools required, and \u201csuccess\u201d is defined simply by the act of trying.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want people turning a game into hard labour,\u201d he says. \u201cWe wanted an activity that you can\u2019t fail. You can actually draw 100 sketches in a single day if you approach it as a game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liz Steel\u2019s 100 sketches, which she made over a week on a double-page spread. Photograph: Liz Steel<\/p>\n
Steel says the challenge can be simplified as much as the individual wants: \u201cWe don\u2019t care about people hitting 100.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal is to \u201csketch more than usual, however you define that\u201d.<\/p>\n
Her advice is to work small, simplify your sketch and use a limited selection of materials. She often alternates between sketching from photos to refine her technique and going out on location to find a rhythm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m usually rusty on day one, and by day five I\u2019m in the flow,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gets addictive. I\u2019ve done 100 in just over an hour before. Once you get going, you just can\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once in the rhythm, Steel says the challenge can be gamified, here, she drew 100 people in one session. Illustration: Liz Steel<\/p>\n
This year, Steel is using a combination of water-soluble pencils and markers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can soften the edges if I make a mistake mid-sketch, I can kind of lift it or soften it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She recommends busy spots where subjects are seated or performing repetitive motions.<\/p>\n
Though sketching isn\u2019t a skill to pick up overnight, she says anyone can learn by committing time to retrain the eyes and hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone can take up a sketchbook practice,\u201d Holmes says. \u201cIt\u2019s forgiving, and it\u2019s accessible. It\u2019s never boring looking at people and imagining their lives.<\/p>\n
Liz Steel\u2019s sketchbook is filled with people she sees during the day. Photograph: R\u00e9mi Chauvin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Nadel says the practice fundamentally changed her perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has increased my empathy. When you spend your time looking up, watching and truly seeing people \u2026 it\u2019s impossible not to feel a sense of gratitude for the \u2018ordinary\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes the challenge encourages others to put down their phones, even briefly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a whole world happening at eye level if we just choose to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re lucky, you may spot Liz Steel tucked into the corner of a sun-dappled Sydney cafe, water-soluble…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-536771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}