One Week 100 People 2025: Day Five
Last official day of the challenge, though I plan on doing a few more sketches tomorrow. These were all done at the gym, from 102-112, including a failed sketch.

My favourite on this page is 111. What’s yours?
A blog about writing, sketching, running and other things
Last official day of the challenge, though I plan on doing a few more sketches tomorrow. These were all done at the gym, from 102-112, including a failed sketch.

My favourite on this page is 111. What’s yours?
I have a super busy day so I took my sketchbook (Moleskine pocket watercolour) to the gym and did sketches 79-90 there, and then I completed 91-101 sitting on a bench on my way home.
So 100 people completed – the fastest ever I’ve done this challenge, and all of them sketched from life. I plan to complete this page tomorrow and then go back to my Field Notes sketchbook to try another style of sketching people on the move.

As usual, pick which one you like best. I am having trouble choosing.
It was dark and cold once I finished, and my fingers had trouble grasping the pen because of my neuropathy. My original plan was to finish all 100 today, but I only got to 78. Tomorrow I have very little time to sketch, but I am getting faster and better and capturing quick moving targets.
I am using the watercolour “blobs” mostly as general guides for the size of each sketch. I create them first and then sketch over them later.
These were done on a Moleskine pocket watercolour sketchbook using Schmincke and Daniel Smith watercolours, a water brush and a Staedtler 0.3 pigment liner pen. They each took only a few seconds to sketch.

As usual – pick your favourite. Mine is 56.
I went out for 45 minutes after work and sketched all of these as fast as I could. I only stopped when it got too dark outside. Yesterday’s sketches were done with a Staedtler 0.5 pigment liner on a Field Notes sketchbook. Today’s sketches were done on a pocket Moleskine watercolour sketchbook using a 0.3 Staedtler pigment liner, a water brush and watercolour.

People moved by in the street so I had seconds to capture each figure (the more detailed ones stopped for a minute or two). As this is what normally happens when you urban sketch, I found this exercise to be very useful.

Which one is your favourite?
I didn’t have much time to sketch today so I only got 8 sketches done, but I’m more concerned with getting the sketches done from observation than with getting them done in time.


So I was sick, which made sketching impossible for a few days. I’m still sick but I’m slightly better, so I sat down and powered through the rest of the missing sketches.
As I mentioned last time 61-68 were draw from life, the rest from earthsworld. This site is so much better for reference photos than the flickr gallery I used in previous years that it affected both my speed and my sketching quality. Also, I had a lot more fun sketching these portraits this year. The Leonardo Momento Zero Bohemian Twilight fine nibbed fountain pen was the perfect sketching companion, and Diamine fireside snug performed well on the Stillman and Birn Alpha paper. The larger landscape format also helped make these a joy.
Here are the previous days’ sketches: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, day 7.
This sketching challenge is always great to do, as it really pushes me outside my comfort zone. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend giving it a try.
And as usual, which one is your favourite?





Had a packed day today so only a few minutes to sketch, but all of today’s sketches were done from live subjects.

A long tiring day with two vet visits meant that I had precious little time to sketch. Got up to 60, and sort of them came out surprisingly well.
As expected, with my injury and the way this week is shaping up I likely will finish my sketches only on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I like the results so I’m not in a rush.
Which one is your favourite in this batch?

I really didn’t feel like sketching today, as I discovered that my cat has a large lump on his hind leg so I need to take him to the vet tomorrow. I’m worried about him and so considered skipping today entirely, but ended up sketching some people to distract myself. Same setup as yesterday – Leonardo Momento Zero fountain pen, Diamine Fireside Snug ink, Stillman and Birn Alpha.


I had a busy day yesterday, so I only got three sketches in and didn’t have time to post them. Numbers 9-11 were what I added, with number 9 being sketched with a vintage Parker Vacumatic filled with Diamine Ash and numbers 10 and 11 being sketched with a Franklin Christoph 45L and Diamine Eau de Nil. I loved the lines that the Parker Vacumatic produced, but it’s an extra fine nibbed fountain pen and it really struggled on the tooth of the Stillman and Birn Alpha. These were the last batch sketched from the Street Photography group on Flickr. I found a better source for photos thanks to a great tip from Tina from the wonderful Fuelled by Clouds and Coffee blog.
