Unseasonable Snow for 100 People

 

3/13/26 Bellevue Square

We all woke on Friday the 13^th, the final day of the annual One Week 100 People drawing challenge, to the season’s unseasonable first snowfall! (This is the challenge's 10th year, and I've participated for 10 consecutive years!) As I’m skittish about driving if I see even one flake falling, I gratefully accepted Kim’s offer of a ride to Bellevue Square retail mall. It’s become an annual tradition for USk Seattle to work on 100 People there. Despite the joint outing with Eastside Sketchers, the snow must have kept many away, as we had a small turnout.

I apparently can't count while I draw!

The mall is always a fruitful location for drawing people – so many small stories. It’s also just a fun place to people-watch. So different from Seattle, the women really dress to the nines in Bellevue. I especially enjoyed the formidable challenge of sketching people walking up and down stairs, which was easy to see through the transparent walls of the stairwells.  

Back to Bellevue for People

 

3/11/24 Bellevue Square

On March 10, 2020 – only days before Gov. Inslee shut the state down for the potentially deadly “novel coronavirus” – Urban Sketchers Seattle met at Bellevue Square. Planned weeks earlier when most of us were still uncertain and confused about COVID-19, the outing suddenly seemed more ominous, now that it was upon us. The day before the outing, the other admins and I discussed at length whether we should go forward with it or cancel. Although we did go ahead with the outing, it was not without trepidation on my part. In retrospect, I’m happy that we did because we would not see each other in person again for a year and a half.

All of that was still a vivid memory almost exactly four years later when USk Seattle met at Bellevue Square again. Like last time, the objective was to sketch people for the One Week 100 People online drawing challenge – except this time we all did so without anxiety; in fact, we all had a great time. Meeting there again for 100 People felt like an important circle to close.

As always with this challenge, my goal was to capture quick gestures: not much more than stick figures, really, except that I wanted them to be unique, individual stick figures – not generic.

I thought I got 50 that first day of the challenge, but after I posted my sketches on social media, someone pointed out to me that I had counted wrong – I actually got 54!

We got a much better turnout than expected for a Monday morning in Bellevue! Quite a few first-timers joined us, including several from the Eastside who were happy not to have to cross the lake.

Bellevue Square to Kick Off One Week 100 People

What a great group at Urban Sketchers #uskseattle today!! So. Many. Interesting. People.🚶‍♂️‍➡️
🚶🚶‍♀️‍➡️🧍‍♂️🧍👨‍🦯🏃‍♀️

And "people" were our focus, as we are kicking off #oneweek100people2024 , brainchild of Liz @lizsteelart and Marc @m.holmes.art . So much to see, so much to sketch, so many people to catch, and so much to talk about! One sketcher was trying to catch all 100 people today. 😲😲😲

I thought I would paint first and ink later, but I kind of liked the effect of the direct watercolor so much that instead I got my smaller brush out for details. Met so many interesting people today. AND I got to ride in Tina's snazzy red convertible too!

Chasing 100 People at Bellevue Square

The decision weighed heavily on my mind. For more than a week, the other USk Seattle admins and I have been discussing whether we should go ahead with outings or cancel. Every day, updates from the health department grow increasingly alarming, and authorities urge anyone in higher-risk groups (including those of us over 60) to stay home if possible. With growing concern about COVID-19, was it reckless to gather? Even on my way to Bellevue Square, where I had initiated an ad hoc outing for the annual #OneWeek100People challenge, I was trepidatious.

Upon arrival, however, I was happy that we didn’t cancel. After feeling gloomy all week, it felt good to see friends and sketch together. The mall was emptier than I had ever seen, and we laughed sardonically that we’d be hard pressed to find a hundred people!

Bellevue Square is an ideal people-sketching mall. Wide-open multiple levels enable easy views looking up, down or across. In addition, stairways are an interesting challenge. I chose to stand, but other sketchers enjoyed using the many tables and convenient seating throughout the mall.

I had done 25 sketches yesterday. Hitting my groove almost immediately at the mall, I decided to finish my remaining 75 in the 2½ hours of the outing. One hundred done!

As in previous years, my goal was to avoid portraits or details and focus strictly on making simple gestures that capture individuals, not generic stick figures. It was also an excellent opportunity to study the movement of walking, especially people coming toward or going away from me. I tried to draw the subtle differences in their legs to show that they are walking, not standing.