Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the Drawing Challenge once more. These are my own photographs and free for Drawspace members to use for this challenge. Copyright of the images remains mine.

The first image is of my daughter Briony and my new grand daughter Kiora, when she was about 3 weeks old.

Next is the photo of two beagles that I rescued last year. I always seem to be rescuing some animal...

THe purple flower is an eggplant flower which I grew in the greenhouse last summer. I thought the flowers were wonderful.

The skuttled ship is located on the north east coast of Newfoundland and provides great drawing fodder. A challenge for those who want to try their hand at water!

Tomatoes in all sizes and colours were harvested from the greenhouse last summer. Tomatoes always make great drawings.

Finally a bonus image, Shasta daisies from my flower garden. I love the shadows on these. Think negative spaces if you draw them.

For those who haven't taken part in one before, its very simple. Choose an image (you can do more than one if you have time) and just draw. Any drawing medium is fine - pencil, charcoal, pen and ink, coloured pencil, pastel - just not paint. If you do choose to paint one of the images, then show your drawing first before you post your painting. After all, it is a Drawing challenge.

There is no judging, no rules, no prizes. Just a love of drawing. Enjoy!

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What a great choice, Jeanette!
I hope my hand will get better v-e-r-y fast!

And it is so good to know that there are more people that rescue animals!!! This is the reason why we have 8 cats and three dogs...

And a good feeling in stomach. Now I'm hungry..

Extremely interesting pictures Jeanette.... attractive and yet all challenging.

I'm passing through a phase of experimenting with different media to discover what I like best... maybe I will include some of these pictures in this experiment ... nothing like a real challenge to help you discover where your aptitude lies.

Thank you very much.

Jeanette,,please forgive for posting such a poor quality drawing of your Grand daughter.I didn't have much time. I know that I could have waited,but I had to do something before I went to bed.I'm sure some one(maybe little brother) will come alone and do her justice.Night ,,night be back in the morning Ted
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Hi Jeanette I saw the picture of your daughter and grandaughter and just had to draw it hope you like it I took about two hours on it





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awesome jeanette. love the choices this week
Lori

Miss Jeanette, as usual greaqt choices of photos!! I love the one of your daughter and granddaughter. Great pose. I will get started later today.

Eight cats Trausomme!! And I thought I was bad for taking in animals Good for you!

Rose, yes it takes a lot of experimenting to find a medium that you're most comfortable with. I find the one that I use at the moment is always my favourite. Its so hard to choose. Some images lend themselves to certain mediums I find. As soon as I see them, I think yes - watercolour or oil...

Ted, you've worked all night and then managed to draw as well? I'm impressed! You've captured the essence of the baby. The pose, the shape of her little face is all there. Its sweet. I know babies are notoriously difficult to draw, but you've done it well.

Fabulous David, I love the contrast between the mother and the tiny baby's face.

I look forward to seeing your work on some of these images Lori.

Thanks Venus. Yes, that's one of my favourite photos too. I'm sure you'll enjoy drawing it.

Hi Jeanette,

it is so grrreat to see you hosting..... I have missed you.. Great pictures....I hope to start on one soon......Brian.

I just had to draw this... wery sweet foto

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It took me all day...

Thanks Brian, nice to see you here. How's the knee coming on? Lots of drawing time while its healing I hope.

Siksno, you've done a great job with this drawing. Nice rendition.

Aunt Jenny,,You way too polite on this one,,but that is you! ....."Ted, you've worked all night and then managed to draw as well? "See what happen is this.Thanks to 'Daylight saving time' last night I "Stuck-it to the Man";didn't have work the whole 12 hrs. shift;just 11 hrs!!So I thought I would give that 1 hr. to drawing."The Tax payers will never know the difference?" WOW!! I wander how many time that has been said?

great job ted and sikso, i hope i do as well.
Lori

My sketch for Briony and Kiora.. Please let me know ur comments!!

Rupa

Ted ...david ..Rupa and Siks ....I cant wait to do that one myself ... babies are so popular ...you guys did a great job .

Everyone's allowed an hour here and there Ted, no matter who pays for it!

Rupa, great drawing, love the hair.

Yes Kim, it seems this image is going to be popular doesn't it? Can't wait to see your version.

I have to say this: it's unbelievable the look between the mother and the daughter (allthough we cannot see the mother's eyes) but we can feel the thoughtfullness and calmness in the air.
Thank you for sharing this picture with us.

Nair

Very nice work everyone so far.

Miss Jeanette - here are your tomatoes. Pastels on medium grain ingres paper. 11x8 1/2. I'm afraid it's not the best of photos that I'm posting but there was no available light (it's the late afternoon of a very grey day here) and I was too scared to scan it.

Could anyone please tell me what is the best way to fix and store pastels. They seem so fragile.

Farfallina, your tomatoes looks so real... I want to pick one of them and eat

Thanks Jeanette....my knee is a little better every day....this really was a challenge for me....this is my attempt at those beautiful dogs you rescued last year....I wish I could have made them as beautiful as they really are.....they look adorable in your picture.....

I admire every one's talents....Brian.

The best way to store them is laying flat in an archival storage box. You can layer pieces with archival quality glassine or like between them. If you frame them, you need to leave a space between the drawing and matboard. The dust will settle with time and the very top particles will fall off even when fixed when the picture is bumped, dusted, moved. Adding a spacer between the piece and the matboard will allow dust fall between the two so you see no build up on your glass and mat.
I use workable fixative in case I ever want to go back and change something on old drawings. You never know. You could pick up a few tricks that could be the finishing touch on an old drawing and make it 'wow'. Spray the fixative in light layers from at least a foot away. I spray so that it gently falls on the paper, while not actively spraying the paper. Does that make sense? Always test spray the can before fixing the drawing to make sure there are no clumps, glops. Sometimes the cans can clog a bit and when you spray you can get noticable spots, so just clear the nozzle first.

The tomatoes look great by the way. I love pastels. They're so immediate. It feels like your painting with pure color.

Beautiful tomatoes Rose. You've taken to pastels like a duck to water. Lovely.

The best way to preserve pastels is store them flat, with a sheet of glassine paper over them to stop the 'shedding' A light spray of fixative can help but try a little piece first as it has an adverse reaction on some pastels and paper and dulls the surface and colours.

Brian, are the dogs sweet? I so wanted to keep them as they were adorable. You've captured their look and the moment wonderfully.

You are all such great artists - your drawings are wonderful!!
I can't await to take a pencil myself, but I have to .....

Rose,
your tomatoes look like the tomatoes I had yesterday for lunch.

My experience - the best way to fix pastels is hairspray. Better than any fixative. I painted a while with pastels (I put it in my gallerie) and and noticed, that fixative often smudge pastels and - it killed the colours.
I painted my pastels years ago and they still look like "fresh painted."

Thank you all.

Miss Jeanette, I'm really loving pastels. They're like painting without all the hassle and the lay down is so much faster than coloured pencil though I still take my time over them. As you might know I'm doing the Dianna Ponting class on Wetcanvas. I'm stuck for the moment because I don't have the necessary supplies to do the tablecloth but I just now got a call from an angel to remind me that Providence is still very much in fashion.

Now tell me please, is glassine paper like a waxed paper? I don't think I've ever come across it.

Traumsomme, the reason for not using hairspray is that its properties are unknown over time. I think we've all used it at some point in a pinch when fixative wasn't around, but its not recommended.

It may yellow over time, depending on the paper its used on and the properties of the hairspray itself - perfume, etc. etc. Better safe than sorry.

But in most cases, fixative isn't required depending on the support you use. Simply give the back of the drawing a good tap or two to dislodge the loose particles and if framed well with spacers, it should withstand time as well as other mediums.

We must have posted at the same time Rose. Yes pastels are rewarding, aren't they? I'm following Dianna's class but haven't had time to get further than the line drawing yet! I'm also waiting for some new supplies to turn up - paper and some new pastels.

Glassine paper is a sort of glazed, translucent paper that is acid free and used to interleave between drawings.

Thank you for this information, Jeanette. After thinking about that I agree - the risk is very high. It would be so bad if a drawing would be ruined by using hairspray.
Why do so many artist recommend it?

What means ? Why the back?

The back because your hand would leave marks on the pastel on the front of the drawing

Another Briony and Kiora. I'm really happy with this drawing; I think it's the best I've ever done. It took about three hours. If I had another hour to spare for it, I would have done more detail in the hair and more careful shading in the blanket and top.
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wow your all so fast with the drawings and so beautiful!

I've started the tomatos but I'm not so fast. I have a bit of trouble with the gradients but i will get there

For now I enjoy all your drawings. Good work!

Ernest Friedman-Hill, WOW is all I can say...

Five minutes of whimsy.
Paulette
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Great work Ernest! You've worked hard on this one. Well done.

Paulette, 5 minutes? Fabulous whimsy. Its fun to do very quick sketches and very good to train your hand/eye coordination too.

Rose beautiful job on the tomatoes ...love the color .

Ernest beautiful job on jeanettes daughter .

paulette love the dog drawing only 5 min ? wow

I've done a quick sketch of my daughter and the baby. Its just a line drawing and may eventually turn into coloured pencil or perhaps oil. Time, time time...

Its done in a 7 x 10 hard cover sketchbook with mechanical pencil and took about 20 minutes.

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Jeanette...ok here is my picture of Briony and Kiora. its not that good but at least I tried and it took a few hours on just what I did, AFTER restarting three different times.. I need lots of practice if I am ever going to accomplish drawing portraits or people. The baby was the hardest I do have to say. Sorry I didn't do them any justice with my drawing.

Ok For some odd reason Drawspace has not co-operated with me at all tonight. Its after 10 pm and i just got the forum to finally upload my drawing. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Hi everyone,

Love your choice of pictures Jeanette, Would like to do all of them but settled for two today. The daisies are done in coloured pencil and the tomatoes in oil pastel. It's the first time for both mediums. I can see where the pastel needs a lot more practise. Thanks for looking.

Connie

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5 min.??? I do admit to losing track of time when I find something I want to do. It was quick though.

The drawings are looking great. You have picked out some great pictures Jeanette. Lots of good contrast.
Paulette

Not that good? I think it's great! It's got a Modigliani thing going on; it's a sort of contemporary Modigliani madonna-and-child.

Thanks Ernest!!! I'm trying......

Okay, here's my attempt with Briony and Kiora.
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Great Job, Southern Cross!!! Looks better than mine, or at least I think so anyways..LOL

Rose - You can also use acid free tracing paper between your pastel paintings. Glassine is that slippery see through paper that they sometimes use for stamp collectors. Sometimes they put paper money in glassine envelopes also. You can see through it like tracing paper but its not waxy, just slick. You can buy it by the roll at art stores.

Everyone has done beautifully on this great challenge. Here is my first try with Strathmore 400 series black paper and Derwent drawing pencils.. At least the paper is colored even if I haven't braved the world of real color yet. Oh yeah.. The paper was larger than my scanner too..

Venus, it does have a wonderful surrealist feel to it, quite appealing. It may not be a perfect likeness, but that's not all that counts. its your style coming through.

Connie, great efforts for tackling two new mediums. How brave of you! Oil pastels are notoriously difficult and coloured pencil take some practice. You've got good results with both.

Lovely work Southern Cross. Nice soft drawing.

Great daisies Cyn. The choice of white on dark paper adds a new element, doesn't it?

I tried the mother and child in four part harmony using the Lyra oil based coloured pencils. I suppose I should have chosen a less smooth paper but I was afraid I might not be able to get in all the facial details. Kiora is small and in the picture she is really tiny. And the scan is not the happiest either!

I loved doing this.... you're a lucky lady Jeanette... such a beautiful family!

This is beautiful Rose, you've done a wonderful job on this drawing. You should try some Derwent Drawing pencils.

They have a lovely creamy texture with large leads, they speed up the drawing process and have beautiful earthy tones. I think you'd like them. I've done a number of portraits with them and Al Jones on WetCanvas uses them almost exclusively.

You are right about creamy. I just got my Derwent Drawing Pencils yesterday and the daisy is the first thing I tried. I love them. Black was the only paper I could find in this town that wasn't white. I was looking for something a little more "old worldly". I don't know what you call it? to look it up on the internet.

When I see those pics of your daughter, Jeanette, it brings back an old Italian proverb... "When a child is born, so is a grandmother". Lovely daughter and gorgeous baby..

Here is my contribution to the challenge. I choose the tomatoes because it was enough challenge for me

Cyn: I love your collored daisies. Beautiful work

Rose: Wonderfull how you did that portret! Love the brown color.

Aren't they wonderful to use Cyn? I absolutely adore them and that lovely sepia effect they give to drawings.

Thanks Cyn and what a coincidence, I used that exact same quote on my blog to annouce Kiora's birth.

Here's my drawing of the mother and baby. i didn't have more time to put it better. Sorry.

Nair