Hi everyone!

I'm very glad to be the host of this weeks drawing challenge and hope you like my photos.

The first is a very special kind of house, which you only can find in the very north Germany. This house is called a "Haubarg" (I have no idea to translate this word) - people lived in former times together with the cows and sheep under the same roof. This roof is/was made from reed and is gigantic.

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This is Josh, one of our four tomcats. I guess he thinks that he is a beauty.....

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Don't eat! Only draw this lordly fellow.

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Here comes my grand-niece Maya, the "live-wire".

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This is an old padlock that belongs to a very old gate in a stone-wall of a much older castle.

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I hope I've found a photo for everyone of us. Please feel free to modify or simplify - live the artistic freedom.
Enjoy drawing and have a very nice week.

I think Maya is so cute.

Very nice pictures. I think I'll try the old padlock (hope the ghost of the castle will not be angry ).

Uta

Sunset


*loool* I don't think so. He has got a cup of coffee and some donuts and will be very patient.

Bob



Yes she is. And I hope that you will draw her........

Fabulous photos Martina, thank you. I'll try to fit one in if I can. They all look interesting to draw.

Thank you Jeanette! Your words mean a lot to me. The first time to make a challenge is very exciting, I'm a little bit nervous...

And I look forward to the results.

Martina,
I knew you wouldn't disappoint me. Great pictures.
Paulette

Hey Martina - I've been teasing you - not responding to your challenge all day! It's wonderful sweetie - very lovely pictures.

And I'm ready with my first entry. I took the liberty of flipping the image which seemed to work better for me as a composition and I opted for pastels and a much more loose style than usual. I'm getting a little tired of photocopies and am searching for a style that gives me pleasure rather than fill me with tension. After all that is what art is supposed to be about - being moved by our surroundings and reproducing them from our perspective for our own enjoyment and that of others who may care to look.

I must confess I was a little confused by the light source. On the stalk of the mushroom the light seems to be coming from the right but on the head it seems to be from the top left. So I created a little fantasy and imagined you took the picture facing north in the morning but still needing your flash possibly because of the tall trees around you. I'm probably totally wrong but that was a bit of fun in itself.

So here is my fliegenpilz.... does it really fly?!!

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I guess it doesn't fly I think that in English "Fliegenpilz" would sound something like "fly's mushroom"
Habe ich Recht?

Farfallina, I like your drawing alot

Martina .. I love your choice of pictures .
Haubarg sounds like how the Omish live around here ..no electric , no phones , whole families live together , lots of cows and baking .
I know a family up north by my brothers cabin and the women is very nice she gave me bonnets (hats) she made for my daughters and she makes the best bread .

Great challenge Traumsonne, I hope to try one.

Fabulous mushroom Rose, a great pastel drawing.

Here's my version of Josh, the cat. I think I got the eyes a bit off on the angles, but I didn't measure, just did it quickly by hand. And don't all boy cats think they are beautiful?

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Wow - I am totally glad because of your comments. And pictures.

Thank you Paulette!

Rose,


Oh my gosh - so my crying was for nothing........
The mushroom looks great. and you are right, the light is a bit strange and difficult - I don't know exactly why.
I think it is because the light came through the foliage of the high trees. *laughin* I didn't use a flash, but your imagination is great. I like what you made with the mushroom. Are you lefthanded? Because - I myself would flip it too - and I'm a lefty.

Siks,
Ja, Du hast Recht! = Yes you are correct!
This mushroom is called a fly agaricus - because it is a poisoning mushroom that kills flies. But how often in nature killings guys are beauties.

Kim,
I heard a lot of Amish/Omish (I hope it's the same), they must be very friendly people.
In the "Haubargs" here there is electric in the meantime, in former times they mostly had been owned by very rich families. I was in such a house one time - and found it awfully cold although they had radiator. The walls are about 90 cm thick.

Okay - history lessen is over.....

Jeanette,
Josh looks great. I tried to draw him some days ago and I nearly got mad because of the fur. Now I have a very good example how to do it.

Ok I did the easy lock pick. Which wasn't too easy. I have been busy working on portraits lately so I took a break and did a challenge for once since I have been lacking off on them..( Sorry Kim and Bob) So here is my lock drawing..which I added an extra piece of wood to, too..

OK, guys, my first original colored pencil drawing. Rose and Martina's words, along with some advice from Kim, inspired me, and I went more for the general impression than a pixel-perfect likeness; this was a good thing as it let me concentrate on getting the colors I wanted to see. Prismacolor pencils on the smooth side of grey Canson "Mi Tientes" paper. The drawing area is 3.75 by 4 inches.

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this is my drawing of Maya.

WOW nice pictures...good thing i didnt break my arm or else i couldnt draw these....im thinking about giving a few of them a try or atleast one...if not more...legs healing well....gonna take awhile yet to get back to normal but all is well here....one day at a time is all l can do...i look forward to all the drawings that show up here...i love seeeing what others do to drawings and hope that mine will be good as well...i almost enjoy looking at others drawings than doing my own...silly hey? but you learn a lot by simply looking at others and how they interpretate the drawings....
BRB i love that drawing looks so real....like she is gonna pop off the page
Venus i love the door thingy looks wonderful....
jeanette awesome....great job on the cat...looks real too...
earnest....great mushroom(im assuming thats what it is) lol
rose...rose....rose.....great job on the mushroom like thingy lol

well thats it....not that my opinion counts for anything but great JOB ALL!!!!!!!
awesome work....keep up the good work and talk soon bye bye

Rose very beautiful job on the mushroom I love the colors
Jeanette the cat is very well done .. I love the way you do animals and get the fur looking just right
Venus ... girl that lock is awsome .. I love it .
Ernest I love your colorful mushroom ..the glare is right on .
BRB the baby is hard to go wrong its so cute .. but you once again manage to get her picture perfect

Here is my try at the baby ... the mouth was hard lol
BRB you do portraits so well !

Good morning everyone!

Venus,
good for us that you wanted to have a "portrait-break" - the lock looks great!

Ernest,
what a wonderful drawing! Which CP did you use? And have you blended?

Bob,
what else can I say - you truly are the master of portraits!

Laurie,
come on and sharpen your pencils - I look forward to your drawings and can't await.......

Kim,
Mouths are always hard but you always do a great job. So now - you truly are the lady-master of portaits (*laughing* can I say so?)


Here is my attempt on the lock. And while drawing I noticed that in the last time my desire changed: From CP drawing to graphit pencils - totally. I'm very astonished about that.
Okay here it is:
Size 150 x 160 mm, done with mech. pencils 5H, 2H and 2B and a kneaded erasrer/ blue tac.

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I went back and edited my post to specify clearly what it was drawn with and the size (I saw your suggestion in another thread!) I didn't use any blender; there's a little burnishing with a white pencil.

Well thank you martina .. but things like that door you have just done ...that kind of stuff is hard for me .. wood grain, metal .. I think you did a aswome job on that .

Hello again!

Great drawings everyone - really I mean it. Everyone's entries so far have been superb.

I tried something I'd never done before for my second entry - a portrait in water colour pencils. I don't know if we are supposed to give the details of the work but just in case we are hese are Caran d'Ache water soluble colour pencils ( a small box of 30) on the smooth side of Stonehenge paper - finished size 8x10 1/2.

Since I intended to water the drawing I took shots of it at several stages so I'm posting the lot - the gridded sketch, the transferred line drawing (sorry for the poor quality - forget to take a pic before I lightened it), coloured drawing before watering and the finished watered drawing including the background.

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I'm certainly not Adolfo.. I have still so much to learn - but I tired anyway!

This will be my first challenge, so I'll go with a subject close to my heart, and one that I am most familiar with...Josh the Cat!

Awesome work, everyone!

Kim,
thank you so much. I love to draw "things", it's totally fun for me. If I have to make a portrait - it is very hard work for me and less fun.

This why I love arts - there is a place (special aera - sorry, I miss the correct words) for everyone.


Rose,
that is so good!! And thank your for explaining the material.
The last picture - this is WITH water??? Great!
I love drawing with watersoluble pencils (they are so soft), but always when I put water to it a little fly could learn to swim and the colours run in each other or away from the board. It seems that I am doing something wrong .... *pondering*


Hey DKelly!
Welcome to drawspace and to this challenge. It's for both of us the first time - for me to make a challenge and for you to attend.
I look forward to your drawing of Josh.

Great pictures, Martina. Here's my version of the castle lock. Drawn on sketch paper - graphite pencils HB, 2B and 4B - approximate size is 5 x 6

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Joanie

I opted to do the lock as well. Not sure I can draw the cat ( my own passed away Feb 18/07 she was almost 20 years old ...a good life for a cat and she was a grey tabby too! ) . He is smart looking cat

Let's just call this one a "learning experience." Prismacolor pencils on Canson "Mi Tientes" in light tan -- (the smooth side.) About 8.5x11.

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Rose you said " water the drawing " whats that mean .. It looks adorable and you did a very nice job .

Joanie and Tim your locks are very nice ...the wood grain is very hard for me to get right ...you both did very well .

Ernest...the baby is so cute very nice job with prisma.

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Kim - I guess watering means exactly what it says - adding water with a brush to the colour to dissolve the pigments and give it a water colour feel.

Martina: I don't use a lot of water. Actually with the type of paper I was using (which is not normally meant for water colours) I could not take the risk of adding a lot of water. This was an experiment more than anything else since I had never done a portrait like this before. I would have liked to go light and used more water to give it a more washed look but as I said I could not afford to do that.

Also, the challenge rules are a little restricting for this type of work. If this were not a drawing challenge I would have coloured and watered in stages rather than colour the whole thing and water it more or less all at the same time. This last way makes it even more difficult.

Laurie nice lock glad to see you in the challenge .

Rose Sorry for the questions but did you use colored pencil then water it .. ?

Great to see you here, Laurie!

I've noticed that the images you post always seem very light, and I've been wondering if it's your scanner. I took your drawing and I opened the file in The GIMP and used the "Auto Levels" feature on it; the result is below. It's a lot easier for me to see, and I bet it looks a lot more like your actual drawing. Does it?

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The GIMP is free software, but not so easy to use. In any event, every photo editing program has some kind of "Auto Levels" or "Enhance" button which should do more or less the same thing -- try it before you post your next drawing!

thanks everyone...i need a new scanner....thanks for making it look better on here...means a lot

thanks everyone...i need a new scanner....thanks for making it look better on here...means a lot

Nice lock Ernest ....detail looks good .

I pulled a BRB on you -- that's Laurie's lock! You gotta read the posts...

LOL you are too funny Ernest!!!

Kim, lol, you need to read better hun...

i found a pic of that same kind of mushroom of the web & drew it about a year ago!!! I'm goin to draw a new one i guess though! Great selection of pic's by the way, also I was Born in Germany!!! Here is the pic I drew awile back!!!

NICE! I'm doing Josh in graphit as well! I think he's a beauty! He has a darling face!



Thank you! Nice challenge! I am glad you icluded a cat! I love to draw cats, so we'll see how Josh turns out under my scribbles... I started him last night, so I have a few more nights to fimish him up before I post him up! I'm off for an hour or 2 of Josh drawing!

Well here is the sad part guys .. I read it lol .. and when you said read it again I did ..and I still thought it was your work .....I am not a blonde either so i have no real good excuse .lol

Hello everyone!

Wow! You are all so busy - I'm totally encouraged. And really speechless (HA! No one will think this immediately.... )

Ernest,
good job on Maya - it is hard to make a portrait with CP I think - better said for ME it would be hard...
And very good idea to make Lauries drawing "seeable".

Laurie
Well done!!! Your lock looks very good!

Tim,
you've caught the antique charisma (uff - I hope you understand what I want to express) of the door - I like this very much.

Joanie,
I love the detailed work on the lock. It lookes very shiny.

Kim
you made my day because I first thought the same, then I saw your post and Ernests reply and laughed so heartly - because we both made the same.

*lmao* Same here - my hair is dark but I have the suspect that sometimes my mind is a bit blonde.......

Kelly
I am verrrrry courious on your drawing. And if you love to draw cats - we have 8 and if you need a "victim" to draw - feel free to take their photos. You can find some of them in my gallery.

JesusFreak,
nice sketch - I look forward to your new drawing. And thanks for your compliment.
You are born I Germany -wheretherehere?


Okay - here is my mushroom, done on lightly rought paper (more soft) with Prismas. It is the 2. attempt, the first, which I had flipped, was too to show. Size 130 x 130 mm

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BTW - please can someone tell me how much inches are how many mm or cm?

Martina

2.5 cm to an inch approximately

3.5 feet in a metre

I was in grade 5 when Canada went from Imperial to metric so I have little grasp of either system

Thanks Tim!!

I was Born in Zweibrucken!

The mushrom looks very good, excellent colors!
( Do you know, where i can get this pencils in Germany. I just know one shop in Berlin, but that's too far away for me. )

R U talkin bout Ergosoft pencils??? if not sorry! but if u r u can get these pencils at any art store!!!

Sunset,

I think you only can buy them online at Ebay. I've sent you a PM with the link.

Jesusfreak,
we talk about Prismacolor pencils - they are VERY hard to get here in Germany.
and art stores - they are not as often as in USA. At least concerning drawing with coloured pencils - we only can get Faber-Castell pencils (I do not like them) and Lyra (these are very good).

I too very well remember the changeover from Imperial to metric way back in 1973... and I was in college then. Makes me a little older than you eh Tim! And you know, I still make sure I always have a ruler that shows inches on one side and centimeters on the other.... same for tape measures. My 12 inch ruler is almost exactly 30cms Martina... and 40 inches is 1 meter.

Also Martina and Uta, in Europe Prismacolors are marketed as Karisma. Karisma used by manufactured by Berol of the United Kingdom but it seems the company has merged or reached some form of other deal with Sanford, USA and the name is now used for Prismacolor in Europe. I don't know if this helps at all. I have never seen Karisma here either and had to get my Prismacolors on e-bay from the US.

Have you tried Caran d'Ache. I don't have their Pablo coloured pencils but their Supracolor water soluble pencils are very soft and creamy and work very well even without water. Koh-i-Noor are also not too bad.

Hi Rose.
Yes, Karisma was the same as Prismas - but this brand is not available anymore. and never was in Germany.

Germany is really a developing country concerning CP. same is with the paper - you can buy nearly 50 different watercolour papers, but for CP you always have to think about which paper could be like strathmore and so on.
At least we have two or three brands here - but I am not happy with it. not really....

Developing country!

Yes, I tried out the Koh-I-Noor and I like the "Polycolor" of them. But the watersoluble pencils of Sanford are the best.

I tried also Derwent, but I do not like them very well.

*laughing* I think I have tried nearly every CP that is available here until I found the Ebay-Shop. Okay, I can't get all colours, but that's okay.

Caran d'Ache is hard to get too - and they are VERY expensive.
I'm happy with my Lyras and with the CP's of Sanford - but in the moment I am a "graphit-freak anyway ......

Caran d'Ache is no problem here. I can get them in a good shop in Karlsruhe. When I'll use water soluble pencils, I'll try the Supracolors.
There are so many things I like to do, but there is no time for everything.

Greetings Uta