Thank you all for nice comments!

I think I need to take more lessons here before I try those peppers again. They turned out looking like some strange fat cylinders. Oh well, the more your practice...

I'm keeping it anyway.

Elena is correct. Those are very nice portraits and courtyard-looking pictures.

Alex I will post here a help picture of the light, dark and medium tones. Give me a second.

I'll try to use that, thanks! I think it was the initial step of setting up an basic contour that got me. I'll go over some lessons on that, and hopefully be back with a better attempt.

Sipsik with your permission I post this drawing with my editing. I just lighten up the photo you took. Here it shows the values and one can better appreciate your work.All you have to do when having a dark picture you use a feature called auto correct. Here is the photo editor I work with: FXfoto

Here is the colored pencil class with Jeanette. This topic of great interest should be pinned.I had to look though 9 pages of general stuff to unearth it.

Do you a living on your art, Elena? I was just curious, as you called it your "work" earlier.

Alex, I started drawing as an adult a year ago( in march 2008) at 53 years old and being on drawspace motivated me to work everyday, learning different media(charcoal, Chinese brush, CP, watercolor, oil pastels).Great help is participating in challenges where you can compare your drawing with other ppl's work since the reference is for all.
I noticed that the more i work and push myself the more i gain in confidence and skill. I am still learning techniques and how to use different media on different kinds of paper. So far I cannot say I produce anything that can be considered art outside this site or my home.But it gives me a great pleasure to challenge myself and experiment new pencils, crayons, pastels, etc.
I hope i answered your question.

PS. As I know you like seeing people's work here are my albums of 2008 and 2009.

You did answer my question, and in excruciating detail. :] Thank you very much for answering that. I really would have guessed you to be very artistically-driven in the past. You must have improved quite a lot or either started out excellently. I will go visit your albums posthaste.

Thanks, Alex. The truth is the feedback from my friends and teachers on drawspace was a factor in my quick progress. We tried together so many things that I can say I have my buddies in art only on this site.I am currently on other art sites(ENglish, French) but is nothing compared to drawspace, my first "Atelier".

Elena, thank you for your advise and for directing me to the lesson, i am going to give that a try and i can see how important working out your colour pallet before hand can be on the finished product or final outcome of your drawing. if you have any other lessons that i could use for colour pencils i would love to try them as well.
Ciao Tania

Yesterday evening I got a bit fed up doing birds for the ATC, so I decided to give this lovely picture of a father an daughter a try. I used various graphites on cartridge paper, about 7 x 7 ins.

lovely drawing Norma

Norma, this is an excellent portrait!You captured the moment wonderfully!Thanks for joining.

First stage of my oil pastels of the bell peppers: crayons sketch on canvaskin pad 9x13in, 30 minutes.

second half hour of 1 hour drawing. Oil pastels over crayons sketch on canvaskin pad 9x13in.This was fun, all over my hands and face ..oil pastels.

Illusions......This one is for your challenge to do one in crayons Elena. However I am naming this one "Illusions" because I have very old eyes and need my biofocals but I broke them this week and am making do for now with a pair of weak reading glasses so there is no telling what this actually looks like..

Nancy dear, your illusions are wonderful. I am sorry for your eyes though and hope you will not suffer long and fix your glasses.
I can tell you this is very creative, delicate and original approach and this week we had three participants took the freedom for original artwork not mere reproduction of references.
Thanks again for your contribution.

Hall of fame

Thank you all participants to this challenge of taking the time to draw with me this week and post here their wonderful work.
Until next time with me wish you all a great summer.

Thank you for hosting tis week Elena.
Great idea putting all drawings/paintings toghether at the end! It is very nice being able to compare side by side different styles/mediums.
Claudio