Hi Everyone!! Welcome to this weeks Drawing Challenge. My name is Venus and I will be your host. The challenges are intended to provide us all with practice of things that are out of our comfort zones. Anyone can participate and I encourage all to try. The pictures I am using for this weeks challenge are somewhat a little different than that we have used before. I wanted to try and do some different type things than we have had.

For those of you that are new and interested in the challenge the rules are you may use any dry medium to complete the challenge. We ask that you not use digital art, or paint. If you use watercolor pencils please submit the picture before the water is appied. Ok on to the pictures:



1.) This is a puzzle called Alcatraz that my lovely husband Brian invented. It is a brain teaser and the object is to try to get the ball out of it cage without breaking or smashing it. ( Kim can tell you all how frustrating it is when she gets a change!! LOL)
2.) This second picture is of my darling little two year old daughter Patience. She looks sweet in this particular picture but trust me, she is satan's spawn.
3.) The third picture is of just a cat's eyes area. I thought this particular picture was a unique one and great for all of us that like using colored pencils to do our work. It also looks like a great exercise for using graphire in the black and white reference.
4.) This last picture is just one that I had in my many reference photos from somewhere on the net. I think it is from WetCanvas but I am not sure. It is just a traditional little butterfly on a pretty flower that I thought fit the season and would make a good reference.

I hope everyone enjoys the challenge and participates!!! Happy Drawing..

Venus,
Great pictures. Excellent idea to add pictures of your husbands game.
Paulette

Hi!:)
Great pictures, I like cat's eyes very much...

I agree with Bojana - the cat's eyes are beautiful!! Think I'll give them a try!! Elizabeth

Patience.

WOW Brb, You never cease to amaze me with your beautiful portraits!! You have captured everything about Patience. She loves it too by the way. She pointed to it and said,"That Patience". LOL was really cute.

Thanks Everyone, for the compliments on the pictures. I tried to come up with some unique ones as well as some that may be in others comfort zones. I really can't wait to see the cat's eye drawings though, I too am going to do them as my challenge...hehehe!!

You can tell Patience that I enjoyed drawing her very much and I am glad she liked it.

i think i will try either the cats eyes also or your daughter....or maybe the butterfly.....hehe....it will be a surprise i think
i do hope to do one this week....

Well I thought I would try the cats eyes...Thanks for the challenge Venus...it really was a challenge. I think mine look more like an owls eye's lol..

hmm, peice of art

Brian, actually they could pass for either if you ask me...but thats the great thing about art is making people quess what you are trying to say through it. Great job!!!

Bob, LOL, I can try to tell her that but I don't think she'll understand...but her mommy sure did and Thank You! I put it on my desktop so she can look at herself all the time..lol. I think it has to do with it being her self discovery age.

Laurie as long as you try and participate thats all that matters!!

Paulette, well I wasn't putting his puzzle up for an advertisement or anything (but hey extra perks are a bonus right?) I thought the picture had a lot of good details for shading and such.

Venus,
I wasn't thinking about advertising, I was thinking with the different textures and reflective surfaces that it would be a good challenge. Makes me think of the Escher balls that Andybuck did. Although this is the perfect way to advertise and why not it will make a good drawing challenge as well as a brain teaser!
Paulette

LOL Paulette, it is definately both!!! OMG I tried to draw it earlier...Not going there again at the moment. Will attempt it again later maybe and gonna start the kitty eyes..ROFLMBO!!!!!

Ilike the pictures it beautiful

Ok as promised I did do the Cat's Eyes. I had alot of fun and so glad to have learned Brb's technique of using the handy ruler to meassure the proportion for the space between the eyes!! It really made a difference. I used Prismacolor Pencils on strathmore beige colored paper. The paper size was 9 by 12 inches so I blew up the reference in Paint Shop Pro and then made my drawing 4 inches by 9 1/2 inches. So I made it alot bigger than the reference. I also added a picture frame from psp after I scanned the drawing and sized it down. I thought it gave it more character...hehehe. This I have to say was out of my comfort zone for the simple fact, it takes A LOT of patience to draw animals and their hair. As for the final result and 5 hours of work I have to say I am very pleased with the way it turned out.

It's lovely Venus! It makes me want to try CP's. Would you recommend Prismacolors or some other make?

IRBaboon, I personally like Prismas, but if you shop from Dickblicks on line they have a store name brand called Blick Studio pencils that are just as good as Prisma's but cheaper. If you shop on ebay which is where I got mine, you can usually find pretty decent deals. My only suggestion is to make sure that when shopping on ebay there is 100% positive feedback on the seller and that there is a contact phone number in the auction or that they offer to answer and buyer questions and reply in a quick manner. There are alot of sharks out there that scam on Ebay, so you have to be careful. I got my set of Prismacolor Pencils for $62.00 and I believe it was free shipping and was a set of 120 pencils. The Blick Studio pencils are like 40-50 depending on if they are on sale and largest set is 72 pencils. I have heard good things about Derwent pencils too but have yet to try them. I suggest starting small with sets of 12 or 24 though there aren't as many colors there is enough to get a feel for the ones you like working with. Verithins and Colorerase Colored Pencils are both made by Prismacolor too and they are great for fine details in colored pencil work.

Oh, and thank you for the compliment..it was my first attempt in a long time trying to draw fur on an animal!! Last time I did was in 9th grade and I was doing a picture of a tiger on black paper and it came out pretty good, but I moved and never got my picture from the school or finished it completely. I know it was good though because the art teacher wanted to put it in an art fair at the city's local public library.

Ohh well that was many moons ago..

wow venus-- i really love those cat eyes. you did a fantastic job on them. they look so realistic.
brb awesome work as usual. i love your work and your style.
brian david you did very very good with the cat eyes too. it very hard for me to render fur.
i am thinking of trying patience in color pencil.
Lori

I like them Brian ..nice job

Hi Venus
What a great challenge! I have done the Alcatraz one (it's not only a brain-teaser to solve, but also to draw ...) Now, I'm just wondering how I post the image here - and I warn you I'm completely new at uploading anything to the internet. And also, are the limitations on file-size still 200k? If so, how do I do the compression? (I have photoshop, if that is in any way a relevant fact! )

Hrymfaxe

Hrymfaxe, before you go to add you post you will notice an area that says browse and that will lead you to your computer files. I am not sure how to resize your picture on Photoshop. I usually use Pixresizer and then resize my pictures to 200kb. When your picture is resized and you found it through browsing your computer, hit add this attachment and then it uploads into a thumbnail for everyone too see. I am glad you joined in and did my challenge and the puzzle too, no less!!! I want to try it again but its extremely hard! Anyways, here is the link to Pixresizer if you are interested, its free to download and I use it for just about every picture I scan now it is so easy.

http://www.vso-software.fr/products/image_...?source=fromapp

You speaking of the puzzle, last night my children learned how to open it..It was sooo cute watching them.

Venus, thank you so much. That worked like a charm! Fantastic.

Venus said:
I am glad you joined in and did my challenge and the puzzle too, no less!!! I want to try it again but its extremely hard!
I know what you mean. I started out drawing the two squares and the "pillars" connecting them, but then there was just no convincing way to draw a ball inside! Very annoying. So I erased everything and started out with the ball then drew everything around it afterward. That worked better. I have trouble making the metal pattern af the topmost square look right, and the letters in Alcatraz - well I think I was better at that sort of thing in 5th grade! But I think the ball at least looks right (well it should, everything is build around it!) This is all done in graphite pencils: b, 5b and 9b.

You speaking of the puzzle, last night my children learned how to open it..It was sooo cute watching them.

Yes I can imagine! And probably fun too!
[attachmentid=5746]

Hmm, resolution is not so good.. I'll see if I can fix it.. *some time later* ... well I don't know how to fix it right now. But I guess you can still see the basics. *Third edit in ten minutes* I have just discovered that it looks perfectly fine if I maximise the new window that opens, so feel free to ignore these two lines of computer-agonising!

Awesome Job, Hrymfaxe!!! Alot better than I did, thats for sure. If you go to Alcatrazthepuzzle.com you can read all about the puzzle. Its really cool. I saw the puzzle before I even met my husband who invented it..LOL. (Long Story) Glad you participated and great to see new faces!!

Thank you Venus! It was a lot of fun trying to fit the pieces together in the right relation with one another! I might try the cat-eyes as well, now that this one went so well.

Hehe, sounds like a fun thing to discover all of a sudden! *heads to puzzle website*

Wow, Hrymfaxe, you did an excellent job of drawing the puzzle. Great shading and light reflection. Looking forward to seeing your cats eyes!

Thanks Tim, Lori, and Venus... .....Venus, I think your eye's are amazing.....Hrymfaxe what an awesome drawing!

Why Brian, are you flirting with me??? LOL, thanks hun. It was my first attempt at doing any sort of animal in a long time!! I appreciate the compliment. I think after the children and I return from the beach tomorrow I am going to attempt either drawing Patience or retrying to do the hubby's puzzle.

I had a feeling I set myself up for that one Venus.. But since I am a flirt this is for you....lol....

Hi all!

Thank you for your kind words on the puzzle. Now I was planning on doing the cat's eyes, but another project has come up, with a kind of thight deadline... However I did start the drawing of those eyes, and I plan to finish it - it just will not be today. Can I still post it in this thread, or will it removed when the challenge time is over?

Hrymfaxe

Hi Hrymfaxe, I am sure Venus would love you to post it....anyone may post past the challenge date....this thread remains under general discussion in the forums according to the last date of the last post..Hope I helped....Brian.

Thank you Brian! I'm glad that's how it is, because I really do want to finish this drawing.

I have my outline for the cats eyes too. I am also hoping to get back to it.
Paulette

Instead of cleaning my house, for the Fathers Day BBQ with 30 people, I procrastinated and drew half an eye. I promised myself when that was done I would go back to work. So here it is.
Mech. pencil HB and 2B, 55lb medium tooth paper.
Paulette
[attachmentid=5795]

Okay the work isn't done, but the drawing is.
[attachmentid=5796]
Paulette

i was hoping to have joined this challenge but i havent the time...i will still draw one ok venus but i will do it tomorrow or monday
thanks

[attachmentid=5797]would you mind if i post one i did last year? i'll try the girl's porttrait next reporting.

gelin

Nice portraits!
Paulette

WELL, I'M A LITTLE LATE. I WAS IN AND OUT OF TOWN AND WORKING LATE, SORRY.
I HOPE THIS IS OK, I MIXED 3 OF THE PICS.
NEW TO COLORED PENCILS SO I WAS'NT TO SURE ON COLORS TO MIX.
I NEED A COLOR WHEEL, I THINK.

MLB, I love the originality of the composition!! Excellent Job!! Glad you participated.

Almost two weeks late - but I don't like to have half-finished drawings lying around! Here are the cat's eyes:

[attachmentid=5879]

Hrymfaxe

Hrymfaxe,
Good job with the cat eyes. I found them fun to do.
The challenges are always open to do, they only stay pinned for one week. After that you just have to look for it to post, then everyone will see it at the top.

MLB,
Cool job mixing the challenge pictures.

Paulette