We visited a lovely place today in Dartmoor National Park, called Fingle Bridge. I intend doing a painting of this lovely scene and I would invite anybody whose interested to do a painting/drawing as well. Here are some reference photos for you to use. I hope you will join me! No time limits, no rules. It would be interesting to see some variations on a theme.

cool, what a lovely place, that is a really nice pic of you too.I shall try one, I see the one I chose to try is also one you chose to do..I will start this pm

Wow, how beautiful! I'm definitely in!

Steve, what an incredible place! I loved your photos; I'll try to do some drawing later this week. Thank you for the invitation
Claudio

well since I was being lazy and not very active lately I decided that your inspiration bridge was in order.. Great reference photo's Steve..

Wow! that is really gorgeous carol! you rock!

here is my attempt, those photos were really beautiful

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Great Watercolor there Kay !! Absolutely I wanna be there, don't you ..

Wow girls! I haven't even drawn mine out yet! Very impressive paintings. Maybe one day I can take you there! We'll go in the autumn. It's a little less busy and very beautiful!

Steve, I just can't wait to try my new brushes of chinese squirell hair on your photos. Greetings from the Gobi desert, Dunhuang, one of the Silk Road cities.

Continued Bon Voyages Elena. I almost bought a squirel hair mop brush!

Anyway! Here's my attempt at Fingle Bridge. Screwed up the dark tree on the left! So I'll probably have another go from a different viewpoint!

I have been to Fingle Bridge and remember it well. I used to live in the UK and would take the girls off on excursion to Dartmoor from time to time exploring. Lovely photos and great paintings coming out of this.

Question... Steve .. how do you get your picture to show up bigger than a thumbnail ? That's better than clicking on that itty bitty picture all the time..

Load it into your gallary, then copy the Image link on the right hand panel, and paste it into [insert image] dialogue box.

Well that sounds simple enough .. wanna bet I mess it up .. I'll give it go my next upload.. Thanks pal..

Oh and P.S. .. I think you did one heck of a painting .. The tree ? I don't see one thing wrong with it.. It's yours..

steve that is really gorgeous, i see not one thing wrong with your tree either.

As my visitors have now gone home, the house has gone quiet again, so yesterday evening I decided to have a play with my Derwent Inktense pencils, so here is my version of Fingle Bridge.

That looks terrific Norma! Glad to have you back!

Maybe Steve has bigger thumbnails than us ...

Besides, very nice pictures everybody.
Yesterday I tried a sketch with my new Rotring Art pens, but they are very different from the technical pens I was using. So results were kind of deceiving
I'll try again later on this week.
Claudio

Rotring Art Pens.. What are they??
Yup I think Steve has the Thumbnail contest won !!

Don't you just love those pencils !! I love your version !!

They are ink pens, like standard pens but much more "softer" than a standard pen, so your lines really glide over the paper. The difference is that they are thicker than the technical pens; the Rotring extra fine is similar to a 0.3 (0.35 mm line width) and the fine is like a 0.5 (0.55 mm line width). I used to use 0.1 pens (0.25 mm line width) for general drawing and the 0.3 for gross shadows and enhancements; even though the difference seem minimal, it really changes the way you draw and the appearence of the final drawing. Rather crazy, isn't it?

Well, here is it. Not happy at all; the original photo is great and deserves better
Thanks for playing, Claudio! Try again.

I think you're being too hard on yourself! This is a great drawing! It is a typical Claudio drawing and worthy of praise! I love it! Well done Claudio!

I agree with Steve.. very very good.. and those pens sound awesome .. Please .. we want to see more from you !! Guess I am going to have to check them out too.. Like I need one more medium to play with .. !!

Steve, Carol, thank you very much, but it was not a great drawing. I am much more pleased with this new one. I sketched it on ink and shaded it with graphite pencil. Maybe one day I will try color
And Carol ... you don't need to buy every little gadget that crosses your way
Claudio

Hi guys, lovely art in this thread. Awesome drawing, Claudio.Bravo!
Greetings from the imperial city of Xian, home to the famous terracota warriors. I can't wait to join you drawing. I did some portraits on my flights that I will share with you when I am back home.

Claudio that is outstanding!!

Hello Elena, we look forward to seeing your pics, enjoy and be safe!

norma that is lovely, the purple/blues are very relaxing

there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with this claudio, I love it, it is indeed a very good rendition excellent in fact!

I love them both.. and Thanks Claudio for Grounding me .. I needed that !!

I really liked the photos ... !!! This is my attempt with pencil

( I just have one pencil here at work ... i did my best to get the shadows nice ... )

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Very nice details and subtle shadows. Good work!
Claudio

Looks lovely! It's so nice to see so many interpretations of this place!

Another one!

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wow you guys have done great jobs .. I am so not a painter would love to try but I dont know ...ok maybe I will but you giuys have really done great jobs .

Steve who is the handsome man in the stripped shirt ? lol

that is very well done ernest, just a lovely rendition.
and that goes for you too garyfallia, wonderful work.

That's not my body! I was just breaking it in for a friend! Now get your pencils out and have a go.

Well done Ernest!

steve you are just too funny! you have really brightened up drawspace these past couple of months!

Yeah but the pay is rubbish!

Here are my drawings.

I really was intended to do the second one in watercolor, but I was listening A-HA's "Take on Me" and suddenly came to my mind their music video of this song, where to worlds, animated one and real world blended. I really liked the idea and wanted to use it. As Steve's photo of this river and wood seemed so mysterious, I thought maybe it will suit here.
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That was a brilliant piece of inovation! These are both wonderfull, but the second one is just magical! I take my hat off to you for your brilliance! Fantastic!

sips, you never cease to amaze us..that is really well done..

Ernest: beautiful sketch!
Sipsik: I love your ink sketches and I agree with Steve: the second one is magical
Claudio

ok now my kids ask me why I was having this scanned lol and well I told them I worked really hard on it for a challenge ... they laughed and said is it a joke ..it looks bad ...and I knew they were not trying to be rude ..they see my work and always help me if something is wrong ...well I told them it was watercolor something I am very very new at lol ...did I mention I was new at it lol

Steve I think this is you and I did give up the paper I used was small and I even tried to do the fancy ink thing but that did not do so well .

BUT ,,,I am proud of this because thou it did not turn out as most may think because I do fine in colored pencil ..I still wanted to post it to show that its okay ..you do not have to be a master in all mediums ...and any of you that cut yourself short because you only feel good in watercolor well take it from me .. Bravo to you ....its just as hard for me to do trees and water ..and people in WC as it is for those to do colored pencils.

I think it is a fine first attempt kim, and your kids are right, this certainly is not up to your standards that we are all used to seeing, different medium and learning curves, but with practice I Have no doubt your WC will be every bit as beautiful as your CP.

I admire your attempt. Now, where's my hat? I think you should do this in CPs, I know you would do a fantastic job.

Kudos Kim.... I think the resemblance if pretty dog gone good.. I agree with your thinking.. I gave that flower deal a go and I think with practice one day I might even see the petals the way they are suppose to go.. but one thing I think I will never understand or even like is perspective.. I think you have to at least like to do that stuff to attempt it.. It's like eating a veggie I don't like ..

Perpesctive is fantastic! It can be such a help in many forms of art! I wish I could be there to give you a quick one. to one.. lesson. it is so easy when somebody shows you how to get it!