Hi everyone, my name is Dors. I am hosting this weeks drawing challenge.

I hope you like the images... Have fun. All mediums are accepted.

1. EURYCNEMA GOLIATH ...stick insect

3. St Brendan... Statue in Bantry..Ireland.

Great pics Dor!! I think I am particularly fond of the flower...may try it.

Thank you Venus

Dors

Decisions, decisions, decisions..........hmmm........

Good selection Dors.

Yes, great selection. I think I will try the insect which I think is a mantis. Is that correct? It's a praying mantis?

Thank you bigs and trying

The insect is a EURYCNEMA GOLIATH... a female stick insect. She came to our patio to spend her last days.

Dors

Well I am trying to improve my watercolour sketching and so I decided to giv the banyan tree roots a go.

More of an interpretation with watercolour than an exact science (well it is with me anyway )


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Loved your twig insect...so gave it a shot...

WOW... great to see you have got into it already... I have family here for the next couple of days. I thought I would post the challenge early..so not to forget.

Good tree roots bigs. ( I also like to do my own interpretation in painting)

love the insect mmqalitz. we actually called her twiggy... great drawing.

Dors

I couldn't decide what to draw so I gave the statue a quick shot. Hmmm I should have tried the flower.

These are all really good. Great job on the tree roots bigs. mmqalitz your twiggy is just beautiful. cyn that is a great job on statue. Wish I could do as good as you all. I might just have to try one before the week is up tho.

Great work Cyn. Love it. Glad you did that one. I will also do that now I have more time. Xmas rush over. LOL


Dors

Thank you Taz and Dors..

I tried the flower but being new to colored pencils, I see I need to go back and review the colored pencil class we had.

I love the water color of bigs roots and the graphite texture of marisa's bug. They're great.. So here's my flower..

Beautiful pictures this week Dors..

Nice water color roots Sue ...and Marisa fantastic drawing of Twiggy.

Cyn your flower is absolutely beautiful and I like your statue also......fantastic!

I thought I would try a quick sketch of Twiggy also...thanks for the challenge Dors,

Happy New Year all

Cheers!...

Brian.

Brian, I feel like singing "When You Wish Upon a Star, Makes No Difference What Bug You Are..."
Love your juxtaposition.

My first attempt at using a pencil for other that line drawing. As you can see I got board at the end.. Normaly I don't enter challenges or contests, since it involves drawing/painting something I probably would not have chosen. I know this is good exersize, and helps to expand ones ability. I started on lesson B3 and before I could darw anything I was trying this stick bug... I actally suprised myself and didn't do to bad as far as getting thing sort of where then need to go. Lots to learn on how to work these confounded pencils!
Happy New Year!


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nice images to choose from ...I will try to get one in this week

You inspired me to go hunt up my old watercolors. Unfortunately, they are all dried up. Broke open a couple of tubes, but they appear to beyond recovery, ah well what do I expect when I haven't used them for twenty years.

Cyn... Beautiful flower.. love the vibrant color and shading. Great job.

Brian.. Great Twiggy and Co.... Thank you. I am enjoying hosting the challenge.

Airscapes... Great Twiggy.

Here I was thinking with all the Christmas and New Year activities.. this would be a quiet challenge. I just hope I can find time to participate.. We have had family visiting and it has been so HECTIC...

Dors

Happy to say I made time to do a drawing

MM, love that bug - our stick insects over here are usually brown - they get soo big. And you may be able to use your watercolours - I always have put mine into my palette and let them dry out or whatever - and a few spritzes of water and you can pick up the colour as though they had been pans. If you can get your dry bits into a palette tray you might be able to play until you decide if you want to get more.

Cyn I think your flower is lovely - and good work on the statue (Iavoided that like the plague!)

Congratulations on coming out of your comfort zone Airscapes ! Great detail on the bug and the stick too.

Brian, Brian, Brian, why am I not surprised - I'm a bit like MM , been singing that Disney theme half the night. Great job (and I always prefered Jimminy to Tinkerbell)



OOps - must have missed your post Dors !

Great darks in that - its terrific.

Nice job, very life like, in fact I think it has more character than the original!

I drew the insect all in mechanical pencil. With all the shading and toning, it took about 20 minutes.

Wow, there's certainly a bug going around this week
Trying: That's quick! Good job.
Here's an extremely loose interpretation of the flower...

Everyone has done such a great job. Great bugs and roots. And Dors amazing statue and, wow, Marisa. I absolutely love your "extremely loose interpretation of the flower"..

Thank you airscapes.

trying... great insect... we called her Twiggy..LOL

Marisa. Lovely flower.. lovely details. and love the background.

Dors

I have done a little more on my... St Brendan... finished it off.


Dors.

How big is this drawing, and what pencils did you use? I have noticed that in the galleries and in this thread, not many list the size, tools and support they used. Knowing these things would be helpfull to a begginer such as myself.
Thanks!

airscapes.

Yes I agree it does help when everyone lists materials used.

The size of my drawing is 20 x 14 cm I used Dale Rowney paper Heavy Weight 220g/m (135 lbs)
HB, 2B , 6B pencils. electric eraser.. blending stump... graphite powder.

Dors

Hmmm. Guess so, although I'm mostly using simple things like colored pencils, magic markers, pencils around the house like # 2 or # 1, and paper that closely resembles the stuff you put into a printer.
Haven't been drawing very much for the past thirty years so don't have much in the way of supplies.
I was forced to draw as a kid -- my mother insisted that I create the xmas holiday cards every year. First thing I did when I moved out and got my own life was BUY xmas cards.

Airscapes, saw your webpage, NICE.

Thanks! Seems like we had oposite upbringings..I was told (not in so many words) that I could not draw, that art was somthing you had to be born with..

Dors:
Thanks for listing that.. some very neat tools.. which I to own, will have to try this pencil stuff some more

airscape...I admire your drawings very much and trying another great one...Marisa beautiful flower....


Dors all I can say is what a spectacular drawing of the statue.....I like the tones you have achieved....very life like....fantastic work of art..

I tried a quick sketch of the tree roots....I was at work this morning at 5am...so being very tired I don't think it is very good.

Oh Marisa and Sue....you can sing to me any time .....I like this version....and thanks for your kind words.

Disney theme

Brian.. Thank you for your inspiration and kind words...

Love the tree... and I adore butterflies... nice added touch.
I don't think you could do a bad drawing. you work is awesome.

Airscapes. Thank you. I am trying to add all the tools of the trade LOL each time I go to the art shop. I have all sizes now in blending stumps.
My wish list now is an electric eraser...I have the battery operated one right now. also an electric sharpener.
I have a great tool for measuring that belongs to my husband Nev...I will ask him what it's called. It's great.

I am a collector of pencils. I love them and have to try different ones... I think I could just purchase the whole art shop...if I had the money..LOL
Do you have any different tools... love to hear what people use.

Dors

Thank you. Your sketch is great as well.

Dors, I don't have much in the way Neat specialy tools for darwing.. had to buy the required basics for a drawing 101 class I took over a year ago. The battery powered electric eraser is someplace... and the AC powered 35 year old draftman electric eraser is hanging on my painting table. I don't use it as much as I had though I would but is is nice to have when you need a spot really clean. Hit ebay for the electrics, there are a lot for sale an any one time and they go cheap. I think mine was $35 and that included the shipping was a few years ago but just looked the other day and prices are still low.
I guess the tool I normaly use the most is my projector (dirty word around here ) but without it, I don't think I would have ever gotten into any of this...

I think your technique was quite interesting. Great job!

Sue (bigs) - What a nice watercolor of the tree roots. I wish paint didn't intimidate me, but it does. I admire people who can make paint work.

Marisa (mmgalitz) - What a nice drawing of the bug, such detail. I also liked your loose interpretation of the flower.

Cyn - That's a great statue drawing. I avoided it myself. How long did you spend on it? I also really liked your flower. Did you start with a dark paper or add the dark background?

Brian - Love the bugs hanging out together. The tree trunk is really good too. Of course it needed a butterfly in keeping with the theme this week.

airscapes - The bug looks just right. I think you are getting the hang of pencils just fine.

Dors - Your statue is very well done. I wish I could draw half as well. I know, practice, practice, practice.

trying - I like the loose sketchy feel of your bug.

And in keeping with my resolve to get better at art, I am taking up the challenge this week. Don't know if I'll get to it every week, especially once spring comes in earnest. Gardens and bees will need attention and art will have to wait for evening hours. Anyway, I attempted the flower. Santa was good to me this year. I have a lot of new pencils and paper to try out. This is done on Ivy Mi-Teintes 8.5 x 11 with Derwent Colorsoft pencils. I'm not sure I like the combination, it may be the dark paper.

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Debby

Thanks Dors! and thanks drdebby! I love your flower....I think it's is absolutely stunning... really beautiful...I hope to see more of your drawings.

Brian.

Debby. Lovely flower and I do like the combination. It is different and really beautiful... It is nice getting art materials for Christmas...I got some too. Faber-Castell Polychromos CP... a drawing pad and a drawing box to keep all the goodies in.

Look forward to seeing more of your drawings before spring.
Dors

Thank you to those who participated... It was fun being host.
Hope you enjoyed

Dors.