Welcome to my drawing challenge!
I hope you enjoy my pictures. Have fun!
All levels of drawing ability are encouraged to participate!

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The goal of this thread is to enable and encourage individuals to practice their drawing skills, learn new techniques and have fun! If you just want to sketch that’s fine. If you want to create a complex, detailed drawing, that’s great too. You will get out of this what you want. The references used are from my own personal reference library of images that I have photographed and I release them here as not under copyright, meaning you can use them as you wish for drawing.

You will be challenged by some aspect of all references most likely as you all will have different strengths and weaknesses in your ability to translate the images to paper.

Reminder:

This is a DRAWING challenge. Therefore please confine your artistic endeavors to some form of drawing: graphite, coloured pencil, pen and ink or charcoal.

There is no ruling on what size your final drawing or sketch should be. Smaller, sketchbook sizes will provide a smaller file size which is easier for loading onto the thread.

If you would like assistance or advice, please ask for it and I will be more than willing to try to guide you.

This challenge will last for one week. At that time, all challenge drawings should be submitted to this thread.

I have offered 3-5 reference images to choose from. The images are also provided in greyscale. Seeing the images in black and white gives a better sense of basic values.

I have kept the images to simple shapes that still provide challenges. Block out your basic shapes first then work the details into them, rechecking proportion and measurement against other reference points in your drawing.

If you have an interest in hosting a challenge, please see the list in the pinned area of general discussions.

Nice photo's, Paulette. I think there is one in particular I may try, if I can find time!!

I know it's technically too early, but I couldn't resist.
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This took about an hour to do on printer paper, with my new 2H and 6B clutch pencils. BRB was singing the praises of printer paper elsewhere, so I thought I'd try to give it a fresh look. I found it very hard to get decent darks. It is nice and smooth, though!

gutsy try ernest and you pulled it off ...hard pose to attempt

it to have done in so just a short time, it seems to me extraordinary, I believe that I have little to do and to learn much of all you

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para haberlo hecho en tan poco tiempo, me parece extraordinario, creo que tengo poco que hacer y aprender mucho de todos vosotros

Hi Ernest,

Here is my spin on the darks. As you may have noticed I always use a 160 gsm printer paper for challenges and sketching. I agree that it is difficult to obtain darker values on the smooth surface. What I have found is that there is a significant difference in the graphite that you use to produce these values. I'm also using 2mm clutch pencils and have tried a few brands of graphite. My favorite brand is Caran'd'Arche. They do not sell 6B in 2mm form only 3mm or wooden case. There is certainly a very technical reason for this but I don't know what it is. I wanted to keep everything at 2mm so I bought some 2mm 6B Sanford Turquoise. Well to make a long story longer, I was not able to produce the darker values. I was getting better results with a Caran d'Ache 2B. So I went out and bought a 3mm clutch pencil and some 3mm 6B Caran d'Arche graphite. There is no comparison the Caran d'Arche is black on the smooth paper where the Sanford is greyish. So if you are having problems getting your darker values on these smooth low cost papers I would suggest trying other brands of graphite.

P.S. Nice sketch!

Thanks, guys. RJ, that is fantastic advice! Sadly, I did indeed buy Sanford Turquoise leads in three hardnesses. Sounds like I have to do some more shopping.

Venus I hope you get time! I can't wait to see what you do.

Ernest, great job!
My fault for the early entry, I had a party last night and this is the earliest you would have seen something today.

Kim, Tito, RJ,
I hope you will find time to join in also.

A4 printer paper. Cross hatching without the cross….that’s just laziness!

Wonderful job Lance, laziness and all!

Speaking of laziness, here's half a dog

Great line work

Great job Mr Ofir! Half dog or not!
This is my dog Gracie at 8 months, she is now 1 year old. A very energetic Bouvier.

Great job -- your anatomy is definitely better than mine!

Mr. Ofir great job on the dog .

Lance I like your cross hatching style .. I am not good at it at all ...nice job .

Paulette .I thought that was that kind of dog but I was thinking he looked to small ....they get very big .. I use to groom dogs and from the ones I have groomed they can be testy .

I decided to try the tea cup .. Venus did a tea cup awhile back and I have wanted to try one ever sense ..well I tried lol I could not do the saucer I tried and failed badly at that but this is my tea cup .

Sausers are over rated.. people look at you funny if you drink out of the sauser! Tea cup looks great, and you don't get funny looks when drinking from the cup

Hi all,

great photo's this week Paulette.......Ernest and Lance what fantastic portraits...they really scare me let alone her being upside down.....Kim what a spectacular drawing as usual... and Mr.Ofir another fantastic one...

I tried a quick one of Gracie also what a beautiful dog.......I found her very challenging and the first few tries are in my bin.....and now I ran out of time.....thanks for the challenge Paulette.

Brian.

I was waiting for that one brian ...nice to see your drawings

Hi Kim, you did an excellent job on the teacup, especially the flowers (the part I had trouble with). I am with the others, who needs a saucer!

Gracie is about an inch or to bigger than that now. We call her the shrimp, of course our comparison for dogs is a Great Dane. Gracie is very sweet, a little timid with new people but warms up quick. She hates it when I brush her legs and paws and cries like I'm killing her when I clip her nails. I hear this is a Bouvier thing, not wanting to have their legs done. We did a lot of research before we bought her, we found a very reputable breeder, their dogs have good temperaments and are sold all over the world. She cost more than a backyard breeder would have charged, but it is the best insurance I know of to not have a bad dog. When they are this big and powerful that is important. My kennel guy has dealt with some nasty Bouviers and I did not want to go there.

Brian
I love the picture. Gracie is the first dog I have had that sits and follows things with her eyes, birds, planes, whatever. So your drawing is very appropriate. She would definitely be curious about Woodstock!

Paulette I totaly agree with the backyard breeding thing I ..I have groomed many of the backyard kind of breeds ...from chows to pinchers ...any dog breed in that manner has a big chance of having a bad temperment ....you pay for what you get and it goes both ways ...I do not know alot about your kind of dog ..but I have delt with owners who most likely just want that breed at whatever cheapest cost they can get .

I just recently bought a American Stafford ( also known as a pitbull ) and trust me I was scared to get it cause i had heard all the stories ..but my husband swore that it would be a good dog .. we paid a big number for him from a reputable breeder and we have a beautiful pet whom we can trust .

I have a cousin who owns one, it is a beautiful dog. They socialized the heck out of it and it worked out very well. They are banned in some parts of our county. I think if you have good breeders and good owners there should be no trouble.

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hi everyone
nice pics Paulette
lovely drawings everyone
I could't resist to this lovely girl


Kaly

Great drawing Kaly. And you have drawn her left ear too, I need to get myself a new monocle

Great job Kaly!
This is my niece at a family pool party.

Thanks Lance , lol you didn't see her ear? haha your were realy lazy that day hahaha. Nobody noticed that, and anyway it's still a wonderfull drawing, I don't think Paulette's niece will be angry about it...

Paulette, thank you, and it's a lovely niece you have there.

Kaly

Hello all you Challenge participants I always enjoy follwing your posts.

Thanks Paulette for hosting this week, but I have some bad news.

PAULETTE I SHRUNK THE KID AND THE DOG!

Sorry about that, maybe some clever artist can get them back to normal size. In any case they don't seem to mind.

A4 160 gsm printer paper. 3B (traded in my 2B) F and 4H.
draw time was around 5 hours.
The challenge was doing the compostition and getting the proportions to be believable.

WOW!!
I think that sums it up~

RJ
Wow that's absoltely lovely, great idea and marvelous drawing
Thanks for that

Kaly

RJ, thats absolutely fantastic!! I love the composition and it is almost believable. Great job and thanks for the chuckle!!!

Excellent work RJ. She needs all the practice she can get, she’s playing in the cup next week!

Wow and double Wow!
Fantastic job on composition and proportions!

Yes I heard the Cup fans are going to go bananas this year, I already see them taking a peak at the competition.

Thanks Paulette for the challenge. Great photos