Hello fellow artists!

My name is Elena and I will be your host for this week drawing challenge.
I am early as my PC has already had 2 crashes and I tried twice to post my challenge and my screen disappeared. Hopefully I will be able to give you my set of photos as i posted them online at my web domain.

So here are the rules:

All levels of drawing are encouraged to participate!

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 endeavours 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.

A baby camel from Jordan, along the Desert Highway to Petra.

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Some fall leaves on a wall in my neighbourhood.
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Also from my borough a fountain with nice leaves reflections and two limes floating on water.

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And la piece de resistance of this challenge, tiger shrimp raw.

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This is a Saladin soldier costume of one of the guards at the Ajlun castle in northern Jordan; in the 12 c they defended the castle against the Crusaders.

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And an extra for those who would like to sketch a perspective. The statue of Ramses II at the Karnak temple at Luxor(Thebes), Egypt.At the site our guide Mansour.

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happy drawing and let's have some awesome work done together.

Elena, you always provide a very good selection to choose from. I look forward to drawing one or more of these. I wonder though, why does the poor baby camel have a chain on its front legs?

Thank you, Mindy. They might run away otherwise as no one supervises them in the desert.

i was wondering the same thing..i thought that seemed kinda mean to chain him up and leave him in the sun like that..my hubby says KAY ITS A CAMEL..IT LIVES IN THE SUN.. silly me..

i have him mostly done though..i thought he was adorable.

I love all the photos, why are those tiger shrimp raw?? They are much better grilled or fried
Those leaves have wonderful colours...hum wonder if I can capture them?!I mean the colours of the leaves not the shrimp

i agree..those shrimp should be fried..MY FAV seafood.

Hey girls, if you are good I might give you some delicious recipes for the shrimp, Cuban, Thai and Indian

The raw look will challenge you to render the tiger effect

here is my camel.. i drew him in pencil in my sketchbook..

i wish i had better lighting in my home. i have those darn energy saving bulbs in every light and they are yellowish, not good ol fashion white light, and every picture with a flash is really bad.

those shrimp have made me hungry..i am now off to the cupboards

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Hey gang,
I have been looking for the time to get involved in the Drawspace community. Fall has us under it's grasp here in Western New York and with that, more time to concentrate on my art. I will be attempting some of these photos. Thanks for the invite! CoachKWL

Hi Kay. Gorgeous camel. Well done my friend.It will look great in color.If you do it in your color charcoals make sure you draw longer legs.The hinder legs are very good but the front also are thinner and longer.

Welcome CoachKWL; I am looking forward to see your art here.

And my first quick attempts at this challenge in graphite.
10 minutes for the camel and 25 for the shrimp.

thanks elena..you know when i was drawing his legs i was thinking, my goodness this animal has rubber legs. they are curved in the oddest places..but yes you are right his legs could use a lil something something ..

welcome to drawspace and the challenge coach it is always nice to meet new faces

your camel is pretty nice too elena. he is an adorable lil guy

nice shrimp too

Thanks Kay, I realized how long his legs are by the lack of space I had on my sketch pad.And also I rode on one of these creatures and I was almost about to fall from it.You could feel the frailty of his legs when you are up there. But otherwise is a strong animal.No doubt about that.

Hi, Elena! I was so unhappy not to be able to contribute to Ernest challenge last week that I want to be the first contributors this time (but after Kay and you, of course, respect!)
An
Here is my young camel. Please, free his legs, no chain!

An you are too funny a very nice quick sketch of the adorable camel. i have been browsing you gallery..your pastels really are amazing. i do not know why these are not in your local gallery as they should be.

Elena, i could not copy these leaves, i could not achieve the colors, but i have done them in the spirit intended i do believe and they were indeed drawn from your photo. i did them in derwent watercolor pencil and thought they were still plenty pretty enough to share.


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Absolutely Kay, these are beautiful leaves, perfect for our autumn season.

Good morning, everyone. My Pc lets me play with you today.
An, very good that you freed up the camel. Only that the chains are for their protection along the Desert Highway.

Kay, Your leaves are awesome. So beautiful autumn colors.

Thank you my firends for joining me.

Kay, your leaves are lovely! I have to practice more on watercolor!
About DS gallery, I didn't even know that such a thing exists! I'll see that tomorrow.

thanks very much. i cant wait to see yours in your pastels..

nice camels Kay, Elena and An, I also like that you took the chain away;)
I like your shrimp Elena, but I still would prefer them grilled
Kay those leaves are very nice.

I'm working on mine right now, hope it comes out OK. hope to post soon

Clara, I am here waiting for you

Ok as promissed here is my atempt on the leaves with water colours...hey I'm trying so be gentle

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Clara this is really nice and good watercolor work. Bravo!

thank you Elena, I tried hard !! I think i am learning a little about water colours.

Look Clara, I guess that our problem is patience. I am too impatient and want to be good very soon, but this is a skill that requires time. You are doing fine for the amount of time you worked with the medium.Working everyday or every other day with a medium can take you a long way in a few months.Every single work you do in a medium is a learning experience and that information is stored in the brain for future times.Just need discipline and steady work and the results will show the progress.

i think it is a very fine first try clara.

isnt there some kind of clear block stuff that the veins are stroked in..then peeled off after the colors are applied? i thought i read about something like that somewhere. if anyone is aware of this product please advise. thanks in advance

"Liquid frisket" is what you're thinking of. You can actually use rubber cement, I've heard, as it peels off nicely. I've never used either, but I've experimented with frisket film, which is a clear plastic adhesive film which you can cut into shapes and serves the same purpose. J.D. Hillberry relies on both liquid frisket and frisket film as part of his mixed-media (charcoal/carbon/graphite) technique.

yes yes..thanks ernest..that is exactly what i am thinking of and shall include some in my next order..thank you very much

Hey Guys, i have not posted for the past two weeks. My creative block has struck again.

But stunning artworks from the guys who have posted.

Elena_Fantastic pics... if i were to draw i think i may give the man a shot.

Have a great week everyone

13Element, thanks for dropping by.You are missed on DS.

Here is a watercolor attempt at the leaves,very different from what i had in mind.

Here's my attempt at the camel. Total time around 1 and 1/2 hours I think, so he's not as detailed as he probably should be. Kay, I took the chain off his legs too and since it's hot out there, I put his feet in water.

Elena thanks for hosting a fun challenge!
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Hi, ncgirl.Thanks for joining in.Your camel is surely cool !

And my graphite portrait, actually an one hour sketch of the guard.
By now you know me, I don't measure and use to draw directly from the screen.It's more fun to see what you can capture just with a casual look at a photo.

This is a half an hour sketch in 2HB graphite.

I've passed through all the pages. You made so wonderful contributions !
As I have somewhat improved my young camel, I wish to post it again.
Also a quick CP of two shrimps, to be fried. Only two, and intentionaly drawn leaner than yours, Elena, because of the problem of cholesterol. My cholesterol is OK, but I take care.
An

nice drawings guys..An you are too funny..

An dear, good for you that you can have only two. My husband is a shrimp addict and if he sees two little guys in the dish he surely fires me.

Elena, I love your watercolor leaves

lovely drawings everyone

I don't care about colestrol when we're talking about shrimps I just love them, in a canibal way

I had to try them too.

20 minutes on A4 printer paper

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My printer/scanner is going for reparation tomorow, so I won't have it for at least 8 days I will not be able to post anything

I will still keep following your posts

Clara, the software won't show bitmap images, so you need to convert it into jpg.

fixed that
I don't know how I did it, usualy all my scaned images come in jpg, this time I must have hit some button by mistake, sorry.

Thank you. I like your shrimp.The only thing you need is some coconut milk, ginger, coriander, curry powder and will have the most delicious Thai soup served in the shell of the coconut.

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thanks

This is my work.
It can't be taken into consideration for the challenge because I work with a graphic tablet, but I tried to use just my drawing skills to do it, without relying on any program feature, I didn't zoom nor change tool while doing it.

I posted a more complete version, refined with some photoshop tools, in my gallery.

Caro Mostro, benvenutto a questa sfida(how is my Italian?!)

Thanks for joining and taking the time to contribute with such a nice drawing. It's really very good.

Hi IlMostro,
Great drawing, it has the appearance of a pen and ink work. Do you do most of your artwork on the tablet? I read a blog posting of a guy who was ranting against his tablet. He wanted to take a hammer to it as he felt it had crimped his creativity and spontaneity. He longed for the times he could just pick up a pencil and put it to paper anywhere, at any time without the constrains of electricity or computers.
Just a question, not meant to be taken as judgmental in any way. I really admire your work.
Regards,
Trish

Benvenuto is without the double t, but your phrasing is awesome
How come you know Italian?

Thanks for the compliments by the way, it was a very nice picture in the first place.

Amico Mostro, io amo Italia, il italiano, gli italiani, tutto italiano.

Mostro, lovely work, I don't think I could do that kind of work using a computer, also I don't have a tablet, just a silly staberd mouse

Elena knows alot of languages;) Spanish, Romanian,English,French and even a little Portuguese and Chinese right Elena?? she is a language enciclopedia but not only...she knows many things, and its a pleasure to learn with her.