Hello fellow artists,

Here we meet again in the holly month of December, celebrated world wide by the major religions whether it's a Pilgrimage to Mecca, Hanukkah or Christmas.

Let me bring to you the Romanian holiday spirit, a country with rich folklore and centuries old traditions.

But first the rules for this challenge.

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.

And now my photos.

A season's favorite, nuts.

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and a nut map Click to view attachment

something warm for the northern hemisphere folks

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freshly picked oranges

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an icon from Desesti wooden church , painted in 1780 by Radu Munteanu in Romanian Byzantine style.

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A mask used in Maramures for the Viflaim(Bethlehem) religious play staging in church or in private households the mystery of Nativity and related events.The challenge for you will be the sheep wool from which it is made.

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Meet the artist, Vasile Susca from Sacel, Maramures, folk artist and mask maker in his atelier.

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And today December 6 is Saint Nicholas in the Christian church. Romanians who are Christian Orthodox celebrate this as the first gift giving day of the season.It is believed that Saint Nick(original Santa Claus) brings gifts to children and puts them overnight in their boots or shoes. Have you been good ? Here are the gifts for you...to draw.

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You have plenty of references to choose from. Now the good news.Big discounts on this holiday season. You may draw one nut, one orange, one glove, one gift. But the perspective and cast shadows will add more to your drawing if you draw the whole picture.

A beautiful "lot" of pictures to draw.. You sure did your homework on this challenge .. I see three pictures I like a lot .. Hope I can get them all.. we shall see.. !! Thanks Elena..

Thank you, Carol.And happy drawing.I know you will do something beautiful out of my pics.

10-minute sketch of the 4 nuts in all surface graphite on strathmore pad 9x12 in.

1 1/2 hours approximate.. 9X12 canson drawing paper..#6,#8,and #2.. Eraser and Blender
Could have done better but an Okay resemblance .. Fun !!!!

wow, how nice and just my mask.Good job, Carol.

You know, my husband who is has a mask collection liked this one best from all the masks in the studio, only to find out that this one was made by his 13 year-old son.Of course we bought it and another one from his 9 year old son, both budding artists whom we were happy to encourage and they felt very thrilled with the sale.

Was it a silent auction or something ? How exciting and extra special to find out it was from your the son.. !!

I never have been to Maramures, even if I lived for 39 years in Romania, and in 2007 we decided to travel there for the Unesco monuments gothic wooden churches, unique in the world.We visited the folk artists from the village of Sacel, ceramic, masks, wood carving.So we bought art directly from the artists.

Here is my presentation of this region on virtourist.com, Maramures

One more quick sketch in all surface graphite on strathmore pad 9x12 in., 15 minutes.

Do you get the feeling that we are the only two that are talking on this weeks challenge ?
Where is everyone ?
Must be Christmas shopping?

Mondays are slow, usually.

Hello, ladies!

Anna, your Madonna and child are more beautiful than the original.It is a great study for an oil or tempera. Bravo!
This is also something that i procrastinate doing in oil pastels.Maybe today or tomorrow.

Glad you see you were inspired by old iconography.

It's not done yet, but...

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A bit over an hour. I'm all tired out now.

I really didn't think I could do this one. I was worried, and contemplating trying it with a grid, and all sorts of stuff. Didn't do any of that, and it came out fine. Hoping to spend more time on the background, then shade it in rather than just outlining. (And photograph it in better lighting.) This is giving me a solid idea of just how much work a detailed image can be.

I think you are doing just fine.. I find that these challenges take you to places sometimes out of our Comfort Zone .. Trying to get us to push the pencil a little beyond and sometimes it Humbles the best.. Great job .. Hope to see your finished Draw soon .. but take your time .. It'll be worth it..

Hi Anna .. I love your rendition .. !!!

feonixrift you achieved a very good likeness in the Madonna and child.This is going to be a beautiful rendition.Keep working on it. It is a very good drawing.

Hello!

Thanks for the fotos and this challenge, Elena. We are all here in "Vorweihnachtsstress": Stress before Christmas...

Rafael Marron told me I had to pay attention to perspective, what I agree, so I tried to draw your presents... And here they are, my so sorry presents...

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I understand the perspective theorie but my hand draws always something else!!

Next one will be better!

Hi, meltingpot.Your sketch of the gift boxes is very good, perspective fine only that the two boxes at the right of the screen are rectangular in your drawing and the globe is oval.The rest is excellent.Never mind we are all learning all the time.Keep practicing.
Thanks for joining the challenge.

Close up of the mask maker with a typical Maramures hat on.
30 minutes 2HB pencil on strathmore sketch pad 9x12 in.

thank`s Elena and texaslady I wanted to draw them more alive with some emotions...
I`m happy, that you liked my "rendition" (I also discovered some new words here. it`s nice )
Elena, I liked your mask maker, the way you have drawn shadows


P.S: pardon my english

I'm so glad I refound this website. I wish I had time!! I'm in my Christmas break but I work almost everyday but I really want to do art! I used to draw alot when I was young and I just stopped. I'll wait for the next challenge and hopefully I participate in it. Is there a way I can find old weekly challenges i'd like to see them.

Hi dolphin paradise and welcome to drawspace.

For older challenges look on the general discussion forums page under the title Forum topics.There are several pages and if you scroll down and go back to older pages you will find challenges along the way.

dolphin-paradise, you can do a search (there is a search button at the top and bottom of the page) and put in weekly challenge for past weeks.

Hi everyone !

Great pics for the challenge, Elena. Thanks for posting 'em.

Here's my sketch of the nut map. 15 mins with HB pencil on 6x8 sketch pad.

Very good sketch, Alxolex.
I heard Chupacabra loves nuts.

My first post here and I think my first attempt to draw a portrait I'm pretty pleased with the result even though it took me like 45 - 50 minutes to draw.

Lars, your first portrait is excellent.What you need to have is more black values.Remember that in fine arts, as opposed to illustration, we need to have light, middle and dark tones.The grayscale helps in identifying these tones in a colored picture.Take a look at the greyscale version of the maskmaker and see where the dark tones are.Good luck!
Thanks for joining the challenge.It's great to see people drawing after the deadline.

okay thanks for the pointers and I'll try to make the deadline next time