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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.

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

Thanks for the rescue, Paulette. Some interesting photos you've chosen!

Hi Paulette
Your dog's got an eye!! Has she been clipped since the coloured pencil workshop? If I've time this week, I'd love to try her. I've decided to give puppy pictures to three friends, so still have to produce them. Great set of pictures.

Love your dog Paulette, he is a beauty !! Looks like he has personality plus.

I had to re-post this one .. Golly it was so huge it ate the page up..
Hope this one is more viewable.. ( is that a word ?)..
Any way Gracie is adorable .. loved that it was very evident that she was playing in the snow..

Hello everyone!

I thank you Paulette, for these fotos and your challenge, very interesting! Is William your son? I'm so new and so bad in portraits drawings... but he has such intensive eyes that I thought, I must try it!

And there we are:

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So, Happy Christmas to you all, I hope you'll all have a wonderful time with your families! And a lot of gifts!!

Cheers

Hi,
Sorry for being missing in action.

No problem Ernest, I hope one piques your interest.

Hi Norma, yes it is amazing what 2 1/2 hours and $60 can do for a girl.LOL
I hope you get time to draw her, I look forward to it.

Hi Nancy, lol, this is Gracie, hard to tell she is a girl with that full beard. She is a great dog and has the sweetest personality. Right now she is still a fully romping, tear around the house puppy. She'll be 2 in March. I hope you will join in!

Hi Texas, definitely viewable! Great job on Gracie. I love how you included the snow.
We got a good snow fall last night, this morning I have to open the door every 5 minutes to let her in and out, that is after a 45min walk!

Hi Meltingpot, I think maybe not so bad at portraits, you did great. Yes this is my son William. He just loves to dig in dirt, he was in seventh heaven going to this farm, he has in his hands a toy digger. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Paulette.. I have to tell you a secret with that snow on Gracies face.. I was at work and didn't have resource to make the appearance of snow on her mouth.. so ,, don't laugh .. I used liquid White Out .. Ha !!

Here's my drawing of Gracie - sorry, I didn't tackle the snow. I used HB and 5B graphite on cartridge paper. Her body where she has been clipped was a challenge with a vengeance. She's a lovely looking dog - is she quite big? She looks huge, but it's hard to judge.

Hi everyone, I am relatively new to Drawspace... been mostly lurking! I have done a few of the drawing challenges but haven't been brave enough to post my work before. I hope this works

Very nice, tannis -- thanks for joining in! Tell us about how you created this image: toned paper, and both black and white pigments, yes?

what do we win if we do dis?

I love it Texas! It worked perfectly!

Norma, you did a wonderful job! We call Gracie the shrimp, of course we are used to Great Danes! She weighs about 80lbs and is not quite mid thigh on me.
I'm 5'4". My uncle who used to raise Bouviers is gaga over her and thinks she is perfect. We just adopted an 8 year old retired breeder from the same kennel. She, Magic, is much bigger. I'll have to get pictures of her and tell her story another time.

Hi Tannis, I am glad you braved up, you have done a wonderful job on the dandelion. You can go back and post in the old challenges as well, we would love to see your other work. I'm with Ernest, how did you do your drawing, I'm guessing you erased to get the white???

Ah Crip, you win the best thing of all, practice time! Then you get to show it off on this thread and we all get to admire it. Also you meet some wonderful people! I hope you will join in.

Paulette, you are right... I basically drew it with my kneaded eraser! I couldn't think of another way to get the fluffiness effect of a dandelion! Thank you for your kind comments...

William, a little too quickly. 6B Woodless pencil, 5"x7".
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I thought I'd have a go at the bike gears. ( Did you notice there was a bent spoke - I fixed it!) It made a change from dogs, as I've been rather preoccupied with them for the past week . I used graphite, but with a touch of red for the jockey wheel. I tried a general background with soft pastel.

Tannis that was a very effective way to do it!

Ernest, well done! I don't know why but when ever I try to draw William he looks like an old man or an older teenager. I really love how you shaped out the face!

Do I hear bike lingo? Are you a biker Norma? You did a great job on a complicated piece. Good fix on the bent spoke! If only you had been around at the time the picture was taken. LOL My son and husband had taken the picture to show the damage that had occurred, it was a brand new bike. Oh well it made a good challenge picture.

Yes, Paulette, I've been a cyclist for a very long long time - not used the bike so much lately, but it's still in the garage and I'll never part with it. I hope your son and husband got the bike fixed OK. It was easier fixing the spoke on paper than in reality.

Yup it is up and running, no thanks to the company that we bought it off of.
My son is heavy into trail riding and hopes to eventually get a much better bike.
Most of his Christmas list centered around building a bike of his own. Unfortunately my $100 budget didn't make even a tiny dent in it.LOL

At least you've got Chrismas presents for the next few years sorted out. My son in law is getting new pedals for his Christmas and my daughter a head torch for trail riding at night! Really glamorous presents!

If they're into it , it's all good!