Daily drawing is an essential to help you grow and learn as an artist. If you draw something daily, you will find over a period of time that your ability to see shapes and translate them onto paper will have dramatically increased. You will draw more quickly and more efficiently and will render what you see much better.

The traditional drawing class uses real objects to draw from, not references. To study an object in front of you shows you a 3 dimensional image whereas in a reference photo it is one dimensional. The benefits to drawing from life are enormous and so rewarding.

This weekly sketching challenge is designed to encourage people to sketch more quickly, to sketch outside and to sketch in public.

Now here is the meat of the thread. This is a list of objects that you may choose to draw from.

You can choose one thing or 10 things.
They must be sketched from life, not imagination or photographs.
You can use any medium that you like.
When you've drawn your image, then post it here.
You have 7 days to draw items from this list.
There will be no commenting on sketches.

Racedolls has kindly provided the list for this week. Thanks!

human eye
curtains (kitchen or living)
keys
sandwich
ceiling fan or floor fan
candle
icicles
snowman
pillow
coffee table or end table
swing (kids or porch)
bench
toaster
coat (could be hanging from something)
ear

Great list Racedolls!
These are things I have not tried. As usual it's the week-end, so I will take the list and my sketch book to my cousins. I love this sketching from life thing..

nice list Lori

Great list! I'll try to sketch some things throughout the week, but I'm going to be really busy.

Here is my eye and set of keys lol .....they were fun to draw i really like this thread .. makes you draw things you normaly would not

Great keys and eye Kim. The simplest things make the most interesting drawings sometimes.

Great minds think alike.. I also tried the keys and an eye.

thanks everyone
wow kim great job. and you too cyn. your eyes are awesome.
Lori

I have some keys but not an eye right now. This was done with Radiograph pen on 8 x 5 Canson sketchbook. I'll try to get some more sketching in this week I hope.

Good sketching Cyn. I love how keys always look so abstract.

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Lovely work everyone... I'm really in awe of all of you!

It was a busy day today so really not much time to draw but I took little breaks to do some tiny sketches for this thread. These are firsts for me... in that it was the first time I drew anything while holding the sketchbook in my hand (rather than placing it on my desk). Also I used nothing else apart from pencil and paper - no rulers to measure or any other aid. I know that may not be a big deal for you all but it is for me.

So - I put them all together in one file :

- my grandnson's ear while he was doing his homework. (He did co-operate but when we finished it was as if he was about to die of stiff neck!! )

- my coffee table - I know there's something wrong with the perspective but as I said I just eyeballed everything.... and I'm ever so proud of my straight lines!!

- pillow... it's supposed to be satiny but that didn't come through!

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Those look really good, Rose. I tried to get my cousin to hold still and all of a sudden she got ear shy. I'm impressed with your ear. They are hard and there are no 2 alike.

Lori your Keys are nicely done .
Jeanette I also like your keys .. I went for the spare set ..only one key on the ring lol ,
Cyn ... great minds do think alike .. like your keys and eye
here is my husbands ear ....and the kitchen curtain .

rose you did very well with the sketches--i love the ear
same for you kim-- i love the ear, i havent tried the ear yet but i plan too because i need the practice. i think ears are hard to do. and you curtains look so good, the shear look is awesome.
Lori

Thanks lori ears are not as hard for me as long as i do not have to inclusde the whole profile now thats hard . and thank you for your good words .

well finally got to do some sketches--my son's ear, sisters eye and my car keys.
everyone is doing great with these.
Lori

Lori you draw a very good ear! Well done.

Here are my very tired eye and my car keys - I keep the broken one for good luck!

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Hi Everyone....

Great sketching so far -- congrats!! I had an extra hour today, so I hung up my jacket and got goin' and here's what happened.

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Cheers.....Maire

Lori your sketches are great I love the ear .. very real .
Rose your keys are awsome ... question is that a mug of beer on the keychain lol ?.
Marie very nice job on the shirt ... you always are consistant with your art .

thanks everyone
rose love those sketches, there great
maire love that coat and hanger!! great job
Lori

Yes it is Kim - and I don't even drink beer! ... it's made of a solid metal though.

Actually I wished to write something about how complicated it was for me to draw my eye. I am long sighted and don't normally wear glasses but I do need glasses to do anything closer up. I have three different strengths of specs - one for the computer, one for reading print and now I had to get some even stronger ones for drawing. You will probably have a good belly laugh if you saw me sketching from a reference on my computer monitor -- I wear my strongest glasses and then balance the computer pair on top of that! So drawing my eye looking at the mirror was a fine balancing act... particularly since I wanted to show the eye without the glasses!!! ... ok, better stop here - this is getting too complicated!

Lovely job on the shirt Maire.

I do not have perfect eyes myself ....and I know how it is to struggle .. i have a bad right hand ...my thumb has had two surgeries so sometimes just holding a pencil hurts ....but look what we can still do even with our imperfections...

I know the list said, "keys" but I wimped out and only drew one key from my set.

and a great one key it is lol ...better to do good on one them rush through two or three .

darus great key, i cant wait to see more drawings. you did a great job
Lori

Thats kinda why I only did one.

It took me about half an hour to do that one, it would have taken me all night long to do my entire keyring.

Thanks for your encouraging comments, Kim & Lori



MMMmmm.... Beer...
<*drool*>