Hello everyone! I have just stepped into the 23rd of May and you are welcome to draw from my photos, if you like.

It is the first weekly drawing challenge that I am the host of, so feel free to give some advice if things don't feel right.

The challenge deal:

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 several 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.

Here are my pictures:

1.Il Gobbo di Rialto or the Hunchback of the Rialto, Venice.
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2. La Pescaria(The Fish Market), Venice.
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3. Southern Greece.
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4. The Easter eggs of a friend, Bulgaria.
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5. Small dancers from India, Heiderabad.
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6. A friend's cat, called Terry, Bulgaria.
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Hi, everbody,
Hi, Sveta, very good photos, thanks !

To all of you : have a nice week !

(I've been in Venise twice !)

Sveta thanks for the great photos.

Very quick off the mark there An, great drawing. He certainly looks very strong. Great shading.

Hi An,
Beautiful drawing!

I envy you for being twice to Venice.
By the way, for anyone who hasn't been there, I'll post a little information about this Hunchback - I'll take it from Wikipedia:
"Il Gobbo di Rialto or the Hunchback of the Rialto is a granite statue of a hunchback found opposite the Church of San Giacomo di Rialto at the end of the Rialto in Venice.

Sculpted by Pietro da Salò in the 16th century, it takes the form of a crouching, naked hunchback supporting a small flight of steps. According to the writings of Stefano Magno it was unveiled on 16 November 1541 and was used as a podium for official proclamations: the statutes of Venice or the names of offenders would be proclaimed by an official standing on the block at the same time as they were read out at Pietra del Bando near Piazza San Marco. It was also used as the finishing point for a punishment for minor misdemeanours; the guilty party would be stripped naked and made to run the gauntlet of citizens lining the streets from Piazza San Marco to the Rialto, saving themselves further humiliation by kissing the statue. By the 19th century, time had taken its toll on the statue and, in 1836, it was restored with funds provided by the civic authorities. The block above the hunchback's head now bears a Latin inscription with the date of the restoration.

It is said to communicate with the Pasquino, one of the talking statues of Rome. From the early 16th century the Pasquino, a statue of a torso, was used as an agent for critical commentaries against the Pope and the authorities: satirical notes would be attached anonymously to the base of the statue purporting to come from the Pasquino himself. Other statues in Rome would be used to fulfill a similar purpose and establish a dialogue. In the 17th century the Pasquino exchanged correspondence with Il Gobbo concerning the Republic of Venice, Pope Paul V and the writings of Cardinals Baronio and Bellarmino.

The characters of Launcelot Gobbo and his father, Old Gobbo, in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice may been inspired by this traditional symbol of the Rialto."

Here is another "Il Gobbo". It may need more work with the light/shadow.

Beautiful job Sveta! I was thinking of giving this one a shot..... we'll see.

Thank you, Chrismh! I hope so much to see more drawings coming in. Here is one of the seashore.

Sweta, thanks for the information on Il Gobbo. Your drawings are very beautiful. I like them both.

Now, waiting for contributions of you all !
Here is a very quick charcoal. Do you recognize the fishes ?

Hi Sveta,

I'm so excited that you are hosting!!!
Absolutely love your drawings so far & the reference photo's are GREAT!!!

I had no chance to get to my PC this weekend to check out the new challenge, but i'm going to try draw tonight.

An - Your contributions are always fantastic i like your fishes very much

An, your fish is absolutely fantastic!

Thanks JacquiP, Chrismh, Sveta, Tania! I continue to post as I have a holiday today. In the week, it will be more difficult to draw. Here is a "dramatized" sky ! Be careful : the horizon at the see is not straight but curve !

i love the cat

Len, your cat came out superb!!! i love the white chest and how you've drawn that. GOOD JOB!!

An very dramatic sky and water. It turned out really well.

Len fantastic job on the cat. Love that fur and the expression.

Wonderful, magnificent cat!

Well theres my crappy first attempt.
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I wouldn't call it crappy - in fact, I like this linear style!

Thanks

Here's my attempt to draw the fish - it needs some more work, but I don't have the patience.

And a very quick sketch.

Wow! Those fish sure came out great, specially how you did it in colour that really made it stand out, you must have more patience then I do cause I couldn't be botherd doing all those fish, bravo!

This also turn out great and specially for a quickie.

Here is my version of the cat. I loved the pictures for this week's challenge!

I like the story of The Hunchback of the Rialto so I just had to give it a try... the drawing didn't scan very well and I couldnt get a real good photo of it either but I'm sending both... the actual drawing has a little more detail an is somewhere between the two.

I wanted to do something with the fish as well, but it was all I could do to get as far as I did with the statue... I'm real slow when it come to drawing.

Thanks for the challenge Sveta.

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This is so stone-like! It is fantastic! Please, do the fish! It would be great! Whenever.

Thank you all for your lovely drawings! Not many but quite good, I think! If somebody wants to contribute a few days later, please feel free to do it!
Here are our drawings:

This started as a quick 20 min. sketch this morning but I ended up playing with it a little more..no descipline here, still a sketch.

Thank you, Nancy! It's a fine sketch!

I couldn't sleep one night and tried that pretty cat sitting in the sunbeams. Unfortunately, it wasn't turning out that great so I started cartooning it, giving it pretty eyelashes and eyebrows.. LOL But here it is anyway, hope it brings a smile to your face. -Mindy

I have been away, I was so glad to see that cat with funny eyelashes! Thanks, Mindy!