Hello, I am Elena, your host for this week, inviting you to show off your skills here and in the gallery by sketching or drawing one or more of these pictures.

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.

Here are my photos.

A Chinese girl in Chinatown in San Francisco.(February 2008)

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A pair of clogs from Asturias, Spain.

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A vase with jasmine from last summer's photos.

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Medusa head, from Dydima, Turkey.(August 2006)

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And a view of a 300 years old pottery workshop in Maramures, Romania that specializes in unglazed pottery. (August 2007)
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Wish you happy drawing!

Hi elena , that is a great challenge
can you post in my last challenge?

those are great choices elena, and you know i am going to start with the shoes they will be the first drawing in my new sulptured book i made with garth in the forum last week..i have dedicated that lil book to my shoe drawings

Hi, Kay. These are from my husband's great great grandparents land, Asturias, Spain. They are just museum pieces now, I believe. In medieval times were used a lot in Europe,( Holland, Belgium,France, Spain, Sweden, Danemak.)
Good luck, I know you will produce an awesome drawing.

ah..thanks for the info on them, i shall include the land of origin in the sketchbook with them, which has now inspired me to dedicate this sketch book to shoes from around the world..not just any ol shoes..

Yes, there is a very interesting article on Clogs in wikipedia, with photos. Those from Asturias are very different from Dutch clogs and you may wish to take a look at a similar pair under Clogs from Cantabria(the region of Spain neighboring Asturias).

25 minutes sketch of the clogs. B and sketch pencils on sketchbook pad 9x12in.

oh no...i woke up to a heck of a mess this morning..something is frozen, or plugged or both..I wont be able to work on my shoe till this p.m

45 minutes sketch of the vase, graphite on sketchbook pad 9x12in.

Clog, clog! How are you all?
Drawn late in the evening and fig taken under lamp light!

very good rendering, An.Thanks for joining in.

a bit off proportions here is my 1 hour 40 minutes portrait of the Chinese girl. cheap CP on Canson mi teintes 8.5x11in. pad white.

wow..your pictures are really huge..guess you dont want us to miss them hunh?

here are my shoes..i didnt time them. I have no idea but i can say it took me a couple of hours anyway

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Excellent drawing, my friend. No wonder your values are so great, your 6 years drawing experience shows.

thanks elena..that was a hard one..the floor lines were difficult and took me several drawings to achieve that simple little problem..i am off now i think to try the statue...great pics..

5x 5 #2 pencil on sketchpad.
40 minutes.
I was tempted to do color but figured it would take more time than I'm willing to invest this week.

Mairsa in 40 minutes you achieved a remarkable ressemblance.Thanks for joining.

A few words about rendering light and shadow. Before starting drawing, take a few minutes to look at the grayscale version of your pic. You will notice the light, medium and dark values, but also the way the light falls on the object.It's very important in this exercize that you do even in 20 minutes of a quick sketch that it should reflect the values and the light and shadow play.
All the pics in this group have a pronounced play of light.The girl in BW should render three values, with the eyes the darkest, the medium for the hair and lips and cheeks on the light side.
The clogs are receiving the light from a window in front of the camera, so the detail on them is in the shadow, plus the cast shadow under the front clog.
The vase with jasmine receives light from the left side of the screen/picture.A couple or more leaves though are very light as opposed to the rest that are as dark as the vase.
Medusa is also interesting in terms of values and so is the pottery with a highlight that you shouldn't miss on the body of the vase.
Learn to use and love the darks, they make your drawing pop off the page and create a beautiful effect on the viewer.
I hope you don't mind my calling of your attention on this aspect of drawing since we are here to learn and what better way than doing it in a challenge.

*EDIT* Managed to unearth my scanner!


Hello! First time I've attempted drawing a portrait! Sorry about the photo quality. HB pencil, A5 pad. About 15 minutes.

Hi, Songsparrow and welcome to DS and to this challenge.It's trully amazing your 15 minutes sketch. I imagine what you can do in one hour or more.Thanks for joining in.

Thank you Elena. It was an interesting exercise. With this encouragement, I may go and buy another pencil...

Yes, Steve, I am waiting for your new drawing/sketch with your new pencil

here is my medusa..and i am off to choose another

sorry for the poor pic..the lighting is bad today

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great job, Kay. Before choosing another one let me give you a suggestion. What do you say of a colored charcoal work on the clogs?I am so curious how it would look in colored charcoal and I don't have it, but I know you have those Derwent pencils.You don't need all the details, just follow the light shadow play.
It's just a suggestion.But since you love drawing shoes i thought you might be tempted by my idea.

i shall give it a try

a super quickie in tinted charcoal..


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wow Kay, a super drawing! They are so beautiful in color. Thank you my friend, you did an excellent job. Now your collection of clogs can be enriched with the pairs from wikipedia, but i promise to take a picture of this pair in a different position and place it in the inspirational gallery.

Here's my version of the China Girl.
I tried to focus on her face, and leave the rest out. Let me know what y'all think! I love feed back.........
Charcoal and Pencil
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Oh, Sarah, this is so beautiful and so true to the picture! What medium did you use?

This is excellent!

I tried to capture the vase in a high contrast form...not sure how I did.
Charcoal and Pencil

Charcoal and Pencil. Sorry, I forgot to add that to the original post.... I will fix. What was I thinking? lol

I found this incredibly difficult to do!This is my second attempt, the first was dreadful! I decided to add some colour so drew this on 140lb Not watercolour paper. I shall add some washes later. Just wanted to see what the drawing looked like posted up.

For it being so difficult, you did a great job so far! I am excited to see what the finished product looks like! I, too, find this one especially difficult, so I have yet to attempt. It will probably be the last one I do. I too will try color. I don't usually work with color, so we will see how it turns out!

Again, your drawings are very good! I look forward to seeing more!

Hi,Excellent drawing!

Greetings

Hi all.. Just been lurking on this weeks Challenge .. I have been busy with the Re Draw of the Coke-Cola truck I did a while back.. Decided to do it again on a larger scale 24X20.. Finding it to be a real time consumer.. I'll try and post a drawing on the next Challenge .. Golly I am so impressed with the new Artists and all the Drawings .. Elena you did so well.. I hope my first Hosting next Challenge will be as successful ..
I'll be around looking til then .. Great Job Everyone !!! Texas

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day !!

Thanks to all the participants so far.
Great vase, Sarah, great pottery shop, Steve.
Real great contributions, my friends. I am proud of you and happy with the inspiration my pics created.

And don't forget to post your art in the gallery too.Kay I couldn't find your charcoal clogs yet in the gallery...
Steve, waiting for your pots in the gallery.

Hi, Carol. Still waiting for you here
love your avatar.

steve that came out really lovely..that is what i am working on learning now..pen/ink/watercolor..i love the looks of this medium and you are so good at it

can you believe i forgot to put them there i shall do it now.. you guys have all of you created nice work here

Hi folks. I know this aspect is delicate and I want to be forgiven for any offense I produce but a couple of drawings here called my attention.
Sarah, you say that you used charcoal and pencil, but to me from the first look at the China girl and then the vase, the image looks digitally manipulated. There is no harm in it and we all like to play with images in many programs for editing pictures. Maybe you liked to enhance your charcoal drawing, maybe I am totally wrong, and my impression is just an impression but look what I obtained in Microsoft picture it, a program that has effects.

This enhancement of the original grayscale was obtained by using the effect: paint: dark Strokes.
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and your drawing
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Now note the shading on the left side of the cheek, the thickness of eyebrows, the shape of the mouth, and the background.

Of course, the programs were different in case we deal with a digital manipulation or enhancement.
I trully apologize if I am wrong and this is not an accusation but just a discovery that you can obtain such similar effects.

I also want to add that i have works in charcoal which i scan or photograph and they look very different when posted in the gallery, and surely they look very much charcoal.

Hi all,

what a fantastic challenge going on here,

I admire all the drawings very much from all the participants,

I regret I have not had much time to participate lately,

I sure miss these challenges, and found time for a quick sketch of the Vase,

Thanks for the challenge dear Elena,


warm regards to all,

Brian.

Brian i adore that..how very sweet that drawing is...

Brain, it's so cool to see your buddy on the branches of my jasmine.Thanks for joining in.And mind you, it's even in color!

If you look at the pictures in windows picture viewer, you'll see that there is some considerable difference. The face in Saras' picture is wider and more full on to the viewer. The nose is quite different as well as the mouth. And the fringe is also markedly different! I have no doubts that this is an original work. Perhaps Sara used an image like the one you have tinkered with to work from?

Look at this.

Steve, there are many programs that do lots of different effects. You can also alter your own drawing or enhance in with a program.It's just possible.I talked to artists outside this site and they agreed that you cannot make a charcoal and pencil drawing looking like ink and wash without altering it digitally.
I still need an answer from Sarah.

Hi Folks,
It has been a long time since I posted to any of the challenges, but here is my attempt at the clogs. I may have a go at some of the others before the week is out. You guys are doing some great work.
Best wishes,
Trish

Thanks to the hostess for the photos and thanks to all the quests for the lovely drawings. I couldn't resist the interesting shoes even though I've had recently hectic and very busy days.
I've taken the pair of shoes as a "nightcap". Medusa, pottery and Chinese girl are also very interesting, but , hopefully, they''ll be my nightcaps for tomorrow... and the day after tomorrow.

Hi, Trish, long time no see , so happy you decided to draw and participate. Nice pair of clogs. I like the way you did the shadows and cast shadows , the play of light, just great. See if you can add them to An's collection.