I had an idea to create a thread where someone could post a challenge, lets say to draw a certain type of character. You would both be challenged in writing a well thought out description and the artists would have inspiration and a challenge to stoke the creative fires. I think by having people give out a challenge like this it can help artists in an area they may be weak in or if they are uninspired and don't know what to draw or write. For example I am terrible at backgrounds so if the challenge were to draw a forest scene the writer would describe the seen as detailed as possible and perhaps even give a link to a photo to use as reference and then as many artists as wanted to take the challenge could show off how they interpreted the information. I would love to see how this could take off and be a good way for both writers and artists to get out of a block or just improve their skills. I will start with a character description and see what people come up with.

Her name is Nirobe Warren. She is 20 years old. She is five foot seven with a slim but curvy figure and caramel colored skin. She has green eyes with gold flecks in them that seem like they can look right though you. She has an oval shaped face with a pert nose and full lips that seldom smile. She wears loose blue trousers with calf high leather boots with an overturned cuff at the top and lacing up the top. She keeps daggers in the boots and in other places on her person. She wears a sash of bright red under a leather belt that also serves as a holster for the sword on her left hip, a saber, and the flintlock pistol on her right. She wears a flowy white shirt with a form fitting corset on top of it which pushes her large breasts up, showing her cleavage to great advantage. She also wears a long captains overcoat in a deep red color with gold trim and large brass buttons. She wears a large black tricorn hat with a black and blue feather sticking out of it over her long black hair, that she usually keeps tied up to keep it out of her face. All signs of the once innocent yet often misunderstood tom boy of a farm girl are long gone from the now hard visage that still is ever determined to find her family.

There. I hope I have added enough detail to the character and since this is just a character sketch the background is optional. I will draw one as well just so you all don't think that I am doing this just to get a free sketch. This is to challenge myself as well.

Took me a few hours, but one^^ I might colour it at a later date still.

That is awesome. I did mine but forgot the sword and gun. Oh well if I paint it I can add it in later.

Very true^^ Thanks though hun^^ Yours is cute. A bit rough and you need to look at more references, but still awesome concept^^

Some of the challenges here will be more like theme sketches sometimes. I may even switch the time limit to two topics or themes a month. Right now there isn't that much of a following so having to wait a whole month for a new challenge seems silly. Ok, how about I do this, I will give you the choice of three topics or themes and you can choose which one to do and go ahead and post. I think I will just wing it for now and not have a set deadline until we have more people posting, if we get more. Join us and not only improve your skills by practicing but also get inspiration to get yourself out of writers block or just have fun. Here are the three topics-

1-Draw a pose like my character's- it does not have to be a similar character, just the pose.
2- Theme "Death by a School girl"
3- Monster Boss must be inspired by an element.

I like this idea. I've been working on during nature and character poses. It now takes me a long time to draw my art though. I seem to be lacking inspiration. I'll start stalking this topic, and maybe one day post something up. This seems like fun.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Here is my monster boss based on the element of Earth. It isn't great but I thought it looked decently cool.

Alright, sorry it took me so long to post but I finally got it done. I ended up scrapping the original concept idea because it just didn't come out the way I wanted it to look, so that was why there was such a big delay. Anyways, my boss monster picture is a fire elemental. I just shaded the whole thing in with a pencil, but if it were colored the monster itself would be black like charcoal, and the flames around it would be orange and yellow. Maybe one day I'll upload a colored version of it.
I also drew a pic of father Time, so if anyone else wants to see that I'll post it up, or give your take on how you think he should look for the next artist challenge. I hope more people jump in on this idea.

Yeah, me too. I like your fire elemental very interesting. Here is my monster pick again since I moved it and I can't edit the previous post.

I see the evil photobucket icon. They have caused me much pain in the past because I kept running out of bandwidth. And yet I am currently using photobucket to show my fire elemental picture...

Anyways, I like your earth elemental. It looks like a mix of a wilder beast and a... um... evil monster.
I can't think of any animal that has arms like that. XD

Did you hand draw this in ink, or did you use one of those drawing tablet thingys to draw the picture? Or perhaps it was done in a program like photoshop?
At first glance it looks like you used a program, but the more I look at it there are subtle parts that make the picture look hand drawn, like how the hairs intertwine in its tail.

And thank you for the compliment. My fire elemental didn't come out exactly the way I wanted it to, but good enough. :D

Actually I cheated a lot. I found a bunch of pictures online of large animals and there was one of a dinasour type creature with this body type. I used the wacom intuit tablet I have to trace that and then I got a pic of antelope horns and traced those and other parts until I had the effect I wanted. I don't do that too often I usually sketch something and then scan it in and use photoshop for cleaning. As for photobucket I don't know of any other site to even use to get url's and such for posting on sites like this.

Oh I see. I figured you had a tablet but I wasn't sure if that was what you used to draw the pic.
What should be our next artist challenge? Just because I already drew my creeped out Father time, can that be our next theme?
"Creepy Father time" XD
We can do something else if you want. I'm up for anything just because I am bored and it is something fun to do on my free time.

And as far as sites for pictures, I use Flickr. They are with Yahoo so if you have a yahoo email address you automatically have a Flickr account as well. Instead of a bandwidth limit you have a picture limit. So you can store 200 pictures on to a single account before it removes the older photos. It doesn't delete them, you just can't see them unless you either delete photos or buy their advanced service.
Because I have three yahoo email addresses I also have three free flickr accounts... O___O
(600 stored photos!)

But yeah, I like that a lot better because I exceed the bandwidth limit all the time when I use pictures for web designing. I would recommend that you try it out.

As for the next theme I was thinking Time or clocks so run with it. Also people can also choose to do "Death by a school girl." Since it hasn't really been used yet. I know theme sketches usually keep to one theme at a time but since there are so few people and I also want to give people some small choice.

As to flicker verses photobucket I don't mind staying with PB because I never have too much trouble with it. I have been annoyed that the upload button doesn't appear on firefox. Annoying but I get around it.

Alright, the theme is "Death by a school girl" so I decided to do one of those anyways. I've never done a picture before with that theme so I thought it would be fun. I already uploaded my creepy father time picture but I don't know if I want to show it... He is creepy. :(

Anyways, here is the pic.


"Every year over fifty pandas are killed by reckless school girls on bicycles. Please donate $20 now to help save them before it is too late..."

Alright, I can't wait to see what you come up with. Hopefully more people will jump in to join us. ^_^

I want to see that father time picture too no matter how scary it is. I love this one, hilarious. I don't know how long before I can get one up. I have been lacking in inspiration and motivation recently. I will try to do something soon maybe even combine the two themes.

Well, since you asked for it...
I'm not happy with this one, but I guess it doesn't look bad. This was my original boss monster pic, which was why it took so long to post the other one up. I drew out Father time as a final boss, but then decided to do the fire elemental instead. If an ultimate boss had the power to control time, how would you stop it? :O



Anyways, I hope you get some inspiration soon. I'm looking forward to see what you come up with. :D

So cool.
Ok here is the the image.
It was fun doing this. I worked on it a lot more because it tickled my fancy.
Schoolgirl Killing Time (ha ha funny linking of the two themes huh? I am such a goof)

School girl killing time... in a very violent way. Someone should get that knife away from her. XD
Lol I like it, especially the colors and the environment. It has a lot of detail to it. If you still feel like it I'm up for another challenge. Not sure when I can post it up, but I'll try to work on it when I get the time. :D

I will give a couple theme ideas to chose from, pick wichever you like
1-Upside down
2-ocean
3- wonderland
4- multiple personalities

Even though it is kind of cheating I already have a pic I did with an ocean theme so I will go ahead and post that just for fun.

It was for a contest I entered but I didn't win anything. Still I liked how it turned out.

Here's something I drew for Upside Down:

Since for some reason it's not displaying my image, here's the link: http://chriskl.deviantart.com/gallery/? ... s#/d4gbcdd

She is hanging from a pole.
You guys did well, hope to see more from everyone soon. :)