In the April issues Leisure Painter and The Artist launched the first in a series of six sketching competitions, to run throughout the summer, with challenges set by David Bellamy in Leisure Painter and Adebanji Alade in The Artist.

April's challenge in Leisure Painter was to sketch your neighbourhood with the following advice from David: 'You could work from a café, indoors or out, a park bench, your car or wherever you find an opportunity. Try to include figures if you can, and the bustle of town life. Use your preferred medium, whether watercolour, line and wash, pencil, charcoal, coloured or watercolour pencils, or whatever suits you.

'Attempt a number of sketches – they don’t all have to be finished, as this can suggest a sense of spontaneity – and write down notes on your experiences, such as the light, weather, colours and interesting incidents. Try to engage with people, jotting down any interesting responses. These will enliven your journal/sketchbook'.

If you are logged into PaintersOnline you can see all of the entries to this competition by clicking here. Of these entries David selected Market Square, Stafford by Alan Bickley (see below) as the winning entry.

Alan wins a Caran d’Ache sketching pack worth £50(rrp), comprising 12 water-soluble coloured pencils and a book to illustrate and four graphite pencils with sharpener from Jakar International Ltd.

For The Artist, Adebanji invited readers to sketch children with the following advice: 'As this month's challenge is about sketching children, most of your sketches will be done indoors, so always have your sketchbook handy, ready to pounce on any opportunity that comes up. Wait for moments when they are watching TV, or one of those devices or games that really get their attention, and then sketch!'

From all of the entries (which you can see by clicking here) the judges selected Alex by Janet Scott as the winning entry, with Adebanji also highly recommending entries from Ellen Mooney and Alan Bickley.

Of Janet's winning sketch (see below) Adebanji said: 'I love it because it is very clear the artist has really dedicated herself to the art of observation, Janet tried to capture this little boy, eight to ten times. Each one is full of effort and an attempt to record the little boys features. If Janet continues this way, she will transform into a master sketcher! My only advice is that she should try to use less lines and more observation. It's a great sketchpage and a worthy winner!'.

Janet wins a £50 gift voucher from Great Art.

Our congraulations go to both winning artists.

If you would like to take part in the rest of our summer sketching challenges, please login and visit the competitions page for full details.