Digging in the Sand, and a Doorknob

EDM Challenge #54  Draw someone or something you love.  I love many people, but this is the guy I wanted to draw.  Someone told me that the drawings I do of my son will be more meaningful to me than photographs.  I can already feel that -- I love having photographs (many, many photographs), but there's something about taking the time to draw a person that ever so slightly alters a relationship, in a good way, I think.  I've spent hours--days--gazing at my son's face and hands and feet, but it's not until I see them with my artist's eye that I notice certain tiny things about him.  In college, I drew my roommates a lot (they were so patient and kind!), and so I feel that I know them in a particular way, that I never would have felt if they hadn't sat for me.  I plan on drawing my son many, many more times as he grows up, and I know that it will help me notice tiny changes in him as he matures.  That is an exciting prospect.

I used charcoal because I've been feeling really comfortable with charcoal portraits recently.  At some point I'll need to branch out, but right now, I'm having a really good time!

EDM Challenge #55  Draw a doorknob.   I'm not sure how legible the text on the drawing is, so here's what I wrote:  This doorknob is on the nursery door, and it's the loudest doorknob in the world.  It's so difficult -- you finally finish the bedtime routine, tiptoe away, try to shut the door quietly, and "clatter, thunk!"  It also doesn't help that we have a cat who has a "thing" about closed doors, and he knows just how much noise he can make by hitting the doorknob.
These keyholes always make me think of Alice in Wonderland.

I used gouache.  I was going to put pen on top of it, but I wound up liking it with just paint, so I left it as is!