The story behind this is that when my little sister and I were kids, we invented a game called Blammer. You duct tape small trashcans to your back and try to slam a sock ball into your opponents basket. We used tennis rackets for defense. We used to terrorize our parents with all the running and yelling in the house. We're in our 30's now and try and play when we see each other. I call her Chicken and she calls me Ducky. Which is why we're are riding birds. One of my favorite pieces I've ever done. A birthday present for her.
My only niece's 1st birthday was a few days ago. I decided to start a tradition of drawing her every year for her birthday as special uncle presents. Here is her first one. Her favorite movie right now is Monsters University
A birthday present for my cousin, Alexis. I asked someone what she was into for this. "She likes hello kitty, the utah mountains, sharks, leopard print, and flowers." This one was a challenge to come up with.
My first attempt at a concertina birthday card. While simple to make, it can be a bit fiddly and getting the proportions and placement of objects right for each layer is important so that everything can be seen once the layers are overlapped. It reminds me of printing processes, where each layer is gradually added. It was quite an enjoyable process.
My fiancé's aunt just had a birthday. I asked what she is into for this piece. "She likes Hello Kitty, flamingos, the beach, and volleyball." This is what I came up with.
Water heals and purifies. It also kills and destroys.
Few symbols encompass both the life-giving and death-dealing properties of water as the sacrament of baptism, which represents both the passing of the old self and their rebirth as a new creature (Romans 6:3-11).
Here, the image of death & rebirth is also reinforced by a dragonfly motif; the dragonfly spends the first years of its life in the deep waters as a nymph, and is completely transformed into a new being as it rises to the surface.
Unlike butterflies, a dragonfly undergoes several molting processes after its emergence, showing that, while the creature is already made new, it is not yet perfected, and must grow in its new identity through what is called progressive sanctification.
The work's title refers to the Christian daimyo, Konishi Yukinaga, whose baptismal name is Augustine, and is the primary subject of this image.
Personality and Birthday quizzes helped me out a lot to define his characteristics I wasn't able to flesh out alone. I messed with other brushes and several YouTube tutorials to redo this concept. This isn't the final form he takes, but he looks like this at the story's start.
