I made myself some motivational stickers to (hopefully) help with the CONSTANT negative self-talk that seems to be an innate part of my creative practice
"He was thinking what a long and wide thing time is, to have so many happenings in it.”
― Russell Hoban, Soonchild
Playing with leftovers of a recent project.
I was skimming through a 1990s Vanity Fair magazine and found a sweater ad. It was a perfect shot to intervene it with doodles! Now it looks like a very Christmas-y sweater, perfect for sitting in your favourite sofa and drinking a cup of hot cocoa.
This study is for an upcoming painting about the life of Christ.
The drawing itself took about two weeks’ time of working on it off and on. The
research stage took about two months. This study is attempting to capture the spirit
of being out on the water, walking with Jesus during a storm on the sea of Galilee. I
hope the viewer can feel Peter’s anxiety as he is sinking into the lake as a fierce storm
drains Peter’s faith in his ability to walk on water through the ability the Lord gave
him. I wanted to show how compassionate Jesus is to quickly crouch down to rescue
Peter from drowning and get him back to the safety of the boat with the rest of the
disciples, which is outside of the illustration.
Some people feel that I should have Jesus’s feet visible above the water so people don’t
get the notion that Jesus is sinking in the water too. But if I’d done that, it would have
altered what it would really look like in the natural world, because even if Jesus’s feet
were on top of the water, this might not be visible to the viewer because the waves in
front of Jesus might block the view of his feet.
This illustration makes me think about trying to accomplish a task that the Lord has
called us to do by depending on our own strength instead of the strength of the Holy
Spirit. Then we find ourselves sinking instead of making headway, and we must call
on the Lord to rescue us and put us back on the right track.
(September 22, 2015
This is a simple watercolor and pen drawing of a witch hazel tree in winter bloom with an owl perched on top. I love the witch hazel shrub and am thinking of creating a picture book showcasing the plant throughout the seasons.
"And I Can't Get It Out of My Head"
Watercolor
I feel like I may be cheating since the song I was inspired by is not so simple, but I'm pleased with the result. To be completely honest, this was the piece I needed right now.
The past week has been interesting for me, I've found myself in a peculiar slump. There's not one thing I'm thinking or worrying about, it's a constant buzz of thoughts streaming through my head. Sometimes I can get the buzzing to quiet down, other times it gets overwhelmingly loud.
I've always found art to be a release, it fills in the blanks when I can't figure out how to make my words work. Lately, it's been more of a challenge than usual, but I think this piece says all I've been wanting to say.
In 2017, I tried the Inktober challenge and failed miserably. I made two drawings, no inking. This one was supposed to illustrate the word "swift" for the first day, but it fit better with the word of the 11th day "run".
Anyway, I really ran that day and I drew that with my sore muscles and my body filled with pain. The doodle in my sketchbook was messy, so I redraw it.
My daughter is loving my weird floppy cats so I drew a colouring page for her although I am thinking I might end drawing a few more and making it into a little book for her. I can't wait to see how she colours this in :)
Putting the painting of the newt aside for now.
It was not going as I hoped (see previous post)...I still have ideas but feel like I need to work on some things before progressing. Thinking it was the eyes, so decided to work on some studies. These creatures do have fascinating eyes!