This one was inspired by a Monarch chrysalis we discovered on the side of the house. If you're not familiar with these, they are little, pre-packaged miracles. I strongly suggest you check out Illustra Media's documentary, "Metamorphosis." I did this from memory, and I wish I hadn't, because it's a little too angular for a monarch caterpillar. Oh well. I love the idea that the Pharisees, who sought to harm this lady in order to attack Christ, inadvertently brought her to the one person who could truly save her. Process video below. I drew this one after a little online brouhaha in which popular speaker John Piper insinuated that people shouldn't be bringing coffee into the sanctuary. To quote, "Can we reassess whether Sunday coffee-sipping in the sanctuary fits? 'Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.' Hebrews 12:28" Regardless of your opinions on coffee, I fixated on his misuse of the word "sanctuary," an error which might also moderate his views on coffee. The inspirational source for this was David Dunlap's book, "Hallowed Be Thy Name." It also inspired this little doodle: This was a little series I did to address some regular charges I hear on social media. It wasn't meant to be provocative so much as just highlight what I feel are misunderstandings or overly simplistic sound bites. Process vid at bottom. I spent quite a bit of time on this one, but it was worth it to illustrate the beautiful Tozer quote. You'll notice that I ended up not using the mop bucket and sign. It didn't fit with the aspect ratio restrictions of social media and made the picture look off-balance. In retrospect, I could have just shrunk it a bit and put it behind the custodian, which would have given more context clues to his employment. The characters of the mother and custodian both came to mind pretty easily, but I struggled to conceptualize a construction worker in a way that didn't require a lot of extra set pieces (like the mop bucket). When I finally thought of a jackhammer, it was one of those, "Oh, duh!" moments. I received a request to illustrate some gospel literature after I posted this, but at this point I just don't have the time or skill-set for it. Maybe next time, Oasis Vegas. Watch the video for a brief timelapse and narration of the drawing process. The quote is from Bob Brown, an elder at Slidell Bible Chapel. Notice the change I made sometime after posting in the second image. I felt like the lamb shouldn't have the grass in front of it, for a couple of reasons. First, it sells the idea that the lamb isn't getting fed. Secondly, it draws the eyes upward to the food being given to the giraffe. It's not a big change, but I think it makes a big difference, even though very few people ever saw the updated version. My wife and I use the Charlotte Mason method for homeschooling. The philosophy of Charlotte Mason, in a nutshell, is to teach students to enjoy learning. Charlotte was also groundbreaking in her treatment of children as whole persons, and this quote shows the foundation of that treatment. You can learn more about Charlotte Mason's rationale here. I struggled with making this drawing much more complicated, but in the end, opted for simplicity. I think I was trying to stretch the metaphor to literal dimensions, which ended up producing some rather surreal ideas. Below is the process and, as a bonus, a time-lapse of the drawing, including coloring. This one started out as pen and marker sketch that I did for Inktober 2019, with the word "tread." I reworked it with Procreate on a 10.2 iPad that was issued to me by my employer. The decision to go all black would have been a lot scarier if I had been using traditional media. I liked the pun on Godzilla because it puts the objection in a more familiar context. I got the idea for this drawing from the following paragraph in Frank Holmes' biography of R. C. Chapman: It is only fair to say of the two other leading figures of those years, Darby and Müller, that they were both holy men, and by no means devoid of love. The position seems to be that each member of this remarkable trio manifested one gift above all others. With Müller it was faith; with Darby it was hope; and with Chapman it was love. Müller’s faith was evident in the Orphan work; Darby’s hope was seen in his expositions of the Second Coming; and Chapman’s love appeared in his quiet ministry of reconciliation. These three men made a huge impression in church history. Müller started an orphanage to show the power of faith-based ministry, eventually providing for more than 10,000 orphans and providing extensive financial support for China Inland Missions, all without asking for a shilling. He became known as "God's Banker." R. C. Chapman provided Agape Leadership to the early brethren movement, and during its moment of crisis, helped hold together a model of church function that would eventually put more missionaries into the field for its size than any Christian denomination. He also mentored and modeled true servant leadership to a generation of believers. He was often called "the Apostle of Love." Darby formalized the early church's pre-millennial views, including the imminent rapture—views which had long fallen out of favor. He is often recognized as the father of Dispensationalism. The picture on the right is an animated gif that shows the process: Pencil sketch, digital trace of pencil sketch, adjustments to traced image which is then printed and inked with traditional brush-pen, scan inks and adjust / cleanup, digital color, textures (hard to see), and color adjustment (toned down the saturation a bit). I started a Robert Cleaver Chapman quote art twitter account. Not sure how long it will last, but it has helped me absorb more of Chapman's works—of which there are few. Chapman destroyed most of his sermon notes and writings before he died, saying that he did not want to dilute the milk of the word with his watery ink. That goes with his humble character, but I think we are the worse for it. Right now I only know of four works related to him: Two biographies and two books. The books are "Choice Sayings" and "The Shepherd and His Ransomed Flock." I think there may be one more, but I'm not sure. Both the books were bootleg - originally published without his consent, but after they began circulating he released edited, more accurate versions. Here are three quote art posters I recently made with Canva, an online graphic design tool. You can click them to see larger versions.
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