Sunday Sermon Series March 5th, 2017

Hello everyone! Last Sunday I listened to Pastor Dennis Fuqua preach on Jesus' last big prayer(John 17). While the main topic of the sermon was how Jesus prayed, the concept I focused on is visualized in the illustration below. I think a lot of us spend too much time thinking of what we can ask God for (myself included here), and not enough time recognizing God's grace, and God's glory. God's glory is revealed in His creation. What does that have to do with a giraffe you ask? Well, let's see.

We all know giraffes are tall. Did you know that the giraffe's heart is approximately 18 inches long? It has to be huge in order to supply the pressure needed to push blood all the way up that long neck to the giraffe's brain. If that pressure was kept the same for a giraffe who is standing upright as it is for when it bends over (to say drink some water) the giraffe's head would explode.

So God designed the giraffe with a system of blood vessels like sponges and tiny spigots in the arteries which close when the head is lowered to keep the giraffe from suffering from a hemorrhagic aneurysm (yes, I had to look that up to spell it right), or as I call it: Explosive Head Syndrome. Then, when the giraffe stands back up the blood is released back into the system at pressure so that the giraffe doesn't pass out from lack of blood to the brain.

The giraffe is an amazing example of the beauty in God's design, and God's glory is revealed in the creation of the giraffe.

This pencil sketch was done with a Pentel .7mm P207 mechanical pencil in a Pentalic Sketchbook on 70lbs. paper. It was scanned and then colorized in PhotoShop. I use the brushes created by Kyle T. Webster, and highly recommend them. I hope you are encouraged by this post. God bless, and have a great day! --Ryan

Weasels

Howdy folks! Today I have something that I don't usually share with you. Below you will see a short movie (21 seconds long) that is basically a slideshow of rough sketches of weasel characters I've been developing for a book project. The content I share here is usually finished work, and the sketches are very rough. But I wanted to share something different, and something new. So here you go.

I spent a lot of time getting to the weasel design you see here. My favorite depiction of weasels has always been the Disney weasels in "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride", this same design was also used in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?". So I began months and months ago drawing very long nosed, slanty eyed weasels that only looked good in profile. When I drew them straight on or from the front view, they looked hideous. I would like to say that I quickly came up with a solution and drafted it perfectly on my second attempt. However that is not the case. I spent months drawing the other characters, and just alluding to the weasels (in a very rough manner). Then finally I sat down and drew a profile that I liked and that I thought would work in the "front view". Then I used grid paper and tracing paper to exactly transition into the front view. It helped me to make sure I wasn't fudging the position of any of the objects (like the eyes, or the nose, etc.).

The result is what you see here. Again these drawings are not final drawings, and they are only a generic weasel. I'll now need to create all the different weasel characters from this template. The images with the blue on them are potential hair styles for our greasy weasels. I particularly like the handle bar mustachio.

Once I had a few faces roughed in I scanned them and brought them into photoshop where I created the slideshow animation you see here. The original profile and 3/4 view were done in my Pentalic sketchbook (70 lbs. paper) with a 7mm Pentel P207 mechanical pencil.

Anywho... I hope you enjoyed learning a little about my process. As always thank you for stopping by. I hope you are well, God bless and have a great day!

Sunday Sermon Series February, 2017

Hello everyone. I hope you are well. My family and I just returned from a week long vacation in Phoenix, Arizona. The sketch you see here is from the sermon preached at our friend's church Harvest East Valley (harvestev.org). The main verses used were from the Sermon on the Mount, which goes from Matthew 5:1 through 7:29, but he specifically spoke on Matthew 5:1-10.

Losing ourselves to find Jesus was a theme I picked up on. There were many themes the pastor touched on, but this one grabbed me. Dying to self. Such an alien concept to most of our society. I don't see many people on the news these days denying themselves. In Luke 9:23 Jesus says "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Most of the interaction I have on a daily basis is with my family. I find that pretty much every time I have trouble it is because I am forgetting or turning away from this basic Christian truth. Whether it's with my children or my wife. It's something I work on every day.

Also from my notes: "Blessings can be a bi-product of faith, but it is not the target or goal." He seemed to feel that too many people expect blessings all day every day. I have to admit a lot of my prayers (but not all) are asking for blessings(mostly for healing of illness for myself and people I know). The goal is eternity with Christ, and doing what he asks of you while you're here.

The artwork here is pencil on paper, scanned and then colorized in Photoshop. Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have enjoyed this drawing and that you have a great day.