Sunday Sermon Series January 22, 2016

Hello friends,

This sketch reflects pastor Mike's sermon on January 17th, 2016. Jesus said "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12"

Over the years I have sketched many different versions of this concept. I think I revisit this concept (in my daily thought process, and in sketching), so often because I believe I am on a journey with God. Every day I walk on this journey. Sometimes I stumble, sometimes I fall clear down. Not because God has abandoned me, but because I have decided to make my own way, to take a step under my own power, by selfish decisions to some degree or another. And as I fumble around on the dark ground, Jesus is always there to help me back up. I repent my mistake, and I look back to Jesus for guidance. Being a Christian isn't about acting better, or being more holy than anyone else. It is about knowing my place in the world, and where to look to find out what the next step is.

As always, I hope you have enjoyed this image and this post. Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a terrific day, and God bless! --Ryan

Merry Christmas! 2015

Merry Christmas everyone! This year's Christmas animation follows a church choir (albeit a small one at this point) as they journey around a very snowy city sharing their love for Jesus by singing "Joy to the World". In each scene we see Jesus ministering to someone's needs, a homeless veteran, a lonely woman, a sick child. My idea for this animated short was to create what you see here this year, and then spend the next few months embellishing it and repost it next year.

My goal is to add more and more animated characters and objects to fill the scenes. People and animal characters walking through the scenes, more cars and trucks, and definitely more kid characters in the choir singing, and nervous kids frozen with stage fright are just a few of the things I hope to add. I lost some of my production time this year, so there isn't a whole lot animated in this the original version. I guess that just leaves me even more room for improvement. Watch and enjoy!

Be sure and check back in the coming months, I'll post snippets of my progress of adding "more". But you'll have to wait until next Christmas to see the whole animation fully completed. As always thank you for stopping by. God bless you, and have a great day.

Celtic Cross Postcards

Hello friends and neighbors! Over on my Etsy store I am proud to announce I now have sets of postcards featuring some of my Celtic cross drawings from the last year. Aside from being more affordable than the original drawings I sell in my store, these cards are in color! Ooo... Ahhh!

I've enjoyed drawing these crosses over the last year. I also appreciate the Etsy marketplace. They make it possible for an artist like me to operate a small business because they don't take the lion's share of the profit (unlike the self publishing print on demand options available these days).

It was hard to pick which 6 crosses to include in the set. I like them all. It was harder than I expected to get the people around me to help decide. In America I just expect everyone to have an opinion and be willing to share it. Haha... I'm being funny.

If you have any questions leave a comment. I hope you like these cards, and as always I hope you will share the link with anyone who might be interested. Thanks for stopping by, a God bless. --Ry

Darkest Hour

UPDATE:

Hello again, this evening I'm posting the animated gif version of this illustration I created. This animation is meant to illustrate how in Jesus darkest hour, he shined brightest. I don't mean to imply it literally of course, but figuratively. He calls us to let our light shine too, not to hide it, so that others may see it, and give glory to God in Heaven. That doesn't mean you advertise every little thing you do to make yourself look good. It means do good, and give God the glory, do it because you love God. Why we do good things is just as important as doing good things. Attitude is very important to God.

For the animation I painted several frames of white and yellow light, streaks emanating outward, and rings emanating outward. Then I turned them on and off on different frames, and viola! I like the way it came out, and the hand drawn look it has, rather than a processed uniform software look. As always, thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed this piece. Below begins my original post, take care, and God bless!

Good morning everybody. Today's drawing is the latest in my Sunday Sermon Series. This week Pastor Mike talked about the crucifixion. It was a dark hour, but in that darkness Jesus shined.

Jesus prayed for another way, but accepted his father's will. Since the beginning of time he was meant to be the great rescue plan for us, and he did it. For me, and for you. He wants a relationship with me, and with you.

Here are some verses that Mike used: 1 Corinthians 4:6-9 In dark places God reveals His Son in and through us. John 12:23-28 When the hour turns dark stay focused on the goal. John 12:32-36 When our hearts harden we stumble in unbelief. John 13:23-28 Serving those who misunderstand or even betray us. John 13:12-17 Serving with a right heart dispels darkness in my heart.

The text at the bottom of the illustration is something new I learned from the sermon. I had always thought that when Jesus said "It is finished." he just meant that he was dying, that the crucifixion was over. Before this sermon I had never heard about the "Paid in Full" phrase/definition from Jesus' time. It's always important to keep in mind the culture of the times you are reading/studying about. Otherwise you can completely miss an important point. I am so thankful that my debt is paid in full.

As always this drawing was done with pencil in my sketchbook, then I scanned it, and used several layers in PhotoShop to paint the color, and lighting effect. As always I used muted colors, a very ingrained part of my style. This drawing has little detail though, because I wanted to focus on the light in the darkness. None of us like to go through hard times, times that test our faith. But it is in those times that we mature in our faith. Those times show the people around you who Jesus is. Who he can be to them.

I hope you enjoyed this drawing, feel free to leave a comment, or ask me a question. Thank you again for stopping by. Have a great day, and God bless. --Ryan

Celtic Cross Autumn

Good morning everyone,

Here is the latest in my Celtic cross series. This one is a bit more involved, not in the intricate design on the cross itself but in the background, as you can see.

As usual I created this with a pencil and paper. The color is all done by painting on a single color layer in PhotoShop. I originally sketched the concept out last year, and spent a few evenings last week working out. The last time I spent this much time drawing leaves was when I illustrated Jairo Penaranda's book "The Little Leaf" which is available here. Like most people I enjoy fall, the bright colors in the trees. I'm especially enjoying it this year as we had such a hot dry summer here. I'm very thankful for the cooler temperatures, and the rain.

I chose simple colors, and gradations of a single color for each leaf, instead of multiple colors for the leaves. After spending a few days on the drawing I don't have the time to spend making a photo realistic painting (I've never enjoyed that style myself, why not just take a picture, and save the wear and tear on your hand and wrist?). I like to keep it simple too, it appeals to me.

This is a close-up of a portion of the pencil drawing before I colorized it in PhotoShop.

Thank you again for stopping by my blog. I hope that you enjoyed what I have shared with you here, and that you have a terrific day today, God bless. --Ryan

Snowy City Scene Animation

Good morning everyone!

Today I am sharing a rough animation I have created. I created this scene for my annual Christmas card and animation.

First I drew all the buildings and the train in pencil, scanned them, and colorized & knocked them out in PhotoShop. Next I rendered an animation(quicktime movie) of each one, then I took all those quicktime movies into After Effects and rendered each one with snow falling. On each piece of my "set", as they go further back into my scene I added a little camera lens blur, I did all of this to add to the depth of the scene.

I'm really disappointed with the compression on this. It looks SO much better on my computer here at home. Maybe some day I will find the right settings, that will make a clean and clear video that is small enough to upload from my connection here at home. I will try to replace this video at some point with a version that has better compression settings. Also, I'm not sure why but the animation is cropped. I created a 16x9 animation and this is not as wide as it should be. If you want to see it un-cropped go to my Vimeo page and view it there.

Next I will add riders on the train, and people in some of the windows in the apartments. Some of them will be animated, just a little. I'm only one person and I only have until the end of November. This animation was a huge first step though, proving I could create the look I wanted.

One thing that I needed to learn how to do again (because it had been two years since I did it last) was how to create a snow effect in After Effects. I watched this tutorial by Carlo (sorry if I spelled that wrong) on YouTube. The best thing about the internet is people sharing knowledge, helping each other out. His turorial was quick, concise, and he showed and described everything he did. Very helpful. Thank you to Carlo.

I hope you enjoyed this project, I hope to post a couple updates as I work on this over the next couple months. As always feel free to leave a comment, and to share this post with others. I hope you all have a terrific day, and thank you for stopping by.

Monkey Shines

Good morning folks! Today I have an old image, with a new twist. This enthusiastic monkey(in black and white form) originally graced the back side of my self promotional postcards, along with my contact info.

The new twist is that it is now in color. I was posting to FB, and wanted an image to represent my site for a link within the post. So I colorized the drawing and put my web address on it. Unfortunately in a FB post you can't move elements around like a blog post. Images get lumped together in the bottom of your post. And you can't move an image up in a post to go below a specific paragraph. Since I wanted to post another link (to Vimeo) later in the post I couldn't use the finished color monkey in the FB post.

So you get to enjoy it here on the blog! I've always liked this drawing. Playful, good tone values, and it's got a monkey.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this image, and post. I hope your day goes well, where ever you are. God bless, and thank you for stopping by. --Ryan