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

Sunday Sermon Series

Last Sunday our sermon was about the story of Ruth. Ruth is a story about how God redeems broken lives, brings light to the darkness.

One of the points Pastor Mike touched on was how Naomi's faith was highly visible to those around her. Naomi's faith made a big impact on her daughters-in-law, both of whom refused to leave her side even though their husbands (her sons) had died. Ruth went so far as to return to Naomi's homeland with her (a land that was a bitter enemy of Ruth's birthplace, Moab), and help provide for Naomi. Picture giving up your life here, moving to Iraq, or Iran for good to help your mother-in-law after your spouse has just died.

Rather than do what was easy or comfortable for herself, Ruth did what was best for Naomi. Ruth had seen something in Naomi that convinced her to do this. She had seen Jesus, she had seen "love one another" worked out day after day in Naomi's words and actions. It led me to think about how hard I try to "love one another", and how much harder I should be trying.

So as I listened to the sermon I drew this sketch. Jesus is seen directing Naomi. She is providing for a man, maybe a homeless man, I don't know, but a person in need. He definitely suffers from cartoony giant feet.

I hope you enjoyed this drawing, and thank you for stopping by.

Lucky Lincoln

I was hired by the band Lucky Lincoln to create the art for their new cd (titled the same as the band name). The job was a dream to work on, lots of fun to draw, a creative concept from the clients to start with, and everyone was happy when the job was finished. Yay! Below is the illustration for the inside of the packaging.