Happy Friday!

Hey howdy hey everybody! Today I have an illustration taken from a book project that never came together. As the illustrator I would love to blame the author for the project failing, but I'm the author too so that doesn't help at all. Suffice it to say that paying jobs and then stronger story concepts pushed this one aside.

This dancing elephant is a main character, and he appeared in most of the illustrations. Elephants are a favorite subject of mine. There are many animals that I repeatedly draw, which I attribute to my love of Richard Scarry's work. Not that mine are as good as his, but I appreciated his work as a kid, and still do today. Mr. Scarry's characters and environments were perfectly rendered, so as to overload your senses with whimsy. Scarry and Charles M. Schulz had a huge impact my style.

At some point I used the illustration to encourage a friend of mine on a particularly bleak winter afternoon. I hope he can give you a smile, or enhance your Friday mood in some way. This pencil sketch was done with a Pentel .7mm P207 mechanical pencil in a Pentalic Sketchbook on 70lb paper. I hope you enjoyed this post, and that it encouraged you, made you think, or challenged you. God bless you, and have a great day! --Ryan

The Egg Beaters

Hello again everyone, merry Christmas to you all. Today I finished the last complete illustration for a book I have written. The Egg Beaters is a heavily illustrated chapter book about some chickens playing baseball. I got the original idea about 10 years ago when I was hired to create a poster for a friend. The poster was a birthday present for her cousin who loved baseball and chickens. As I drew, and then painted the poster I contemplated the characters, and dreamed up a story for them. That story was the nucleus for The Egg Beaters.

I was very busy at that time as a new dad, and transitioning into a stay at home parent, so I did not sit down and start writing until a year or so later. I did some character drawings to cement the concept in my brain, then set the project aside so I could complete a picture book project The Daydreamer. From time to time I would come back to The Egg Beaters, write another piece of the story, or do some character/location sketches.

With much help from the ladies in my writers group, and much grace from my wife I completed the story and all of the rough drawings two years ago. Then I began the final drawings. Having those drawings to work on over the 2020 summer was truly a blessing. The kids played in the sprinkler and I sat in a lawn chair in the shade and escaped the pandemic one drawing at a time. At over 120 pages and almost 200 illustrations it is easy to see why it took me 2 years to do the final drawings, working in my spare time. Today I finished the last final drawing. I will need to do some fixes, mostly computer work, or adding a character to an existing drawing, but it is pretty much done now. The next step is to combine the word docs into one giant pdf and get it printed, then send those to agents.

This pencil sketch was done with a Pentel .7mm P207 mechanical pencil in a Pentalic Sketchbook on 70lb paper. I hope you enjoyed this post, and that it encouraged you, made you think, or challenged you. God bless, merry Christmas, and have a great day! --Ryan

Sunday Sermon Series August, 2021

Hello again everyone. This week I have an illustration from Pastor Andrew's sermon on Psalm 2:1-12 entitled "Everything in One Thing". Here is a link to the sermon, which I highly recommend: Psalm 2:1-12

Nations raging, and people plotting in vain. boy, does that sound familiar. The world has been messed up since Adam and Eve. Our current world situation is not new. As I listened to the sermon I thought about applying this to myself. I have to admit it is way too easy for me to focus on the problems we are living though in our family, nation, and world, and to become discouraged. It happens more often than I would like. When that discouragement comes the only way that I have found to fight my way out is to turn my focus back to God. God loves us.

God has a plan for each of us. There will be suffering, but God is there with us, we just need to turn to him. I'm not as eloquent with words as Pastor Andrew, you should liten to the sermon to get the scoop. The big take away for me is that tagline: "The closer you are to the Word the harder the world is to see, and vice versa."

This drawing is pretty rough. Even though school is still out I find my free time is still in short supply. I was pretty happy with the Jesus character, but I didn't get the feet right on Cartoon Ryan. I hope you enjoyed this drawing, may God richly bless you my friend.<\p>

More Chickens

Hey howdy hey everybody! Today I have a rough drawing of some chickens done for a book project I am working on. This one is written and illustrated by yours truly. These characters are background, and help set the mood at the big game.

I'll trace these roughs onto 80lbs. paper and do the final drawings this afternoon. I should be done by tomorrow evening.

These drawings are done on tracing paper. I scan and enlarge the thumbnail sketches that I draw in my sketchbook, print them out and trace for the roughs. I try to work out the lighting( shading) and textures in rough drawings. Then I trace again for the final. Tracing paper allows for easy revisions, you can erase and redraw easily as it doesn't effect the tooth like it does on paper.

I really love the tones/values and textures I can get on tracing paper. I think that on the next book project I tackle I might use vellum, as it is similar to tracing paper only heaivier. When you scan tracing paper it is so light it always buckles and shows wrinkles in the light areas. Not so with vellum.

Another difference in this drawing (and with tracing paper and vellum) is that I got very smooth gradations by using a blending stump, which I normally never use. In the background of the yelling fan I used a blending stump. I think it would be fun to do a book using stumps, and vellum. Exciting huh? Yeah, I know. *wink-wink*

As always I hope that you enjoyed this post, and that God will richly bless you this day. --Ryan

Sunday Sermon Series November 15, 2020

Hello folks. Here again we have a drawing I did while listening to a sermon at church. The topic was that Jesus is coming back, and we Christians need to live like we know it, expect, and can't wait for Him to return! You can listen to the sermon that I heard here, I recommend it. Luke 12:35-59 is the scripture we are looking at today.

Here we see Jesus arriving at my house. It is either the middle of the night, or I'm just getting up. Jesus is calling me to come with Him. It is time. I seem surprised don't I? I do. I won't lie to you my friends, I love Jesus, but I have had a hard time this year finding joy. I have struggled, having good days and bad days remembering that I am saved, that God has a plan, God has already won.

So when the pastor spoke about "living in LIGHT of His return" I took notice. The master is coming. Have faith in Him, anything else is fake, temporary at best.

Read Luke 12:57-59. Jesus is coming back. When He does, it will not be peaceful. There will be judgement. The price for sin will be payed. As for me, if that time comes in my lifetime I will be found doing His work.

I almost included this illustration with my previous post, as I felt they worked so well as book end concepts: accepting Jesus in your heart and then living in light of His return. But then I decided that while that is true, most people won't invest the time required to read a post that is long enough to describe both concepts. No need to drive people away.

This pencil sketch was done with a Pentel .7mm P207 mechanical pencil in a Pentalic Sketchbook on 70lb paper. It was scanned and then colorized in PhotoShop. I hope you enjoyed this post, and that it encouraged you, made you think, or challenged you. God bless, and have a great day! --Ryan

Sunday Sermon Series October 14, 2020

Hello folks. Here again we have a drawing I did while listening to a sermon at church. The topic here is that Jesus tells us we have to pick a side. You can listen to the sermon that I heard here, I recommend it. Luke 11:14-35 is the scripture we are looking at today.

The verse I focused on was 23, the second half in particular:

"Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

Jesus draws a line here. He tells us we have to make a choice about Him, and His Father. Admit your need. (I am a sinner) Be willing to turn from your sins. (Repent) Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross and rose from the grave. Through prayer, invite Jesus Christ to control your life through the Holy Spirit.

After that, we are given other commands, but it's really pretty simple. Love God, and love one another." That's it. So simple, and yet so very hard at the same time. I am on this same journey too my friend. I struggle and work at it every single day. I make a few hundred course corrections each day, turning back towards Jesus, away from myself. Praying.

This drawing was done in my Pentalic sketchbook on 70lbs. paper with a Pentel mechanical pencil, then I scanned and painted the color in Photoshop.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope this post encouraged, or challenged you. May God richly bless you. Merry Christmas.

Sunday Sermon Series: Prayer

Hello folks. Here again we have a drawing I did while listening to a sermon at church. The topic was prayer, and here Jesus gives us instructions on how to pray. You can listen to the sermon that I heard here, I recommend it.

First Jesus tells them (after one of his disciples asks Jesus the question how should we pray?) to remember God's position, he's our Father. Praise Him, revere Him.

Then Jesus reminds us to talk with God. Tell Him what is going on, what you are thankful for, what you need, what those around you are going through. Ask for guidance. You have a relationship with your creator, to have a relatioship you have to communicate.

If a friend or family member comes to you and asks a favor you would help. If we the fallen and broken people can do this then how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

Finally, this point really struck me(verse 13): in this passage Jesus (the Son) is telling us how God (the Father) sends the Holy Spirit to us. As a limited capacity human I may never fully understand the Trinity, but the Bible spells it out, it is something worthy to spend my time dwelling on.

For more on prayer I have to send you to my friend Dennis Fuqua. He knows more about prayer than anyone I know. You should check him out here.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope this post encouraged, or challenged you. May God richly bless you.