Precious In His Sight

and just pencil, before ink and color, funny how color changes it!...she's looking in a different direction!

I was looking at a GORGEOUS little girl's picture on the internet.... so that big clump of loops on the left side of her head are peddles of some kind of silk flowers...you couldn't make out an actual flower, just big loopy looking peddles.  I didn't want to color them so its hard to know what they are here.

OH! and no, it doesn't look like her, I wish.

What I Did:

1. Drew it with pencil
2. Scanned and Printed
3. Colored the printed version. I used markers to color the lips and eyes, and a sharpie for some of the drawn lines. 
4. Scanned the colored version
5. Opened the colored version in PSE and used the eye dropper to get the color of the lips and eyes to make a background.  
6. I used my favorite "watercolor" brush and just "splatted" it with two of the colors.
7. Added text  

Done. 

2 Corinthians 7:1

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

Not sure if you can read the words on the "land"
Sexual Immorality
Judging
Murder
Pride
Cheating
Lying
Excess
Idol Worship.... 
just to list a few....


I wanted all the washer thingies hanging over head to have scripture but it was already REALLY busy and you couldn't have read it anyway so just imagine that the Bible on top is doing the "washing".

Romans 14: 8

 ⁸ If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 

OK, I can not tell a lie, this one stumped me!  Today's scripture was just the one verse, but I didn't understand it on its own so I read the whole chapter and that really didn't help!  I actually understood the surrounding verses much better and pretty much showed that in the drawing.  We are each on different levels of faith...one person believes one thing while another doesn't... God will judge us each on the level of faith we have...but it isn't our job to do the judging!... That's basically what the whole chapter is about, but verse 8 which is right in the middle still confuses me... Hummmm...????  Gotta pray longer on this one!


I created it using both the PC and by hand.  I drew the cross and FAITH, scanned that and printed, then colored faith and brought it back and scanned that.  I wish I would have colored the cross but I didn't so I decided to do it on the PC... and also did all the text and borders with the PC.

Revelation 3:14,20

Ephesians 2:10

We were created to do good works!  I drew it like the road of God's plan for us... with walls and doors.... Of course the distance is really too far to see the wall and door ahead.  Most people think they will continue doing the same thing until they die... But then they hit a wall or a "suddenly" that changes life as we then know it.  It can be a retirement buyout offer that no one would ever expect, or a loved one dying, or a fire that destroys everything.  Whatever... Something will happen to give us a new opportunity to "do good works" in another place...one that was prepared JUST FOR US!

Luke 12:6-7

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Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

I LOVE any verse that compares us to birds!!!  I KNOW he watches over them and takes care of them all...I just really like the reminder!


I was actually up after midnight so I was able to go to Biblegateway and see today's scripture.  I was so excited about it that I had it drawn before I went to sleep.  I LOVE this scripture!


It seems I really need to learn to do hands because I use them A LOT... I noticed one day that in the old testament almost all mention of God doing something it was say something like "by God's hand"...  Lots of mention of God's hand in the Bible! 

Psalm 149:4

“For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.” Psalm 149:4

Psalm 119:114

“You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.” Psalm 119:114 NIV

I had a couple of  ideas today... but I decided rather that show it "literally" I would show it as the prayer of worship it is, recognizing and thanking God for His protection and hope.

John 1:12-13

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  (John 1:12-13)

Today I decided that I wanted to do everything sitting here at my computer...while I go to church online (I listen better when my hands are busy)... I picked up a piece of card-stock and pencil, prayed about the scripture and within seconds began to draw.  Went over the drawing with a Thin Sharpie, erased pencil ... Done!

It wasn't until I went to scan it that I realized I had used a piece that had something printed on the back! WHOOPS!

About the picture:

• I put the words "Child of God" on each person's forehead because in II Corinthians 1:22 and Ephesians 1:13 it says that when we accept Jesus we are sealed.  I LOVE THAT!!!  Satan can't put his number seal on our forehead because we already have something there!! WHOOHOO!!! (thing is, I'm guessing the location, it doesn't really say where we are sealed)
• I show Jesus sitting at a table inside each heart to show that He knocked, and they opened their hearts to him and he took up residence in their hearts....in the form of the Holy Spirit of course, because we all know Jesus is sitting on the edge of his throne at the right hand of God ...ready to jump up at any moment to COME GET US!!!  YES!!!  I can just see him...looking at his watch and at God saying ... "Can I go now?!  Isn't it time?  I'm ready!"  Okay, he isn't really looking at his watch but he is getting excited I bet!

Now, I'll probably go downstairs and color it, cause you know I love to color :-)

Later today... 1st I tried watercolor ... way too muted, then I added marker especially to the large heart to make it darker.  I first colored the inside of the heart a darker red and thought. THAT'S NOT RIGHT!  Gotta glow...so I scanned and changed it to yellow and made some other minor changes to the black guys face...I know, it doesn't look good... but I couldn't control my mouse well enough to do a better job.  And then I cropped some of the heart...I just like things going off the page better sometimes.

Psalms 119:93

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“I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.” Psalm 119:93 NIV

Why this picture today?

Last night I got the idea to challenge myself, and anyone wanting to play, to do something artistic with the "Verse A Day" that Biblegateway sends out everyday. If you look at the top of this screen you will see the Verse-A-Day button...click there and see the details.  The challenge doesn't start until August 1st but I wanted to start today to have some examples and just to see if it was even do-able!


What does it mean?
Again the scripture is:
“I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.”Psalm 119:93 NIV
I wanted to show

• the "fork in the road" where we all have to choose, life or death, belief or unbelief...
• the Bible on the sign is the precepts with the "Life" to the left arrow and "Death" to the right...it is there for us to keep us from certain death.
• the "road" to the left is the road less traveled, the narrow road ... and I drew it close to the edge of the page because I wanted to show that we really can't see what is next...we have to depend on God for our every step. I didn't do a very good job showing it but the road is rough (gravel maybe) with stones on either side showing that it is a direction that isn't attractive to "the world".
• the road to the right is wider and the scenery is more beautiful with flowers and trees (ok, so use your imagination!)...but what the traveler can't see is the cliff he will drive off of going that direction...in the direction where he/she is their own god...they don't "need or want" ANYONE telling them what to do, "if it feels good, do it" is their motto.
• the text below is the definition of "precepts" (I had to look it up...I knew what it was, because everyone knows about Kay Arthur's Precept Training...  but it isn't a word you hear every day and I wanted to be certain and to put the definition on my page)

That's it!  YAY! I was able to do something!

Flower Girl Collage

I was out surfing the web this morning and saw a collage done that I just loved; ((HERE).  Donna Downey had taken a piece of flower patterned cardstock and cut the flowers out and pasted them onto her journal page.  I LOVED IT!  So, I decided I would give it a try..but you will see that I OBVIOUSLY looked at her's once and not again, because mine is TOTALLY different!  I like her's much better, but, mine is ok too.  This is my original (again, the scan is HORRIBLE!  All of the background colors should be a pale yellow!  there is ZERO orange in the background of  the original!  And I don't know how to fix it!  I guess I really need to take pictures instead of scanning.  ARGH!!!

If you looked at her's you will see that the proportions are completely different...  She started out with a smaller journal and the original 12x12 card-stock.... Mine is bigger and just a copy of the card stock.  I decided that since I just wanted to see what I could do with the idea  I cheated and made the copy... When I make it again I want the REAL piece of card stock!  This was done in a quickie, cheap card stock spiral bound "prototype" book that I made for testing ideas.. I do that a lot, if I like it then I will re-do it on  in a good journal.  As it turns out, it is probably one of the favorite things I've done and now its on a throw away journal! SHOOT!

However, I'm sure you've noticed that I liked her well enough to add her to my header!...the wonders of cropping!

THE REST OF THE STORY....

I have had a clock that I wanted to do something with for a while so here ya go...

The Book of James

You can probably tell by now that I REALLY want to do a journal... but I REALLY don't have anything to say!  I have tried my whole life to write in a diary/journal and get about a week into it and think "WHY?!"  Don't like that much "self focus"!!

I was thinking about all of the above last week and I was reminded "to seek ye first, the kingdom of God"... I don't do that very well either! Sure, I seek (some) but certainly not FIRST.  OUCH!  So, I decided then and there to make an art journal of books of the Bible.  I ordered new pads of paper to do it and they came in today... so, here is my first...James, Chapter 1.

I not really certain why I started with James...except it probably is one of my favorites.  It is the "meat" of how to live a life of righteousness...and I tend to camp there a lot.

I just started, one verse at a time and hoped I would have enough room to get through the chapter!  It was close...I may have done some things a little different with more room...but that's okay...I accomplished what I set out to accomplish....1 chapter, 1 page.  I wonder if anyone else can "read" it.  HA!  The good news is, I can... and it is forcing me to THINK about each verse.  MUCH needed discipline!

AND, I had FUN!

Added 7/20/2011

I finished all of James last night...

One thing I did that I would recommend if you want to try something like this...
I printed each chapter out and tape it to the back of the previous page so that I could take my pad and pencil with me everywhere and draw when I could.  I drew the horse and boat while sitting in my car waiting for a friend I was picking up at the airport.... no wasted time.

Lessons learned:

1. - Read the whole chapter first, not just one verse at a time.
2. - I used ZERO visual references, it was all from my head....soooooo, there are things that really aren't great representations of what they are.... Like chapter 3:4.... the thing in the water is SUPPOSE to be a rudder... a friend let me know quick, that is not what a rudder looks like...  oops... well, its a rudder to me...
3. - Every chapter was a little different... For chapter 3 I tried to incorporate the verse number into the drawing...so I can now look at it and know exactly what verse it represents...I like that...but I gave up on that by chapter 4... In chapter four there were main "word" ideas ... and by chapter 5 I was drawing stuff I never dreamed I could!  Hummmm....He does indeed "fill in the ability gap"!!!
4. - I now know why I started with James... first, James was a very visual writer!  Almost every verse could be drawn... second, I NEEDED to know what it said!
5. - I am AMAZED at how much I can remember of James now, and what I learned while meditating on it one verse at a time.  I came away saying...WOW!  I'm not "there" yet...gotta WATCH WHAT I SAY!!!
6. - The last couple of days I have been tempted to spend on things I don't need...but really want...and my little picture of the girl praying for $ with wrong motives, and the self-indulgent fat man pops in my brain... NOPE not gonna give way to temptation!

This was an amazing exercise!  I totally recommend that you give it a try.  No excuses!  I started saying "but I can't draw"...I really wish I could make you understand how much I don't believe I can draw....and so I don't.    Okay, I'm pretty good at Pictionary,but that's about it.  You may not have noticed, but by the last chapter, my drawing, and ideas got better... I never looked at anything for reference, I just sat on my sofa and drew ... THAT is a perfect example of God filling in the gaps ...where we are weak He takes over! 

Need I Say More

First Letter Ideas

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And, this afternoon I played with some letters...just trying to get a good Uppercase letter...here is what I came up with... different options and of course I can change the "filler" for each depending on what I'm doing because I like some better than others.

Today I Made a Yarn Stash Book

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HUH? What's that you say? Well, I have a friend that knits and yesterday was her birthday soooooo, I decided to make her a book she can track all her yarn in. (no, I'm not worried she will see this, she too busy knitting!)

Outside:

The guy on the bottom is thinking ... "I knew the new guy wasn't gonna fit!"

Inside pages: 

And I found this idea on Pinterest.com.  I thought I could put different colored solid ribbons so she could quickly find the "Reds" or "Yellows" etc.

Speaking of Pinterest.com.  OH MY GOSH!!!  I have found a whole new world!!!  I've known about it for a while but only just last week started using it.  OH MERCY!!!  I have found one of my "happy places!" And I'm having a hard time not just living there!  Come follow me there... click the link below and see what I have pinned already:

On Assignment

I have wanted to be able to draw a MALE angel forever! ... because  they are almost never drawn as males and I think they all are... (no mention of female angels anywhere in the Bible...they are all KICK BUTT POWERFUL MEN!)

Anyway, today I did!  This is actually my first ever man of any kind.  I watched a guy on YouTube...Sycra do a "how to" drawing. (you can learn most anything on YouTube!)

And then I worked my PSE magic on it (because when I scanned it I noticed how off his left nostril and eye are)   and got this:  if you notice, the right and left sides are almost identical... I copied the right side and flipped it to make the left ... I erased some things but not all...you can see it mostly in the hair.

And then I tried coloring him.... hummm...not lovin' it anyway but then the scanner made it even worse!!!

Below is a really lousy version of him colored in. (he looks completely different >:-/   shoot!

OK!  If you have any suggestions on how to get a better scan PLEASE tell me!!!  The colors are NOTHING like the actual drawing! This is WAY TOO PINK!  OH WELL!  It was good practice using the Pan Pastels anyway....even if a lot of the shading is lost in the scan.  ARGH!!!

Psalm 91:11-12:

 For he will command his angels concerning you

   to guard you in all your ways;  they will lift you up
in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot
against a stone. 

OH!  One more thing!  I just signed up for a free Online class for PSElements by Kim Klassen.  I'm not too sure what she is teaching but its FREE!  Check it out.

Taking Advantage of Technology

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Hi All!  I have been off line all week actually DOing!  I have mentioned wanting to draw in several posts lately and this week I did just that.  Unfortunately, nothing is at that "I'm DONE! Finished" place... everything is a piece of something or "I just want to do one more thing to it" stage.  And as I was trying to go to sleep I realized that if I don't post something it could be months before I "finish" something!  Not good.


That, and I really do want to document the process...so tonight I start the documenting of the process.


Here are some of the things I did this week:


This is the scan of the original pencil drawing I did with a regular pencil on cardstock

I liked her, but I needed to add color, and I wanted to do several versions of her to see what I like best, then I'll redraw an original drawing of the one (or more) that I like best ....  SO, I scanned her, whited out the eyes (because the scan was TERRIBLE and the eyes were just black dots ...look at it again...UGH!  So, I white out the eyes and print 4 of her on a piece of cardstock.

And here ya go... her done three different ways:

I'm still not done, I think I like the green one with the word "Why" ... doesn't it look like that's what she thinking?  And there could be many reasons she is asking "Why?" ... "Why did I get cancer?"  "Why did he leave me?"  Whatever... it is just a sad "Why?"

but I moved on to other drawings...I'll get back to her....

Again, here ya go...a TERRIBLE scan (gotta learn what I'm doing wrong!):

modified for printing:

and with some color added:

I will add more color later...She's not there yet... I do like her like this but I want to see what she will look like in full color.

I did these two with a plan to add words ... once I get happy with them.  They are my two little "Bee" attitudes.  I actually did them separately then used PSE to overlap them (that's how I was able to do the transparent wings on the front one).  I practiced with both having black faces and both with yellow... I'm liking the mix of the two.

And then Thursday I got my Pan Pastels!!!  OH MY GOSH!!!  I AM IN LOVE!!!  I also got a little 3.5 x 5 watercolor pad so I decided to just jump right in and not worry about messing up, just go for it!  


Here is what I have done so far:

quick watercolor flower...the border is the PPastels!  AMAZING STUFF... you put it on with a makeup sponge (or the thing that looks like a makeup sponge)  swish/ swish and you are done!!!

 And here I was messing with color combinations and possible future borders ... and, I wondered if I could draw AFTER I put the Pan Pastels down...yes... I colored the stripe first then did the flowers on the right side of the page:

And just another watercolor with the borders done with PP

I did the two watercolors after I saw a class being offered by Martha Lever .  I wanted to see if I could do them without the class.  It costs $30 so I am still debating.... tools or class??? or GAS for that matter!  OH MY GOSH!  When will it stop going up?!

Anyway, THAT's where I have been this week!  I have been coloring :-)  I did do some other stuff but it is downstairs in another book... I'll show you that later.

OH!  And welcome to my new followers!  I got a few this week.  I OWE you your "gift"... I know.... I actually did one this afternoon and my computer CRASHED just as I was exporting the file and I lost every bit of work....so, I did what comes naturally and said.... SHOOOOOT!  I'm going to get something to eat! ..... and I did.

WordArt

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I went to Dick Blick Wednesday and bought myself all kinds of colors!  Lots of watercolor pencils (LOVE) and several Copics (OUCH!!!)  I have resisted them this long and finally gave in and got some.  I have to admit I do love the "paintbrush" tip... but OUCH!!!

Since then, I have been playing.... here are a few things that I did from scratch...my very own self.