On the "drawing board" - Nov 16, 2009

It's been way too long since my last posting, so I apologize for taking such a long break.

Here is a peek at part of my latest illustration which is an upgrade to something I did for Ken Ham many years ago. The original/old illustration was done in a hurry and is getting pretty hard to look at as it pops up in the Answers in Genesis speakers talks from time to time.This new version has been produced with quite a lot more time and is a vast improvement, although it's not finished yet.

I'll try to give more sneak peeks at art in the days to come ... if anybody is still checking my blog. :-)

BUSY SUMMER!

This has been a busy Summer! We have traveled and had lots of travelers visit us. From July 5-11 I was the speaker at Lake Ellen Camp near Crystal Falls, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. This is the same camp that I attended as a camper in my younger days and in the mid to late 80's was a cabin counselor for quite a few summers. Then in 2006, I shared my testimony with the Answers in Genesis staff and to my surprise Ken Ham asked if he could post my testimony on his blog. That led to my first speaking at Lake Ellen Camp in 2007. Then, I was again asked to speak this summer for the second time at Lake Ellen Camp. What a blessing it has been to return to a place that meant a great deal to me in my childhood. Hopefully it will mean as much to those that were there this summer.

On the Digital Drawing Board This Week!

There's a special Answers in Genesis/Creation Museum event scheduled for this Thursday at 8PM Eastern US time. That's important to my life because I'm scrambling to finish creating and updating MANY Ken Ham illustrations for this LIVE web cast. So if you want to see what's NEW on my computer, tune in for this event. Here's a little sneak peek at one of the illustrations to make you even more curious!

Watch Me Draw Online ... AGAIN!

Quite a while ago, I wrote about a web site called Sketchcast.com. This site has a tool for recording drawings online and making it possible to email others to see your drawing movie online.

Well, yesterday a coworker of mine made me aware of another art recording web site. This one is called ArtPad on Art.com. Click on the ArtPad link to see some sample drawing and painting movies.

I produced a very quick drawing movie of the cartoon character I drew back in the 80's when I worked at a roller rink in Marquette, Michigan. You can see it here. The cool thing about the ArtPad movies is that an animated brush moves around on the screen and draws the drawing while you watch. Also, there's more tools and colors available which it very nice. It's great fun and it's very easy to email to friends and family. Try it, you'll like it!

I'll post more drawing movies this week, so stay tuned!

The Cintiq Box is RETIRED!

Quite a few postings ago, I shared my story of how, through a friend of mine, the Lord blessed me with the gift of a Cintiq. The only problem with the Cintiq was transporting it back and forth from the office to home and back again. The only way to do that was to use the box it was shipped in which was clumsy at best and the box was falling apart. See here.

That problem was solved when I found an iLugger case listed on Craig's List last month. The seller, Tad, lives in Texas and was willing to work with me on the purchase even though I was not a local buyer. So, long story short, I have a really cool and efficient case for transporting my Cintiq! Again, thank you Lord!

But the story doesn't end there. Tad, the seller, told me that he is in the Army and soon will be going to Iraq as the Public Affairs Officer for the 36th Sustainment Brigade. He'll be there over a year. That year becomes even more difficult that it normally would be because he just got married back in Febuary. He and his new bride will be honeymooning in India in June before he goes to Iraq. WOW!

I would like to invite my blog readers to pray for Tad and his wife during his time in Iraq. Thank you Tad for your sacrifice on behalf of those living in this wonderful and free country. May this upcoming time in Iraq fly by and may your return to your lovely bride be quick and sweet. Oh, and thanks again for the iLugger!

When I Grow Up I Want To Be ...

When I was little, my first profession of choice was veterinarian. I really loved animals, knew a lot about them and had a heart to make the sick ones better. That love for animals eventually began to be expressed as drawings of animals. Somewhere along the way, my love for drawing passed my love for animals and here I am, many years later, drawing for a living instead of operating on animals.

A little over a week ago, my wife had an attack of appendicitis and our little family rushed to the emergency room of a local hospital to make sure that she received swift and proper care. As my 5 year old daughter and I waited in the the waiting room, it occurred to me that I should prepare her for what may need to happen to her mommy. So I grabbed one of her beloved toy puppies (Brownie to be exact) and told her he needed surgery to make him better from a sudden illness. With the help of my lovely little and eager assistant, we then preformed a very detailed and successful operation on Brownie. And a few minutes later, by special request, another operation was preformed on Patches (Brownie's best friend). The play-surgeries were so successful, that for the next 3-4 days, I heard a constant pleading for me to play surgery on stuffed toy animals. The day of Marcia's appendectomy, Hannah and I were at home waiting for news about Marcia's surgery and Hannah created a line of animals in our living room that "needed" surgery. However, they never had the opportunity for surgery because Hannah and I were called to the hospital to see Marcia before she went under the knife herself. Thankfully, her surgery went just as well as Brownie and Patches surgeries.

My return to the veterinarian field has been fun, and hopefully, Hannah's stuffed toy animals will be the only ones in our house that require surgery for quite some time!

Rachel and the Dinosaur

Next month I will be teaching a dinosaur drawing workshop at the Creation Museum. To help promote the event, I Photoshopped together a photo of me and one of my dinosaur drawings. The drawing was one I produced a number of years ago for Answers in Genesis. The photo of me was not taken for purposes of promoting anything. It was taken a couple of summers ago at Lake Ellen camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I spoke there for a week during that summer and a cousin on my wife's side of the family (but also dear friends of mine) named, Rachel Helwig, came to visit me and saw me speak on one of the nights at the camp. The photo happened to work out very well for use with the dinosaur. So, in Photoshop, I preformed a "Rachel-ectomy" and replaced her with a smiley Trex. Sorry Rachel!

I'll be speaking at the same camp again this summer, so, Rachel, please come and visit me again. Maybe this time around I'll remove myself from the photo and have you posing with the dinosaur!

My Debut in an Answers in Genesis DVD!

After years and years of my artwork being featured in Answers in Genesis talks, videos and DVDs, I finally have my chance to shine in one of the newest AiG DVDs by Carl Kerby titled, "Genesis: Today's Answer to Racism". I was in the audience the day that this talk was video taped and I am prominantly shown in one particular shot. Some of the AiG staff previewed this DVD in a morning meeting and ALL burst out laughing when they saw my face appear on screen. Take a look for yourself and see why! It's not how I imagined my first appearance in a DVD would be, but if it helps people understand genetics and the Bible better, OK. :-)

In this section of Carl's talk, he's answering the question of "where did Cain get his wife?" I'd encourage you to buy this DVD to get the answer to that question and to hear the rest of this powerful message. However, if you want the answer to that question NOW, you can find it here.

This video clip is posted here by permission of Answers in Genesis.

"Easter" Cartoons - Part 3

This illustration is another assignment from my art school days. It's one of my favorite concepts from way back then (around 1986) because it takes a shot at Santa and the Easter Bunny all in one image. My view is that both of these holiday characters are the same character. He just morphs according to the time of year to distract as many as he can from the real meaning of each holiday. The art never really was finished all the way and I've wanted to redo it for many years. Some day I'll get around to it. Until then, enjoy!

"Easter" Cartoons - Part 2

As mentioned in my previous post, I would often direct my assignments in art school in a biblical direction. During the critique portion of the class, my classmates would then comment on my assignment and hopefully tell me the message I'd attempted to communicate in it. This sample assignment is one of those "what's wrong with this picture" pieces as it's purposefully unbiblical and my classmates had to tell me why it was that way. It was interesting hearing them explain, in class, the real meaning of Easter.

Click here for the biblical basis for this illustration.

"Easter" cartoons

One of my favorite topics for cartoons is one of the most serious topics of all. That topic is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Starting back in art school, each Easter time I would do at least one illustration that contained some kind of editorial comment on this important Christian holiday. Part of the process of art assignments for art school was to place the piece for a class up on the chalkboard for a critique by the entire class. So the class had to tell me what I was saying with a given piece! Many times they had to tell me the Gospel message!

In the coming days I'll post some of those art school assignments. For today, here's my most recent cartoon comment on the resurrection and what our culture has done to its remembrance.

The March Experiment

And now for something completely different! This was videotaped without a script as you will see. "And now that the month of March is over ..."

Happy Birthday to a FAMOUS Artist!

March 30th is a very important and significant date in the art world for it is the date that we remember the birth of a world famous artist. The works of this immensely talented man have been viewed by millions if not billions of people.

Happy birthday Vincent Van Gogh!

Common Question

One of the most common questions I receive after people learn that I've illustrated a number of children's books is, "I have an idea for a children's book. Could you illustrate my book?". You'd think that this would be the type of question illustrators are looking for, but finding an illustrator is not the required step to getting published many think it is.

So what's an aspiring author to do? Here are a couple excellent web articles on what to do if you have a book idea or manuscript and you're looking for that artist to add the illustrations:

How to Find an Illustrator for Your Picture Book

Picture Book Manuscripts and Illustrations

Guest Artist - Dr. Georgia Purdom

Today we had a surprise birthday party for my wife at our house. Part of the surprise came from the fact that my wife's birthday was 2 weeks ago. The party was late because of schedule conflict, not because I forgot. Some dear friends came to celebrate with us and they contributed to the food and drinks too. Dr. Georgia Purdom made the cake and so she is my featured guest artist for today. Thanks Georgia!