No More Tears and Celeste

The After Eden cartoon for this week is a touch up and repost of an old AE from 2004. There are plenty of my old cartoons that I look back on and cringe at the art and this "No More Tears" cartoon is no exception. However, the selection of this cartoon at this time is for more than just the purpose of upgrading the art. This February 14, 2012 will mark the 2 year anniversary of the tragic automobile accident that took the life of Celeste Streutker, the daughter of Kurt & Shari Streurtker. Both Kurt & Shari worked with me at Answers in Genesis for many years. After the accident happened, I produced this After Eden cartoon in memory of Celeste.

This year I wanted to do something too, but a little more subtle. The topic of the promise of Heaven seemed very fitting as we do have that hope with Celeste as she had received Christ as Lord and Savior. I also liked that the girl is sharing the good news of the Gospel with her friend. As I made changes to the art, I did so with Celeste in mind. The girl's hair in the new version is dark like Celeste's hair. And I added a little touch of heavenly light shining on the girl too. Most readers will have no idea of the meaning of these changes, but I do and it'll remind me of Celeste for years to come.

For those that read this, please pray for Kurt & Shari and their daughter Rachele. There are still plenty of tears left for them on this side of Heaven as they grieve for Celeste. Anniversaries like this are never easy. May the God of all comfort hold them close in the days ahead. Praise the Lord for the hope of the day with no more tears.

I get a "FREE" iPod Touch and you get a FREE autographed book!

Since Apple came out with the iPhone, I've wanted one. However, there were (and still are) three things about an iPhone that keep me from getting one. The price of buying one, subscribing to phone service and the small storage capacity. Since they've come out the price has dropped and the storage has increased to 32GBs, but it's still not enough for me to bite the bullet and get one. But the iPod Touch is another story! There's no subscription to any service for the iPod Touch. When it first came out, the price was a bit much for me and the storage was too small too... but that has changed. The storage is up to 64GBs and I know how to get one for FREE... well, almost for free! And I really, really, really want one for things like this:

Artwork

It's now possible to sketch and paint on the iPhone and iPod Touch! Check out this video!

Display Artwork (and family photos too!)

I could also use it to show my artwork to people when I'm away from my computer.

Presentation Remote Control

I am speaking at Lake Ellen Bible Camp this summer. When I speak there, my computer has to stay in the back of the chapel. If I had an iPod Touch, I could have a "screen" of my presentation up front with me. There is an app that turns the iPod touch into a remote control for a presentation in Keynote (the APPLE competition to Powerpoint).

Portable Bible

I've always wanted to have a small device with multiple versions of the Bible on it.

Also, I have an audio Bible, as well as a huge library of sermons and messages, and music.

And that's just a few things I'd like to do IF I had an iPod Touch.

If you'd like to help me get one (it's easy and legit), go to my web site for more info. If you choose to help me, I'll send you an autographed copy of one of the listed books that I've illustrated, and I'll do for FREE!

Thanks for your consideration.

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!