B/W Rendering

I wanted to practice black and white rendering on the computer. The sketch took about 1/2 hour. The redrawing and filling with 50% gray took about an hour. And the dodge and burn took about an hour. That totals a little over 2-1/2 hours. The original intent was a 4x2" comic panel. I think the biggest time consumer is the redrawing. This has given me even more incentive geta drawing tablet (or whatever the hell they're actually called). Then,...

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Blues Traveller...Here?

Yes, you heard right. Blues Traveller will be in Peru, IL at Lou's LaGrotto Pizza House on August 6th. It's there 30th anniversary and they want to celebrate big. Tickets are $5 (which goes to charity, but I can't remember which one).Who'd have thought that anyone that big would come to this ar...

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Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm officially 36 years of age. Yes, boys and girls, that means that I am now closer to 40 than 30. Not that I feel it or demonstrate it in my behavior, mind you.So, "How did your birthday go?" you may be wondering.Well, I'm glad you asked. It was an emotional roller coaster. At the church, we had a congregational meeting to discuss the future of the church. (Unfortunatly, this was the only day we had available to...

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Sweet Stick People

A friend of mine sent me this. I was tremendously amused.I've scanned in my pic that I drew at the Gorilla Art Thing. I'm not posting it here though. To see it, you have to go to the forums and check out the "Visuals." We have another user on the forums, who is way out of the area. I think we need a e-mailing list so we can send out invites. I'm thinking send out a few, and have those few send out to those they think might be interested, and so on. That's going to have to be the way this thing picks up: word of mou...

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Boomer: W.I.P. #1

Title: Boomer: W.I.P. #1In case you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of the new Battlestar Galactica series. I decided to practice my drawing skills on a bit of fan art. I saw someone do a few "work in progress" series. It was great getting to see how the artist's picture developed. So, I thought I'd do the same.Time investment so far: 2 hrs. As you can see, I'm not very far into it. The final will be about twice as ta...

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Sunday

Sunday was an emotionally confusing day for me. The first part was really hard: my last Sunday in th pulpit in Ladd. On Wednesday (my birthday nonetheless) we will have a congregational meeting to determine the direction of the small country church. The options are severely limited. Thursday is my last day here. Then...who knows. Maybe I will have a minor part time position in a church with pizza delivery on the side until I can get something. Maybe I will do only pizza delivery. We'll see.On the bright side, after a nap I went up to the...

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"Gorilla" or "Guerilla"?

Last night I spent a bit of time putting together forums for the Gorilla Art Thing. Sure, I know that it's supposed to be "guerilla," but I was putting them together and liked "gorilla" at that moment. Ergo, the name.Why? Well, I was looking at different free forums sites and wanted to put something together, but didn't know what to go with. Then I thought that they would really help with the gorilla gig. It really didn't take very long. They have several skins to chose from. After picking a few (and yes, members have a choice of which one...

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We Were Outside

Tonight, we had our Historical Jesus DVD Discussion Group meeting at the Common Grounds BookCafe in Utica (they are no longer in LaSalle). We decided to take the TV outside and watched it in the garden area. That was awesome. It was a great discussion, too. Admittedly it was more geared toward "spirituality" than "historical Jesus," but great nonetheless.Okay all, don't forget...Poster by InvaderTimNext Sunday, outside the Octane in Rockford,...

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Moving Down the Page

When I put together "Daddy's Home" I had a page layout in mind. I'm continuing with it. This leaves only two more panels to go. One is already sketched. The other, which is more complicated, is still blank.Since I'm keeping track of time...The sketch of the remaining panels (minus the one yet to be done) is 1 hour. Each of these panel colorings took short of 2 hours each. That means the 6 (for the first pic) +1 (for the sketch) +4 (for the...

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Going Ape at the Guerilla Art Gig

Title: "Daddy's Home"Sunday evening was the Guerilla Art Gig (G.A.G.) in Rockford, IL. I already knew InvaderTim and "ssg". New to me were Jesus (the one who called us all together), Marika, and Brandon. We did more talking than anything. InvaderTim should have the podcast up soon enough. (I hope I didn't say anything too embarassing.) I was torn between whether I should draw a tree or work on comic book art. I chose the latter. I sketched...

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FPC-Ladd

The First Presbyterian Church of Ladd, ILThis is the church that I'm currently serving as Student Pastor. Since I will be leaving at the end of the month, I wanted to give each of them a drawing of the building as my parting gift to them. Many parishioners have given me things that they made, and I wanted to give them something that I made. It also served as good practice.About 20 minutes ago I noticed how late it was. Normally, this would not...

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A Change of Pace

Title: Who's Got Your Back?Tonight I decided to try something a bit different: comic book art. Thanks to my buddy Tim, I have a few new techniques that helped a lot. (Dodge and burn, baby! Dodge and burn!)For those who think comic book art is a breeze, think again. This simple picture took me 3-1/2 hours. That's about 1-1/2 hours more than I expected. And this is only one picture. Typically, a comic page has from 4-7 panels (that are smaller, yes,...

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My Home Church

Westminster Presbyterian Church, Rockford, IL:"Embracing Dynamic Traditions for a New World"The time investment on this one was about 5 hours drawing time, and 3-1/2 hours computer work. Someone has recently encouraged me to draw buildings and try to market the pictures. Well, I wanted interesting architecture to start with, so I drew my home church. The text is their new vision statement. (And a pretty cool one if you ask me.) They are in the process...

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Do Not Disturb...Especially if You are a Wasp

Title: Do Not DisturbThis has been in the works for a couple of weeks now. It feels good to have it done. I confess to having rushed the final stretch, but the drawing itself took around 10 hours. Much longer than I wanted to spend on it. Nevertheless, I'm pleased with the outcome. (I'll turn the pic into a link as soon as I get it into my deviantArt gallery. It's a link now!)Related to that, I want to announce that there is a guerilla art gathering...

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Just a Thought

I was thinking a bit today about the struggles facing today's churches. The little congregation that I'm serving right now is facing some serious difficulties. We are not alone in that. All over the U.S., small rural churches are confused about what to do. Repeatedly, I come back to wrestling with the same difficulties when it comes to church life. The mainline church has effectively disconnected from the world in which it dwells. If Len Sweet's analysis in Soul Tsunami was correct a few years ago, then the current average age of the Presbyterian...

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Could It Be? ... No Rain?

Every other Thursday, a group of us meet at the Common Grounds BookCafe to watch the DVD series "The Historical Jesus" and to discuss. On the off-Thursdays, I would like to get a group up to go to the labyrinth at Pilgrim Park (by Princeton, IL). The labyrinth is a spiritual walk path. (To read about the Grace Cathedral labyrinth, click here.) It's not a hedge maze or a corn maze. It's a series of rocks on the ground in a patter that one walks....

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