Art Challenge

Keeping Things Light, Doodle #87

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I have to admit when I first saw today’s prompt the word “light” I wanted to talk a little bit about how as Followers of Jesus we are the light of the world. Instead my mind wandered to having a light mood.  Then I decided to do something I haven’t done in a number of years, create a cartoon panel. What came out can roughly be ruled an illustration but hey, I tried.

I was always told growing up the best medicine for a sallow heart is a smile and laughter. I think that is true when I feel down I draw which brings a smile to my face and my mood instantly rises. When I really want to lighten my mood I watch a good comedy so I can laugh. While laughter only lightens the mood for a little while it is still a little while we are not thinking about what is going on around us.

Proverbs 15:13-15 states ” A glad heart makes a happy face,” but a smile also lightens up those with who we come in contact. Think about it. Would you rather talk to a person who is smiling and happy looking then one who can be the proverbial downer all the time. I have always tried to not take my inner feelings to the workplace. I greet others with a smile and a hello no matter what I am feeling like inside. It is not easy to do bit I do it anyway.

Till tomorrow here’s to smiling more, laughing more and changing the moods of others around you. I hope you enjoy today’s doodle

Warning! The Road Ahead May be Rough, Doodle #86

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Life is often referred to as a journey or a long road we travel on from birth to death. Today’s prompt was the word “rough” which got me to think the road we travel on is seldom smooth and straight. It is more like the roads in PA where I live rough and full of potholes. When we are young, if we are blessed, there are not to many potholes we have to avoid, maybe our choice of a college, a significant other.

As we age and life starts to overtake us the road can become a little rougher to travel and the pot holes can become much larger. The key for me in filing in all those pot holes is putting my faith in God and trusting Him to lead me around or over the potholes. Life after all should not be about just surviving each day being cranky it should be about living.

 

Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Doodle #84

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The word love has become a multifaceted overused  word in the English language.  In the same breath we love our pizza and our significant other. We can love our car or our pets, which is my doodle for today, “Love My Pets.”  What I’m getting at is that when we love it does not mean what it once did. There seems to be no more deep rooted conviction to loving something or someone.

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul gives a definition of love we can all hold onto, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

In truth love is not self centered , it is not self concerning and the word is not used to donate affection for those things which cannot love you back. Let us love with a true heart.

Where Did the Magic Go?, Doodle #83

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The first thing that popped into my head when I heard today’s prompt, magic, was Supertramp’s The Logical Song and the lyrics, “When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful, A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.”  When we are young it seems everything is new and magical. We accept what comes our way with a childlike faith and a lot of questions including the proverbial..why?

Then as the song on to say they, “send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical. And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable, Clinical, intellectual, cynical.” As we grow up and learn in school the wonderment in the world around us fades away. We no longer see the things around with wide eyed faith but try to analyze what we see.

Jesus however in Matthew 18:3 says, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”What he is saying is simple. Have faith like the faith we had when we were children. We did not sit around and try to analyze everything we around us, we simply believed and had faith we could do whatever came our way. As adults we think too much. We need to go back to those carefree days and just have faith.

Life Goes Floating By, Doodle #80

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When I was a kid the girl I hung with from down the street and I would spend a lot of time just lying in the grass watching the clouds floating through the sky. As we were laying there we always tried to attribute the shape of a cloud to a certain person or thing. I miss those simple days when life and the clouds seemed to float by at a snails pace.

I have discovered the older you get life and the clouds appear to float by as if driven by a swift wind. There is little time left in each day to lie around looking at the clouds trying to discover the hidden treasures in each shape. I also have a confession to make.  I still try to draw what Carla Sonheim calls Imaginary Animals where you look at a cloud, cracks in the sidewalk, stains or anything else and create an animal drawing. They are fun to do and infuse your creative juices with some new vigor.

I think as you grow older you need to hold onto your youthful attitude it will keep you feeling younger. The idea is to take the time to once again slow down the floating of life, enjoying the ride more by experiencing all life has to offer.

Spring Into Something Renewed, Doodle #79

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Today is the first day of Spring. A time when all things are renewed. The flowers start blooming, the grass starts growing (ugh) and the trees start to come to life. Spring is also a time when thoughts start turning towards the summer season. Spring for me means the start of America’s favorite pastime, baseball, which is the inspiration for today’s doodle, “The Pitcher.” Football

I don’t know why I like baseball so much. Football and hockey appeal to me more because of my adult ADD with all the action packed into each game. Still there is something about baseball that causes me to anticipate the start of a new season. Maybe it is the crack of the bat and the runner trying to beat the ball to first base. It could be the anticipation of the next pitch or just the fact you can wear shorts and a t-shirt to the games. Of course there is always the taste of ballpark food.

As a follower of Jesus I sometimes find the past creeping into my thought process. Past failures and short comings keep me anchored to the past. I also use past failures as an excuse to not trying to move forward in my life. Baseball season is a reminder to me that sometimes in life we have to start over. We have to put our failures and setbacks behind us and try something new like a year long art challenge. As I grow older I plan to keep moving forward. I may fail but I will just dust myself off and keep going.

A Little Texture Attracts the Eye, Doodle #78

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One of the hardest things for me to as an artist is to convey texture in my drawings. Over the years I developed into pseudo cartoonist. I like the simplicity of line drawings which can convey a lot with only a few lines. Once I started to play around with pastels I found textures can be conveyed with a few strokes of the chalk pastel. Even in acrylics I can convey texture by the way I lay down the brush strokes or the materials I use to create mixed media creations.

Now that I have switched back to pencil, pen and marker to create my daily doodles I have again been trying to learn how to create texture with a few strokes of the pen. Today’s doodle is a pencil drawing where I have tried to convey texture in the woman and her clothing using a few pencil strokes. While the work is incomplete I have learned to be more patient with the details and look for the texture in whatever I am drawing.

I think life is the same way. We spend so much time speeding through each day we forget to take the time to look at all the textures which abound in the people we meet and places we travel. It is the textures which give the world and people God created their beauty, their individuality and uniqueness. Life is all about textures so stop trying to smooth out all the rough edges and create what you want, instead be satisfied with what is already there.

It’s All in the Details, Doodle #77

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I must admit as an artist there are times I struggle with the details. I find that I am more creative and more satisfied creating quick sketches with a little color added to make the picture pop. Today’s doodle, “The Sunflower,” is a little more detailed than I usually create. In the back of my mind I would love to be a more detailed artist and have tried various books in order to learn. The problem with books however is books do not give you the feedback you need when you’re trying to improve your art work. If anyone wants to be my tutor I would be glad for the help.

What does this ramble mean? The answer is this. When it comes to living your life whether you’re a person of faith or not it is hard to learn what you need on your own. it is also hard to learn what you need from just a book even when the book is filled with pictures. In the end what we all need is for someone who is more learned than we are to come along side of us to help us learn what we need to know.

As an artist if there are any low cost or free art classes you can take, make sure you take them. It is in these kind of classes I learned I could draw more than just simple cartoons. If you are a believer attend a church where you have access to men and woman of faith who you can go to in order to help you understand the Bible more clearly.

The Pattern in Life, Doodle #75

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As an artist the first thing that pops into my mind when I hear the word pattern, today’s prompt, is a zentangle. As a football fan who is in the midst of NFL free agency and roots for a team in need of wide receivers my mind of course went to a wide out.

A wide out or wide receiver makes their by catching the ball thrown to them by the quarterback. A good wide out can find a way to gt free from the defender and catch the ball. A bad wide out, well he doesn’t have a very good pass to catch ratio. What does all this have to do with you? Maybe not a lot but it does offer us an analogy for being and artist as well as in our living our daily lives.

As an artist we must be a good wide out who avoids all the defenders (internal and external distractions to creating our art). These distractions come from many sources, critics, well meaning friends as well as other sources. The key to avoiding the defenders is to keep on moving forward with our art by practicing, practicing, practicing even when every ounce of our being is telling us to just give up.

In life we elude the defenders by doing as Paul says in Philippians 3:14, “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”There are always going to be obstacles in life, the key to reaching a goal is learning how to go through the obstacles and come out the other side stronger and more knowledgeable.  I hope you enjoy today’s doodle a zentangle of a cat entitled “Tangled Cat.”