Not So Shiny After All, Doodle #71

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It might seem odd me to offer up a horse and buggy for a prompt such as shiny but it’s not really. I live near Lancaster, PA so for the last thirty plus years I have my share of the black and grey Amish horse drawn buggy’s. The Amish from what I was told when I first moved to this area do not like shiny objects. There are various reasons why but  leads me to an explanation of today’s  drawing.

Life is made up of two types of people the shiny people and the people like the Amish who try and avoid being shiny people. Shiny people are those who love to flaunt what they have every chance they get. They brag about everything shining their accomplishments in your eyes trying to blind you to what lies beneath.

On the other hand people who are not so shiny do their deeds in the background. They shy away from shining the light on themselves. These are the people who may or may not have a lot themselves but use what they have to benefit others. One of the aspects of the Amish community I love is the fact that when one member of the community is down the others rally around them in order to help them get back on their feet.

One of my favorite verses is Philippians 2:3 which reminds me as well as others to, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

A Line at Work, Doodle #67

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Artists look at perspective two ways. The first is using a two dimensional surface to create a three dimensional picture viewed from a particular point in space. The second way an artist uses perspective is by creating pieces of art influenced by an internal point of view (perspective).

Using these two points of perspective an artist is free to create a piece as elaborate or as simple as they would like. Perspective is also a part of life where we see a few line as in my piece “A Line at Work,” and think we know what the whole picture is about. Many times we are wrong. While my doodle is obviously a man… there is still a lot missing like color,depth and where he is working.  What you see is not the whole picture only one little piece.

Since our external view of the world is influenced by our internal perspective we must be careful not to make snap judgments about what we see based on what we think we know.. The Bible says in Proverbs 25:8, “Don’t jump to conclusions-there may be a perfectly good explanation for what you just saw.”

So the next time you see something strange don’t judge the situation strictly by what you see. Take the time to find out the truth.

A Look At Yourself, Doodle #65

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The dictionary defines reflection as

  • 1. the throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat, or sound without absorbing it.
  • 2. sending back, throwing back, casting back2. serious thought or consideration:

I chose to do a combination drawing of both. My self portrait is both a reflection as done in a mirror but it also a time for me to think back to earlier days in my life

We all tend to look back at our life and play the what if game. What if I had done this or that, but we can’t “what if” our past lives we must always deal with the “what is” part of life, working through what is happening now. There is no changing the past there is only preparing for the present and the future.

In an art life as well as the rest of life we must not worry about what we did but focus on our new creations and our new days.The Bible says “Forget the former things; Do not dwell on the past,” Isaiah 43:8.

Daily Timeout for Art

girl-with-flowers

The final theme for February was gold. I could have gone in a lot of directions with this one but instead I chose to go with a piece entitled “Golden Haired Girl and Her Flowers.” The piece is a simple one done in colored pencil.

Daily Timeout for Art #57

girl-with-empty-jewelrybox

The  picture for today is lovingly entitled, “Empty Jewelry Box.” The story behind it is a simple one. The theme for today’s drawing was minerals. Since diamonds are a mineral and also a girls best friend I decided to go the opposite route of simply drawing an empty jewelry box and a worried husband or boyfriend in the background.

Daily Timeout for Art #54

makwup-mishap

There are times when you sit down to create something for a prompt and your mind goes blank. This was one of those times even though the prompt was faces, something I draw all the time. The problem was I didn’t want to draw just another face. Instead I chose to take two faces from an old book, give them a body and create something different. The end result entitled “Makeup Mishap” is not a finished piece but a whimsical piece destined for future revisions.

Daily Timeout for Art #50

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In today’s daily challenge the goal was to create a piece of art with the theme centered around bugs. I decided to try my hand at my version of Chinese brush painting. I cheated however and used watercolor pencils. Today’s offering is entitled “Dragonfly.” I can’t believe this is my 50th drawing.

Daily Timeout for Art #49

chicken

The challenge for today offered up a side of eggs. I started out doing a couple of eggs sunny side up but saw a picture of a chicken looking quizzically at it’s eggs sitting in a basket. My picture entitled “Chicken and the Eggs,” takes a lighthearted looked at a chicken waiting for the eggs to hatch.