daily drawing

Daily Drawing #219, Your Presence is the Best Present

| Whitt’s End Art

Love is a funny thing. Many of us seek to express love by offering up big and little presents or gifts to show someone how much we love them. Then we spend the rest of the time doing our own thing. Many people who say they love each other spend many of their free hours not together but doing separate activities. While I don’t think you have to spend every second together. Even couples need some apart time. What I talking about is the fact that the best present or gift you can give someone is the gift of your presence, to talk to each other, to grow as couples, to do fun things together and much more. Take the time now because as sad as it is to say someday the person will not be here and the only presence you will have will be in your mind or photos.

Daily Drawing #218, A Chip Off The Old Block

| Whitt’s End Art

I love those commercials where one member of married couple is starting to exhibit traits of there parents. I don’t what the commercial is for but it got me to thinking. We are more like our parents then we think. Like my drawing entitled, “Mini Me,” we carry our parents genes so we are going to be like them in some ways. Don’t panic yet. It is not a bad thing to be like your parents as long as you don’t repeat the same mistakes they did and you listen to the all the wisdom they impart.

Like everyone else our parents made mistakes, many of which we have seen as we grew older. So when you see yourself starting to exhibit some of those undesirable traits stop yourself and switch gears. You are your parents child but you are also an individual who can make your own decisions. The time is now.

Daily Drawing #216, The Monster Under the Bed

| Whitt’s End Art

When I was a child I used to worry about the monster under my bed. Not that there was ever anything under there but in the minds eye the monster was there just waiting for me to dangle my feet over the edge of my bed. Yesterday’s message was about having one of those days. Today is kind of a follow up to that message. I n life we have many monsters under our beds they include health worries, financial concern, family matters and the list goes on and on. These monsters are just waiting for us to dangle our feet over the edge of the bed so they can gobble us up. The key to not letting the monsters under the bed get to you is the say as if you are having a bad day and once again it comes in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Here’s to slaying your monsters.

Daily Drawing #215, Just One Of Those Days

| Whitt’s End Art

Have you ever had one of those days. I know I have had many in lifetime. More than I like to think about. Today’s little message is a simple one. There are three things you can do to get through one of those days.

1. Don’t dwell on the difficulty. Dwelling on things will not do you any good it will only make things worse. This is not to say it will be easy to just put the bad day out of your mind but it will help if you can.

2.Seek out friends. When you have a bad day don’t hold it in seek out the advice of friends and family to help guide you along.

3. Pray! To me this is the most important thing to do of all three. The Bible is clear we must all bring our cares and worries before God. Isaiah 41:10 has these words from God for us. “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

So when you’re having one of those days seek out God and He will being your comfort.

 

 

Daily Drawing #211, What is a Chibi?

| Whitt’s End Art

The drawing today is my first try at a Chibi. What is a Chibi you might ask?  Well chibi, “is a Japanese slang word describing something short (a thing, an animal or a person).” In this case a Chibi is a manga drawing of usually a little child with a large head and a small body. At heart I am a cartoonist. I have always loved the work of such cartoonists as Schulz and Davis. It is there work which inspired me to take up drawing in the first place. Over the years I stopped cartooning because there was no outlet for me to display my work. Years ago their was not internet so you had to send out your work and get back those dreaded rejection slips.

Nowadays you can post your work on line for others to see. What I guess I am trying to say is this, don’t give up on your art. Keep practicing what you love and then put it our there for all to enjoy. I create art for myself and because God calls me to draw. It is my ministry.  I have been reminded by God and others over the years that if you try to create pieces to please everyone it is only going to get you discourage and frustrated and you will not longer enjoy your craft.

 

Daily Drawing #197, Are You Prepared?

| Whitt’s End Art

Over the course of my lifetime I have had various occupations. I have worked as retail managers, in factories and currently in a local school district. As I look back at my various jobs I think the worst place I ever was employed worked was at a fast food restaurant. I only worked there for one year but I learned a lot about dealing with irate customers as well as employees who don’t take there job seriously. You haven’t lived until you try to calm down an irate customer because of an unwanted piece of cheese or a couple of misplaced pickles on a sandwich you didn’t have anything to do with creating.

Still I look back at these times and realize how much they prepared me for later positions I have had in life. In all of life we need to look at our current employment, or training (as in sports) and think about about how much we are being prepared for what comes next in life. So take the time to prepare yourself by working hard to learn and grow. It will pay off later in life.

Daily Drawing #196, Count It All As Joy

| Whitt’s End Art

If your life is like mine there are periods of time when life feels anything but joyful. Still God calls us in James 1:2 to, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” This means no matter what happens in life we are to call it joyful. Really? God says, yes. If you have an illness don’t dwell on it but look to God to give you comfort and peace throughout the trial. My joy and your joy comes from knowing God is always there for us and as 2 Corinthians 1:4 insures us God is the one, “who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Our joy in life comes from helping others who are going get through the same storms we are weathering. It is hard to look for joy in times of trouble or sorrow but it can be found when your heart is in the right place.

 

Daily Drawing #195, Face 2 Face

| Whitt’s End Art

We live in a world which is linked electronically like never before. Young people interact today through tweets, texts, Instagram posts, Face Time chats a few among many choices. Still my favorite way to talk to someone is person to person. Ask my wife she’ll tell you I don’t even like to make phone calls. I have always loved to talk face to face. There is nothing more thrilling than to share a few words or laugh with someone else. To gaze across and sense the other person’s emotions through facial expressions as we talk. This is true conversation. Not a tweet or a text or whatever. God created us to be social beings who rely on fellowship with each in order to live a balanced life. It is time to put down the phones and start talking – face to face.

Daily Drawing #194, Seeing Eye to Eye is Sometimes Hard to Do

| Whitt’s End Art

There are times I like to draw things just to draw them. This is one of those times. I just thought the picture of the cat and mouse was interesting. Here are two creatures a cats and mouse who are not normally close friends. In fact most of the time a cat will play with a mouse, by play I mean bat it around and around, until it is ready to finish the mouse off. In the picture the cat and mouse seem to be conversing with each other. Maybe just  asking each other, “How are you doing on this fine day?” To which they’d both reply, “Fine,” before going a little deeper into their comings and goings since they last met. This little meeting also got me to thinking what if we could all look at each other and see through the supposed differences which keep us apart instead of playing cat and mouse games with each other. Here’s to letting God’s love shine through in all circumstances and all our interactions with the people we meet each day.