Pen and Ink

Daily Drawing #290, A Cool Breeze is Blowing In

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Well it is that time of year again…fall, Autumn. Whatever you call it, the winds of change are blowing through. There is a new chill in the air. When I was a kid I got excited about this time of year because it meant Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas were not far off. Now as I sit here with another decade almost in the rear view mirror the chill in the air means more blankets on the bed, the air conditioners get removed from the windows and the coats and sweatshirts come out. Oh well, at least I have the coming holidays.

Daily Drawing #264, Takin’ Care of Your Pets

| Whitt’s End Art

In an earlier post I wrote about all the cats and dogs I had in my lifetime. One thing I forgot to me was all the work I put into raising my four legged friends. I devoted a good many hours taking care of each pet. Some more than others. Pets are not something you can bring home and let them be, they must be cared for and loved. Even when you go away you must provide provisional care for them. So if you do not feel you put the time and care into taking care of a pet please do not adopt them. What does this all mean for you as a Christian, well if you need to put all the time and effort in your four legged relationships think about what it takes to maintain one with your human friends.

Daily Drawing #260, The Patterns of Life

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We live life in a straight line but we seem destined to repeat certain patterns in life as our parents. Not the same life per say but we seem to pick up certain traits and mannerisms as our parents. Thus goes the patterns of life, I used to think people were wrong about what I just wrote but the older I get the more I feel like and act like my parents or I find myself saying, “Man my mom/dad used to do that or say that.” So be careful what patterns on to your children because at a certain they will start mimicking what you do and so on down the line.

Daily Drawing #216, The Monster Under the Bed

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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 #175, Peace, Peace, Perfect Peace

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The title of my drawing today is, “Give Me A Little Peace.” When I was kid I knew a lot of people who were hippies. There favorite greeting was to say was, “Peace Man.” Wouldn’t it be great if we all knew real peace especially in the world we live in now. One of my favorite books of the Bible is James and one of my favorite verses is James 3:18 ESV, “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” I am not quarrelsome person I love to be at peace because to me to get peace from others you need to be a bearer of peace and love to others. Oh what our world be if our social media was filled with peaceful messages instead of full of barbs and hate.

Daily Drawing #173, Twilight Comes But Once A Painting

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Twilight the word and not the movie was the prompt for today. The title of the picture is, “Little Girl Watching The Moon.” The painting was created using a light wash of watercolor on a canvas. The little girl and the cat are outlined in pen. I love art because sometimes when you’re just playing around art comes out of it. I am not going to talk about the twilight of an evening per-say but the twilight of creating art. A painting of me comes in stages.

The dawn of the painting is the stage where you lay out your painting. Then as the painting progresses you move to the noon time stage. This is where you have some color washes in and the painting starts to take shape. As you move past the dinner hour you get to the twilight of the painting. This is where you step back and decide for yourself if the painting is done. It is in this twilight stage where I have many times stopped and declared a painting or drawing to my liking. This simple painting is one of those twilight times. I hope you like it.

Daily Drawng #143, Hot Times Need A Cool Breeze

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I just realized I did a variation on the his picture before. This one is entitled, “Hot Times, Cool Breeze.” I am not a beach person, my wife, well it is hard to get her to leave. She loves the sea shore, the sand the ocean. Need I go on? While I am not a sandy beach person there is one thing however I do like about the shore, the ocean breeze. After a blazing hot day at the shore, driving up and down the highway looking in all the thrift stores, there is nothing like sitting by the ocean with breeze blowing in off the ocean. The cool air washes away the heat of the the day making you feel refreshed.

I often think of Sunday morning church in the same way. After a long week in the hot sun of a daily work week in our hectic world there is nothing like the cool breeze of a church service. The music, the fellowship, the sermon, the worship wash over you giving you a refreshed feeling like sitting on the beach at night. All is calm, all is bright.

 

Daily Drawing #142, An Upside Down World

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The drawing for today is entitled, “Upside Down Glasses.” The inspiration for the drawing came from this guy I used to run into where my mom worked. It was boarding house with a little bar attached. The guy was able to put a coaster on top of a glass filled with a liquid, flip it over and pull the coaster away without any liquid seeping out around the rim. No matter how many times I tried to replicate his trick I would spill some of whatever was in the glass. Of course the people who worked there didn’t like his trick because they would have to remove the glass and wipe up the liquid.

There is a verse in Isaiah 29:16 which says:

“You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker,
    “He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
    “He has no understanding”?

Isaiah is talking here about our relationship with God. Like the glasses turned upside down we sometimes look at our relationship with God from the wrong perspective. We think God is there to do our bidding while we were put on this Earth to seek His will for our lives. I for one ask God every day what it is He needs me to do on that particular day. It is not wrong to give your petitions to the Lord but we must be careful not see God from the bottom up instead of from the top down. We live our live in a vertical relationship with God and must always be diligent to remember who made who.

Daily Drawing #141, A Furry Friend

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While I don’t think it is my forte I love drawing animals. There is something comforting about rendering a likeness of a furry friend.  My fascination with animals started as a child and was partly fueled by my first girl friend who had a red fox as a pet. They kept it in a huge pen on their property and you could actually go in the pen and interact with the fox.

Family trips to my sister’s farm in West Virginia also brought me into contact with many farm animals some of whom were a little ornery like the roosters. Those birds hold a grudge and  will fly at your head when they get mad at you. Nighttime in our neighborhood also brought out lots of raccoons like the one pictured in my drawing entitled, “Raccoon and the Yellow Flower.”

As I grew older and still to this day I have a fascination with animals and as I said they will appear in many of my drawings, especially dogs and cats.I hope you have enjoyed my artwork up until now. Until tomorrow remember we all need to have a little joy in our live, let it be drawing furry friends, or more importantly having the joy of knowing Jesus in your heart.