Saw the Hobbit the other day. I'm a big fan of the book and so was really curious about the movie. Overall I thought it was very good. Visually it was beautiful. I drew this doodle in early 2012. The pose is bad and the inking is pretty awkward but a fun doodle nonetheless. It was drawn from memory so its not exactly accurate (I don't think hobbits have pointed ears).
J.R.R. Tolkein was a Christian and though his writings are not a direct allegory like C. S. Lewis it is loaded with Christian themes. One of them is that God is glorified using small or weak things. So the Hobbit is a small humble creature yet is the hero of the story. Jesus Christ came as a baby laid in an animal's feed trough, from a poor family, despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and finally crucified. Yet the great plan of God to restore a people to Himself was enacted this way. Christ's humility and weakness in the world's eyes is our great victory and salvation. In this way is God most glorified in that He uses what is small and weak to show His great wisdom and power.
A little doodle of a running man I drew like 2 yrs ago. It was scanned at a low resolution so the quality isn't so great. I am experimenting with digital color below.
I am amazed at the lightspeed pace at which we live today. We have every conceivable device to make things quicker and faster and easier and yet all it has given us is a ratrace like our ancestors had never seen nor could have conceived of. One of the joys of drawing is that it gives us a chance to slow down and dwell on something for more than 3 seconds. I am also blessed by a restful worship service. I bet this little guy is running to church. Or as a forgotten praise song once said, "I will rush to rest at your feet Lord Jesus".
Happy NEW year! This was a holiday decoration painting I did for the cafeteria of our elementary school. Their mascot is Indians so you have Father time with the little boy indian dressed as baby new year and not so happy about it. The little girl indian celebrates in the background. This was painted in acrylic on 5'x3' canvas.
For Illustration Friday. The topic was snow. Scary is not usually my style but this idea stuck with me so I ran with it. Lots of fun. Maybe another underling or villain.
Well, as you can see it has been a while since I have done anything here. The truth is I am working on an equipment upgrade, like upgrading to some actual equipment to make this work. So it may be a bit longer before I can get things going. It's not like its a race just do what you can. Better to do what you can than to do nothing. I want to be like a river slowly cutting its way through stone to make a canyon or at least a little impression. Thanks and we'll just hang in there.
Friday Mar. 2 was Dr. Seuss Birthday. All this week has been designated Dr. Seuss week where schools emphasize reading. I hope they emphasize art as well. What would Dr. Seuss' books be without his art. The man was a genius with words and his books would still be great. But his art is so unmistakable, so original, it has such a unique groove to it that it just takes on a life of its own. It works in perfect harmony with the words and has become iconic in our culture. One glance and you know its his.
His character was not perfect. He was a sinful human being as we all are (Rom 3:23). I don't agree with all his viewpoints. But I can't deny his craft nor would I want too. I love the dynamic lines. How he builds form and creates value with them. The movement. His color was genius . So simple yet in perfect harmony with the drawing and the words. He used only 4 colors in Cat in the Hat, 2 shades of blue, 2 shades of red-- and it was just perfect. I love it that he cared so much about education. He worked hard to teach kids in an entertaining way. He served his country and used animation to educate and thereby protect soldiers in WWII.
But the best thing I can think we can learn from him is find your own voice, the voice God gives you. Draw, draw, draw, and draw some more unitl it's there. We emulate the voices of others because we want glory for ourselves. Seek God's glory and let Him use you how he wants. I hope to do that by God's grace and give God glory as my creator and redeemer.
Glooma's main henchmen are the Gloomtroopers. They like Glooma herself formerly served the King of Light as beings of light known as Lumens. Glooma deceived 1/3 of these Lumens into rebelling against the King and they became her Gloomtroopers. The Gloomtroopers were based on Jack Kirby's parademons of Apokolips, underlings of Darkseid from Kirby's time at DC comics.
Glooma will also employ a number of Underlings or Bosses. These will be special captains in her dark army. One of which is called Distortion. He is a villain based on a rock guitarist who has the power to distort reality and truth with his guitar and voice. He was another one of those scrap papers.
There will be more underlings of course
The best heros have the best villains. Batman has the Joker, Two-face, Riddler, Catwoman, Rhas al Gul ( hope I spelled that right). Spider man has Dr. Octopus, Green Goblin, Electro, the Lizard. Superman, Lex Luthor, Brainiac. Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom, Galactus. Well, I could go on and on but great heros have great villains. When I started working out ideas for O-boy I started to get ideas for villains. The main villain, Glooma, came from another of those 3 inch scraps and looked like this.
Menacing isn't she? Not exactly arch villain material but the all black clothes gave me the idea for a dark gloomy villian. I kept sketching and came up with this face.
A little tougher but still cartoony which is good since O-boy is a child. Sketching went on and I came up with these.
So the final basic design ended up like this. Keep in mind it is still a rough.
Nezt up, Glooma's minions. Gloom troopers and other underlings.
Sketching and doodling are very important. Its often where ideas are born. I first sketched O-Boy on a 3 inch piece of scrap paper. I was trying to draw a cute baby like character. I thought his hair kind of looked like a retro space boy, so I decided to make him a super hero complete with a cape.
Next I did a few more drawings, trying to refine his look.
Excitedly, I shared him to some kids I know. Not one thought he was a super hero but every single kid thought he was a baby vampire. So I decided to make him a robot.
I confidently showed this to one of the kids who promptly said, "a robot baby vampire!" I decided to lose the ears and reluctantly the cape. The kids got it this time.
Art and cartooning are all about communicating a clear message. When the kids didn't understand what I was trying to say I had to keep coming back in an attempt to clarify my message. Its an ongoing process. Its easy for artists to have an idea that is all worked out in their mind but has a lot of gaps for the audience. Its easy to forget that it is all about communication. Its not that you change an idea just so people will like it. You change it only for clarification to get the message across.
All this time I was putting together a story for him as well as other characters which I will be showing you soon.
The Gospel.
God made all things and all things belong to Him. He made us in His image to reflect His glory by tending His creation under His authority. He made us to know Him, love Him and live for Him.
But we have rebelled against God. We don't want to live for Him. We have lived for ourselves which is evident when we lie, steal, lust, and hate. We have pretended to be god in His place. We have made ourselves an idol. We have failed to love others and we have failed to love God.
This is a horrible crime against the King of all creation. And a crime against an infinite and eternal king requires an infinite and eternal punishment in a place called Hell.
Even though this is what we deserve, God still loves us. He does not desire for us to perish but to be restored to living with and for Him. So God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life always loving God the Father with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength and always loved His neighbor as much as Himself. He lived the life we should have lived and did not deserve to be punished by God.
But Jesus was punished on the cross, not for His own sin, but for the sins of people. He died and was buried and three days later He rose again to give us eternal life.
Now He calls all people everywhere to repent, to stop living for themselves and live for the one who died for them. All the while trusting in His sacrifice and resurrection as payment for their sins. And those who trust in Him will be born again. His Spirit will come to dwell in them and they will have assurance of eternal life. One day, this world will pass away and God will make a new Heavens and a new Earth where God's people will dwell with Him forever.
And this is the story behind O-Boy: The Power of Light. Inspired by the Gospel, which is true myth and at the heart of all our great stories, and by the works of John Bunyan and C. S. Lewis, I am attempting to put together a webcomic where the King of Light takes on the lowest form in order to rescue His people from the power of darkness.
Stay Tuned.
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