Recent Drawing....

..... "It took me like 3 hours to shade the upper lip" :) (name that movie)

For a long time Patrick has wanted me to draw a picture of how I envision Christ to look. He has mentioned it on a number of occasions, but I have always put it off for a number of reasons. First of all, how intimidating is it to try and draw the Savior?? Mr. Perfect? Like I wanted to take the chance of not doing Him justice. Secondly, I am a very harsh critic when it comes to pictures done of Christ, so naturally I knew I would be just as harsh on my own. There are only a few pictures I actually like of Him, so I didn't want mine to be added to the "dislike" pictures.

Well I finally decided to stop putting it off and to at least try a rough draft. Seeing how Christmas was coming up I decided it would be the best time to focus on drawing Christ. There was a slow day at work and I had my sketch pad with me. So I started this picture out by using a mechanical pencil (big mistake, I know) so it was hard to hide that fact later on. Anyway, I ended up finishing this at home with some better lighting than inside the mobile unit. It was kind of ironic that I ended up using drawing materials he bought me years ago when he found out I was into art. It ended up coming in handy afterall :) So here is the final product of my rough draft (yes, I realize the many flaws and know what I want to fix for the final):

The two main things I wanted to focus on were His eyes and smile. I wanted his eyes to be full of light, because He is our light. I wanted him to have a smile (not a creepy one showing his teeth- I HATE those ones, but I didn't want a creeper smile either...more difficult to do than you would think!). I just feel like so many times artists depict Jesus as this very somber, serious, non-smiling man. To me I would like to think that He is very inviting, personable, and happy. Anyway, I could go off on my opinions but I'll end my little soap box there.

Zoomed out. I had to include my easel because it means a lot to me. My Grandpa Guest is an amazing artist. He also can build anything he puts his mind to. He knew I was into art of all kinds and built me this easel to make it easier for me. It has made such a difference! He is an Engineer so he made all these little gadgets on it so I can fit any kind of size of paper and tilt it as much or as little as my heart desires. I love it. And I love my Grandpa, one of the coolest men I have ever known!

Different lighting, a little dark...

Well, there ya have it. Open to critiques