So sorry to have learned today of the passing of Doris Roberts over the weekend. I had, on several occasions, been able to chat with her just while out and about in town, and she was always patient and gracious. And to watch her work…what a privilege! I attended many tapings of Everybody Loves Raymond and no one could deliver a line with an icy stare that brought the house down like she could. (In fact, she once did bring the house down literally when she ran a car through the wall of the set for one of the episodes!)
I wrote about Doris here on my blog just last year (CLICK HERE to see that post) after I was able to share with her this painting I had done of the cast back in 2005 – a parody of Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Want painting. She loved it, just like anyone’s grandmother would have.
“Everybody Loves Raymond” in watercolor based on Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom From Want” painting.
Sometimes when I sketch, I just start with a nose and see where it goes from there with no preconceived notion of what I am about to draw. Other times the sketch is informed by a curiosity I may have. Such is the case with today’s doodle. I saw pictures of some male lions, and I wondered what they might look like if they started losing their hair and decided to do a combover.
Once the lack of hair was drawn, the glasses soon were added, then the bow tie. The lion became an ivy league professor!
…and I mean that literally! Yes folks, unless this is some kind of an elaborate April Fool’s joke being played on me, the monsters that have lived in the apartment above me for the past three years, four months, five days and 18 hours have finally up and vanished into the misty night air from whence they came.
You may recall these folks. I have mentioned them several times here on my blog, along with the random comment on Facebook and Twitter. Here is a photo I secretly took of them after the first year of sleep deprived nights.
When they get home, I’m convinced that my neighbors’ front door is a mystical portal that returns them to their natural forms seen here.
Here’s to all the foot stomping, toilet seat slamming, hammering after 10pm, hour and a half to two hour long showers, two flooding mishaps, music loud enough to understand the lyrics, listening to their movies while trying to watch mine, slumber parties, chalk drawings on my doorstep, bed jumping, Olympic gymnastics practice, track meets in the living room, door slamming, shot-put throwing, bowling, peasant whippings, chains scraping, and I’m pretty sure dragon feeding.
May the new tenants be kind and gentle souls sensitive to those around them.
With images of bunnies being in all the stores these days, and half price now (Easter – what are you going to do?), I thought I’d share with you a bunny painting created in collaboration with a couple of young artists.
A couple of years ago I visited my brother and his family at their home in the midwest. It was just around Mother’s Day, which also happens to be the week of my mother’s birthday. I got my head together with my nephews Cameron and Marshall, and we set out to make a birthday/Mother’s Day card for my mom/their grandmom. The idea was to draw ourselves like rabbits since they are a good symbol of spring.
Behold the magnificence of our collaborative masterpiece…
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5
The Messiah
Today is what we call here in the States “Good Friday.” It is traditionally the day set aside to remember the death of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. In a country that continues to turn its back on God, it is amazing that we have a national holiday for this event where banks and government offices are closed, and most people have the day off from work. It is called “Good” because the Son of God’s sacrifice for mankind, in which He took upon Himself the sins of the world, made a way for those who believe to enter into heaven one day.
Isaiah 53 predicted the coming of the Messiah and what He would do for us, and Matthew 27 gives a full account of what happened that fateful day so many years ago when the Messiah did come and fulfill the prophesy. Matthew 28 continues the history of those days by telling us of Christ’s resurrection, which is what Easter celebrates.
The particular moment of this drawing comes from Matthew 27:32 which says, “And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.” Simon, a man from the crowd, was called out to carry Christ’s cross to the hill where Jesus would be crucified.
This drawing was one of a half dozen or so new drawings recently added to the Generations of Grace Sunday school curriculum for kids. It comes in black and white for the kids to color when they learn this lesson in church. To learn more about Generations of Grace and if you think it would be a good program for your church to use, feel free to CLICK HERE.
With all the ads out there lately for the next couple of big costumed caper movies, it seems like none of our imaginary heroes are playing nice with each other anymore. Marvel has their Civil War, and this week, DC has Batman v Superman. Can’t we all just get along?
SPOILER ALERT! I am about to show you how the epic battle begins between the Dark Knight (Ben Affleck – Batfleck) and the Man of Steel (Henry Cavill). Not having seen the actual movie myself is really of no consequence. I KNOW this is what happens, and by refusing to remove their capes, you can only guess the troubles to come…
Edna Mode knows a thing or two about cape calamities.
I liked how Batfleck turned out, so here’s a close-up for you.
Quite a few years ago I began drawing what turned out to be over 500 coloring book style pages of accounts from the Bible that became the Generations of Grace Sunday school curriculum. They crafted a three year curriculum for kids where not a single piece of art was used twice in that time, and it was designed for several age groups in the elementary grades so that all the kids in a family would learn the same lesson on their level each Sunday. It was a pretty neat approach.
Two years ago, those behind the curriculum wanted to colorize all my drawings for a new published version of the curriculum they intended to do. Some other artists began coloring them, but with so many drawings and a tight deadline, the task was great. So, I was invited back in to color my art as well, having to now follow the coloring style established by other artists. I managed to get about 20 or so pieces colored in-between other jobs I was working on last year, but to even get those done, I was so glad to get my pal and fellow artist Andy Heckathorneto help me.
Andy would first prep the drawings to prepare them for color, then he would go in and lay in all the flat base colors in Photoshop from his studio in Pennsylvania. He would hand them off to me here in California, and I’d add in all the shading. We were a good team!
All that being said, since this week many thoughts are turned to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross with it being Easter here in the United States, I wanted to share with you the one piece Andy and I colored from that account of Christ’s life – the moment when Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus in the garden that led to the Roman soldiers taking Him away to what would eventually be his crucifixion.
The kiss was Judas’ sign to the soldiers that this was Jesus.
If you are interested in this art for your own church, or even for use in your own home, I recommend you check out all the different formats Generations of Grace has to offer for sale on their website. They have teacher lesson books, craft books, activity books, coloring books, and even a family devotional book so the whole family can keep up with the lessons together each day. CLICK HERE to go to their website.
I’m not sure why, but next to monsters, I sure do love drawing bears. In fact, one of my favorite Disney characters is Humphrey the Bear from several Donald Duck shorts back in the ’50s, and then he even had a few of his own shorts. Bears can be interpreted in many different ways in art, and I usually go for some version of silly. As Leonardo DiCaprio can attest, though, real bears are not as pleasant. (Yes, that was a real bear, and no one can tell me otherwise, and I only saw the commercial!)
So, for your viewing pleasure, here’s a sketchbook bear for you, drawn with a rollerball pen. While he is friendly looking, I’m not sure exactly how he started that fire. Maybe he finished off some campers, took their fire, and the fish is just his dessert.
Clearly he is not at all worried about his blood pressure with that generous application of salt.
