Colorized Classics

Way, way back in the day there was raging debate about Ted Turner and what he was doing to old movies. He was taking dumb, boring old black and white movies and modernizing and improving them with color. Of course there were those Luddites that were totally opposed to color and wanted to live back in the days before color was invented. Jerks!

Or seen the other way; here was a guy that took films that were conceived in black and white, executed in black and white, and directed so as to take full advantage of black and white for the complete visual experience and ruined them by slapping a bunch of garish, pastel girly colors.


That's what I've done here. Both of those things. I think of these images in black and white but feel compelled to watercolor them afterwards. Who's to say which is better?

Conceived in B&W

Ted Turner-ized

Original Recipe

                                       

Extra Crispy                                       

The End of Lent

This being the beginning of Holy Week and since Lent is almost over, I thought I'd put up a drawing I have just finished. This is the temptation at the end of Jesus' 40 days of fasting. It's from my brand new drawing book that I just started working on in the last few weeks.

I think an important thing not to overlook here is the fact that this was a real temptation. Por ejemplo; if someone offered me a couple of tickets to... the Final Four, Wimbledon, the World Cup, the World Series, the Super Bowl, Citrus Bowl, Orange Bowl, or any combination of them, if I would just do X; it wouldn't be a real temptation since sports hold absolutely no interest for me. (Honest. I couldn't care less. It's not that I have anything against sports, per se, I just can't manufacture an interest in them. Now you know.) So for it to work on me, there would have to be a much different kind of temptation on the table. I can think of about a dozen things off the top of my head...

Anyway, back to an actual temptation, Jesus had to really be tempted if this episode was to have any real meaning. As such, I have tried to show him emaciated and weak. At least physically weak. Since I have never fasted for that long, I have no idea if 40 DAYS of fasting leaves one spiritually weakened or strengthened. I assume it would be immediately weakening or Satan would not have chosen that time to act.

The little bat-winged speech bubble is not quoting any scripture, rather it quotes something else. I'll give a very special no-prize to anyone who can tell me where that line comes from. I suppose if you give in to the temptation of the devil... err... Google, you could just look it up.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I made this drawing a couple of years ago for the cover to the program for my school's Lessons and Carols. I have always had a soft spot for Virgin and Child images, particularly since my wife and I started having children (seriously, you need to look at any of Raphael's paintings on the subject – but my favorite is this one for pure cheek).

Well, the cover was a hit with only a tiny bit of controversy surrounding baby Jesus' obvious nudity. Why include the little bits and pieces you ask? Well, there is a very long tradition of doing just that. If you took my suggestion to look at some of the Raphael paintings or if you broaden your horizons and look around some more you'll see a positively un-Puritanical amount of nudity. Artists did this because orthodox Christianity is not gnostic! We have bodies, they are good and the Son of God Himself has taken on our humanity – He became a man and dwelt among us! – and has put His seal of approval upon our physical existence.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

UPDATE: You can see one of my older Christmas pictures over at National Catholic Register at Simcha Fisher's blog. It's the image based on Revelation 12 that I have written about previously.

Another Dimetrodon!

Have I mentioned the great pelycosaurs? The mighty synapsids? This is the Blessing of Dimetrodon! The mighty angels sing for joy at the approval of the great dimetrodon!

Jesus as the greater Boaz

Pen and ink. This is an illustration for an essay about the book of Ruth. In the book, Boaz provides for a destitute Ruth and Naomi by leaving extra grain in his fields for them to glean and also by giving six measures of barley directly to Ruth. Her gleaning of grain from the fields is strongly reminiscent of the Israelites collecting the manna that God provided for them in their wanderings. The association of manna with the bread in communion and the even stronger association of grain with bread make this scene in Ruth a foreshadowing of Jesus giving bread and wine to his Church in the form of the elements in communion.