Hope

 

I was going to base the weeks post on a different subject. I attended a funeral service for our neighbor this week and feel it is important to address what was felt during that experience. I had shared several weeks ago that I became very close to him in a very short period of time. There are some very important underlying things that I now see that were hinted at but not addresses in his life. He was intensely seeking to know and understand God, Christ and what that meant for him. The problem with that was that he never became still enough to allow the Holy Spirit and Christ to be realized as working in his life. There were many questions and many answers given that were not given the time needed to be seen or felt in his life. Hope is not often answered instantaneously in a way that will be recognized when we are struggling to see answers. (Psalm 46:10  Be still, & know) Being still is what is needed. If we are too wrapped up in the search we run the risk of missing what is right in front of us. My favorite place in all of the scriptures on how to listen to the Lord is in 1 Kings 19:9-13. Elijah had learned that rushing here and there was not the way to know if God was with him or speaking to him. He took for granted that God was there with the care God's angels were providing him when he was fleeing from Jezebel (1 Kings 19:1-8). It was in almost imperceptible quiet that God was present and speaking to him. Not being quiet in the midst of the turmoil of life will cause us to feel that all hope is lost when in fact it is not lost. Elijah felt lost and hopeless until he stopped and became still. Hope is often missed because we want answers now. I am not saying they will not happen immediately but we must be still more often than not to get the answers we seek. That in itself may be for some time or a very short time. My friend was also seeking solace with things to fill voids in his life. That was another distraction rather than being quiet. I went over to his cremation urn and stood quietly before it. I could feel his sorrow and grief. I also know that he now knows the Jesus he so desperately sought was there all the time. I have a cross that I never had the chance to give him. On it is Be still, & know --- Psalm 46:10. My heart is heavy but I also know he is now safe, trouble free and loved.

I have decided to wait and post images next week. Thank you for your visit. Please leave a comment if you can. May the good Lord bless and keep you safe. Until next week remember to "Always Love The Details."

Prejudice

 

Prejudice: Biased or unfair opinion, opinion not based on factual information.

How many people do you know that are prejudice? How many people do you know that base their opinion on one sided information? Do you know anyone that has lots of information but all from one place? Did you know that hate is mostly based on prejudice? These questions would require me to point back at myself before naming anyone. How about you? In one of my recent posts I wrote about a minister that asked his congregation who would be left if he said "anyone who was hypocrite to leave the congregation." The answer was no one, not even himself. We are not perfect in any way. No, Not even the Saints. Most of us are nowhere near being Saints yet we feel as though we are better than the next guy. Each of us has things we do, know or are capable of that the next person can't do, does not know or is not capable of, but that does not make us superior to them. We all need one another to function in those areas to be able to live in harmony.

Today I would like to change up a bit. There are so many wonders of the universe to share. I would like to share some astrophotos. 

  

When was the last time if ever you had seen the sky like this? I was a child in my backyard when the sky appeared this full of stars. Today that is no more. 

Uranus is the only planet in our solar system that is on its side as it orbits around the sun. Its seasons are years long with each pole being toward the sun in turn. Each pole experiences 1 of the 4 seasons fully facing the sun. Ariel is one of the moon of Uranus.  

This is 1987. It was a supernova in the Large Magellanic cloud, a satellite of our galaxy, in 1987. The bright ring of what look like stars is the shock wave of debris striking gas that was shed by the star before it exploded as it travels outward at thousands of miles per hour.

 

This is what will happen to our star in a few billion years. It is a planetary nebula. It consists of the expelled gas of the central star in this image. It will become a white dwarf star. It is about the size of our star condensed to the size of our planet earth.

This is another example of a planetary nebula. There are many of them in the milky way galaxy. All are the result of dying stars.

That is it for this week. May the good Lord bless and keep you safe. Remember to "Always Love The Details."

Judgement

I keep running into the same old problem of people judging others and ignoring the faults in their own lives. Are you guilty? I certainly am at times. (Matthew 7:4 - Luke 6:42) At times that judgment will cause animosity after which we file away the wrongs and it becomes hate, the hate then becomes an action that makes us no better than the one we have judged to be wrong. We ourselves are then the ones who are wrong. How much time have we wasted in this process? Isn't it better to do something constructive with our lives than to find ways of hating or correcting someone elses faults? (Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.") It is better that we leave the matter of judgment to the Lord. He is the one who will judge the living and the dead according to God's will. (1 Corinthians 4:5, Acts 17:31, Matthew 16:17) Let us move one to correct our own lives and live as an example of God's children on earth.

I have done a step by step coloring sample when I first started blogging back in 2014. It was not very good back then since I was just starting to gather together the Copics and other art supplies needed. There has been a quantum leap in technique since then as well. I am going to use one of the Moontear images for the demonstration. The final result is not what I was hoping for but it will do for this sample.

This is the image we will be working with.

When coloring an image you first need to decide where to start. For this image I decided to start with the eyes (E55) and lips (E95). After coloring the eyes I used the 0 pen to lighten the lower 1/3 of the eyes to give them life. I did the same with the top half of the lower lip.

Next we color the shadowed part of the skin (E00). I prefer to work from dark to light. I find that Copics blend better if you go from dark to light.

Next is the fill in of the face (E000). It is important to remember to always follow the contours of an image with your pen strokes. It provides a more realistic and life like image.

Next, to give the image a younger more vibrant skin color it is necessary to give it a pink tone (R0000). Be careful! Don't over do it. You don't want her to look like a cartoon character. Plus if you use the pen too much it will begin to gloss over and the image will be ruined.

(I almost forgot. Notice in the very corners of her eyes I used a very light pink which I didn't mark down. It helps bring the eyes to life.) Next is the hard part. the darkest shadows of the hair were done first (E29).

Next is the dark areas (E27) and color over the deep shadow areas again.This will help bring out more detail in the hair.

Next I colored the hair (E25) making sure to color over all of the previous colors as well. Remember to follow the hair contours. It is important. The straggly hair or fly away hair strands are tough. Use the super brush tips and very lightly color the strands of fly away hair. This requires a delicate touch. Tip: use paper that is made for alcohol ink pens if this kind of coloring is needed. It bleeds less than the regular card stock.

Since the small berry like ovals are so small and tend to get lost in the image I colored (YR61) them next using the tip of the pen. I also colored the lace-like crown connections and earring (C0) to look like silver.

Next I colored the flower (V20) and the flower center (Y21). Just off to the right of the flower there is an area that I had no idea what it was so I colored it just because (YG21) it looks better.

I colored the dress (BV0000) and trim (Y28). I didn't color any other part of the dress or decorations on the dress so they would not clash with her face etc.

To finish the image I colored the leafy border around her head with a light color (G000) to highlight and bring the focus to her.

This rendering was not my favorite because of the hair. It should have been a much lighter color to show off the child's softness. It kind of took over the image. There is another rendering that is much better. Not all images will be to your liking but that is the fun and challenge of art.

I hope I didn't lose anyone with this long post. I don't want to do many more of this kind of post. They are very time consuming.

That is it for this week. May the good Lord bless and keep you safe. Remember to "Always Love The Details."

Neutrality

There are many people that are simply good but if looked at closely are not good for something. What does that even mean? The key here is "good for". What does "good for" mean? It means of benefit. In Christian terms it means not neutral or cold. I know, "what is he talking about?" Mark 12:30 and Luke 11:23 both state, "whoever is not with me is against me, whoever does not gather with me scatters." Being neutral does not support but denies. Christianity is not neutral but active. Being Christian is loving Christ. Love is not neutral but active, caring, supportive. The purpose for this blog is to let it be known that Christianity is not dead but alive. There is no middle ground. Christ did not stand in the middle but gave his life for us actively according to the word of God His father. That active gift was what caused Him to die on the cross. We may or may not be called to that kind of following but neither can we just stand by and not be active in living a Christian life. If you are living a Christian life I guarantee it will be noticed. You don't have to stand on the corner preaching the gospel to be a follower. The life you live, how you treat others, how you deal with life and all of its problems will speak for you. You may not see it but others will. You may even find yourself being asked about it. Humility in living speaks louder than publicly preaching or flaunting your opinions. Strength of faith is not standing still but living that faith in humility. Neutrality is death. 

 Today I am sharing an image done some months ago. It was downloaded from pinterest well before that. It is a drawing of a pigtailed young girl. I try to find where these images originated. That is not always possible when on pinterest.  I always assume they are copyrighted as should you. My coloring of them is.

The Copic colors are:  E31, E34, E43, Ro1, C2, B21, B41, R02, E000, E0000, R0000, V81, Y0000.

I may share a progressive image coloring done some weeks ago to show my method of coloring with Copics. It will take some preparation to get ready. We shall see.

Thank you for stopping by. If you commented thank you. May the good Lord bless you and keep you safe. Remember to always "Love The Details."