me and the beard

click image for a closer look

Self Portrait with Floral Motif
pen and ink on paper with digital coloring, 5" x 7"

here is a self portrait i made recently. the first version is a simple pen and ink drawing, without the color bits. i made it for my friend mike freiheit's new project, in which he is enlisting several artists to do portraits of jesus. my first sketches were of a truly semitic jesus, as opposed to the anglo-jesuses we see here in the west. but then, while i was working, i happened to see my reflection in a window, and thought, "hey my beard is looking jesusy, i have a shorter haircut (which my research had revealed would probably be more accurate), and i happen to be 33 years old right now. also, i was wearing a hooded sweatshirt at that moment, and i figured it would be a good stand-in for a shepherd's robe of some sort. and maybe it could be read in a "jesus is in all of us" sort of way, as well. i certainly do not mean to say that i am the messiah or anything, so don't look to me for salvation or anything--i'm fresh out at the moment.

illustration friday - "wind" - plus some watercolors

there's nothing more peaceful than flowers blowing in the wind, or possibly growing super-huge and attacking the earth.

don't forget to look down further on the page! i've posted some of the work i've been doing in my watercolor class (it gets better as you scroll down to the latest ones). by the way, the pictures are grainy because i had to use my phone's camera. they were too big for the scanner.