JFlah's Blunders

  Click for reference by Mike McCarthy   Click for reference by Mike McCarthy   Click for reference by Efrain Malo   Click here for reference by ".mb. 2018"  

 For a while now Valerie 's figurative sculptures have been on my radar - love the hair and the long limbs of her pieces - the lithe poses. Lots of fun to look at and draw.  Here's another from Valerie 's studio. And a few bonus sketches - from images I found on Pinterest .

Sketch/Calligraphy - This is only part of the great verse - Needs some work [that "u" and "n" look too much alike for my taste and that weird ligature between then "R" and "g" doesn't work well] and better ink job, but I like the flow and arrangement so may eventually create a vector of this. Sow for yourselves righteousness;      reap steadfast love;      break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord ,      that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. Hosea 10:12 [ESV]

Not my most successful drawing to date, but still fun to look at - might try it again so I can get the angles right. Inktober #2 Prompt: Tranquil Sketch - pencil on paper Reference - pic by Lydz Leow

Probably not going to make it all month, but I'm going to try for at least one every other day. Don't plan to ink them - my goal is to sharpen my drawing skills some - have really let them atrophy. Without more adieu, here's #1 for Jake Parker's Inktober challenge . Prompt: Poison Sketch - pencil on paper reference photo

James McAvoy - cf Victor Frankenstein - sketch 2018 You can tell I didn't take as much time with this portrait as I did with the one of Baker... You can tell what I was going for and that I didn't quite get there. Boy! I need practice.

Simon Baker - cf. The Mentalist - brown pencil on paper - 2018

Another one I sketched from Malan's book . Wish I had a better grasp on how he decides to shade. His version of this one is at least six times better than mine. Click here to see his original. cf D Malan's sketchbook

Was super excited to get a copy of Malan's book of drawings. I've been sketching several of them and will post results soon. It's obvious to me that he's certainly more skilled than I am. He's drawing from life and I'm having trouble simply drawing from his sketch. Here's the original. cf D. Malan's book of sketches

The house is nearly recovered from the flood. Between all of the overtime I've been putting in and staying with family, I've not had as much time since August to work on it as I'd have liked, but I've had some help and finally had a break in my schedule where I could spend some time to wash everything up and finish the walls. Everything is looking good. I've sanded the last bit of drywall mud and caulked the molding and finished painting. Now I've got to finish up all the washing/floors/dusting/cleaning/moving back in stuff. There's still a mountain of work, but I'm super thankful that God's given me parents who are willing to and able to help me (and who didn't mind me staying at their house for weeks while I got things sorted). Thank God for great family! And for how He's given me such great church family! FBCZ has loved on me during this and I can't imagine being any where else. They work me hard in the office - there's a st...

Here's the nativity sketch - sketched elements separately, scanned them at a high resolution then compiled them into the scenes. Wish I'd had more time to work on these, but I think I've done ok in the time allotted. I'm glad God's given me a place to work that will allow me to do creative things like this even though I still feel a little funny about being found sketching when the boss shows up at the door and says 'what cha' doin?'

Did a lot of angel sketches in prep to put together the Spirit of Christmas design for this year. Here are the most successful ones. Only three made it into the final.

Alistair Begg of Truth for Life has a sermon series that inspired this one. I highly recommend listening to those - many of his messages have meat in them you may not always get enough of on Sundays. Another plus is that all of his sermon audio files are free for download.

"Murder sin in its infancy" is a phrase I have oft repeated to myself as a reminder of how quickly thoughts can grow to become actions. If I am merciless with the cute little baby thoughts - thoughts that seem innocent and sweet by killing them in the cradle, then there is no opportunity for that sin to grow into full fledged adult sins with drivers licenses and such that wreak havock within my relationship with Christ. Christ has liberated me from the tyranny of sin by paying the ultimate price - he purchased me and my life and my rights to be the driver of my own life. How can I "add my spittle to those who spat upon the cross" by consciously allowing sin to gain any foot hold in my life? Wish it was always easy to recognize and fight that fight. I cannot do it on my own - it is only through His power that I even recognize anything as sin. He is the one who keeps me on the narrow path and I praise Him for it. [Verse: Colossians 3:5 - and here's an i...

Ok, so the ladies' ministry wants a tshirt design and I was wondering if I might could do some typography/calligraphy for the back - this is their verse: Mark 12:30 Used this one as inspiration: And ended up with this: Here's the final photoshopped on top of some stock paper. Has some successful bits and some not so great bits and isn't particularly pretty... I've still got a lot to learn, but am enjoying the process

Sketched in blue pencil on white paper - photoshopped onto textured paper. Still doesn't look enough like the model for me to be satisfied with the rendering - lots of practice still needed. Here's the source image: Sketch on left is by Julio Caesar. 

Sketch from vintage photo of family members. Here's the original - doesn't really look like her much at all but again, I sure enjoyed myself.

Ok - so my observation skills aren't what they used to be... At least it looks like a tiger.