Dream Inspirations

Dream Inspiraiton, Jesus Focus With Dove
14.5″w x 17″h pencil on sketch paper. Jesus focus is embodied in rays illuminating out of His left eye, as he beckons us and His dove with his right hand.

Dreams

A lot of my images are gift dream inspirations. A vivid dream occurs with an image or sound and sometimes words are spoken. If I am lucky, it flashes through my mind right as I wake up and I run down to the studio to put it down on paper before it fades away. This pencil sketch is one of those dreams.

Answers

I went to bed worried about the state of the world asking, “What am I going to do Lord?”. You know, one of those times when the world’s troubles monopolize your mind making it impossible to feel any serenity.

Be careful when you ask the Man Upstairs for advice, cause you usually get a real direct reply. This was a reply with Him standing in the wind saying, “Don’t lose your Focus!” as He reached out to me, and right then, a bright white dove returned home to sit on His hand. His eye had a great sparkle that extended out making everything bright. Right then I knew everything would be alright.

Jesus Focus With Dove 1
Progress shot showing beginning layout with facial features.

Steps to do a pencil rendering of that dream. I first sketch out a very preliminary layout moving items here and there to get the basic idea down. I begin to search my image files and the internet for references for the hand position, and the facial expression. Next is a search for a flying dove image in my reference books and online. With the help of PhotoShop I am able to build a layout to work from that fits what I remember.

Jesus Focus With Dove 2
His right hand extending toward the viewer is rendered.
Jesus Focus With Dove 3
The background shading reveals the dove’s flight.
Jesus Focus With Dove 4
With the hair in the wind and other background surfaces shaded it comes to life.

Chalk Portraits of Jesus

There are 6 original chalk portraits of Jesus at our church sale, the first one is already sold.Jesus Smiling ChaulkportraitJesusJ1515Missions Boutique”

for the Country Church of the Open Bible

here in Elk WA at The Firehouse on Hwy 2
35007 N. Newport Hwy
Friday: starting at 9am till 7pm

portraitJesusJ1415 portraitJesusJ1315 portraitJesusJ1215I practice with chalk and black paper doing the highlights so I don’t get too used to seeing only the dark shadows which is what I spend the majority of my time illustrating with for books and b&w drawings. Highlights vs Shadows, try it and see how opposite it is for your brain to exercise this way.

Jesus Looks Different

Have you ever noticed that the face of Jesus throughout history has been similar to whatever society the painter lives in? If you think about it, this is only right because we have never really seen His face. There are no portraits painted of Him during all of His travels, there are no photographs taken of Him while He was on this earth. We have no selfies of Jesus. When we draw and paint Jesus, it is from feelings in our heart and soul estimating what we would see in a Man/God coming to save us. We use the male faces in our lives to render this person in our heart.

In Northern Europe, Jesus tends to have a very Caucasian slender face with light hair (straight or a little wavy). Moving South He morphs into curlier darker hair and skin. Going into Paul’s region of travel He becomes more like the people in Turkey or Arabia with a dark slender face and more prominent nose. Jesus is painted as a black man, in the museums of Africa.

The most amazing thing about all the portraits of Jesus is the sense of “awe” that is in rendition. You can tell the artist is trying to relay a very important feeling.