Hello again, it has been awhile.
Being a finance person, who mainly finances commercial construction equipment, has left me rather frustrated as of late. Either no one wants to buy anything, or the banks won't approve those who do want to buy.
But I always have my carving, designing and printing, so all is not lost.
I have found that God always provides.
O.K., on to the print. After studying forever, I finally "saw" the image in my head. Not the completed image, but at least the idea of what I wanted to convey.
I was reading and the it came to me; that even though we think the world is falling apart and the church is crumbling, God is still in charge and watching from the heavens. I had to do some research to find an old stone arch as an example and came up with this one:
So, now I had to turn this into an old crumbling church. This is the first sketch i came up with:
I also wanted to figure out the sky. I have always loved this background, and have used it a few times in the past, but never to this degree.
I decided to try a variation on the idea, but really wasn't as pleased with the result. I liked it, it looks really cool,but it wasn't really right for this design. I am sure by the time I am done with this series, it will get used again.
I also decided to add the eyes to the clouds. Trying to introduce the idea that God is watching, He sees what is going on, he knows the truth:
But what do I do with the foreground?
That was driving me crazy. I tried this, but rejected it:
I you can see, I changed the background again.
But the grass in the foreground just didn't work.
Everyone had an opinion, all of which I rejected.
So I set the block aside and waited.
I decided to go ahead and start the block, begin carving, and pray for an answer before I got to the bottom of the print! Risky, I know, but ....
Here is the image with the background all carved out. If you will look close, you can see that I hid the title in the print, kinda my own "where's Waldo" homage, or just copying Durer, but with the title instead of my name.
Uh oh, I just realized I never scanned the final block with the foreground solution!
Well, guess you'll have to wait. I'll try to post it soon, along with the beginning of Psalm 12, which is already being carved.
I really need to start printing again, so I can move on to finalizing the complete layout of the page image. Who knows, maybe someday someone will make this into a book.
Until we meet again, Shalom.
