Psalm 22

Seems like it has been forever. But the day is finally here. A new post!

Here is the latest in the series, possibly one of my most passionate and powerful.

You be the judge:

When I started think of the image to use for this Psalm, I was tossed: to do an image of Christ or an image of a mystery man? Or both?

So, I settled on a self-portrait of myself. I also changed up my style a little, looking to portray a more emotional image than a pictorial image.

I cannot tell you the amount of times or times I have

felt this way, I do not have enough fingers or toes to count. Too many nights have been spent anguishing over Hannah, the economy, my life and so many other issues.

I used pine wood for the block. Just the plain old cheap stuff from my neighborhood Home Depot.

Paper is the same Zerkal and ink my faithful Graphic Chemical WS Black, which is no longer available and I am out of!

Oh well.

Nothing too special about the decorative initial or illumination, other than trying to make them fit together with this extra long Psalm.

For those who like whimsy and those who pay close attention to detail, here is a correction buried in the calligraphy:

And finally, here is the completed piece:

By the way, I decided to also start using smaller decorative caps when separating verses, which can be seen on the enlargement.

Hope you enjoy, leave a comment or two!

Psalm 21: Failure and Success

As I sat in the back of the chapel, prior to our Christmas Eve service, I had the pleasure to listen to the beautiful vocalist that would sing that night (Abby Crane, she is awesome!). She was practicing and warming up her vocal chords with, uh, unusual sounds that singers make before singing. And I thought of Psalm 21:

"The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!"

Which of course led me to start sketching out my idea for the image to use. After a few trials and errors, this is the final image:


Now I was off to the races! Next was to use the really cool graphics I had designed for the decorative initial and illumination. But I just wasn't "feeling" it. You can be the judge this time! I am posting my FAIL, and then what I consider, my SUCCESS (well God's actually, it is all His). Here is the first attempt at the decorative initial:

and the first illumination attempt:


And of course, the complete image:

But, as I said, I just wasn't feeling it, something was not right. Or better yet, I didn't like it. I did not feel like it was up to the standards I had set prior to starting this project. I did not want to create anything I was not proud of and was to the full extent of what I could do. And I knew I could do better.

So, following is round 2, starting off with the revised decorative initial:

And the illumination:


And of course the final image:


Feel free to leave your comments!

Now I need to get back to printing and illuminating, Psalm 22 and Psalm 23 are waiting to be printed and Psalm 24 needs to be carved yet.

Psalm 20

This was one of those Psalms that I could not wait to get to!

Since I have read the Psalms many times, I knew what I thought I wanted to do with this piece for a long time.
I focused in on verse 7:
"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God."
Actually laying it out and designing it though was another matter!
Who would or could have imagined that drawing a tire with a flat would be so hard?

Because I wanted the viewer to see it from a specific angle, I must have drawn and re-drawn that tire a million times. Still it didn't look the way I wanted it to

Then I had an idea (I know, a rarity for me).
I asked a friend of mine who's daughter had a Mercedes if he could help me out. Luckily he was into the idea.
So, without his daughter knowing about it, we snatched her car in the early morning light!
Drove it up to a nearby gas station, and let all the air out of the tire onto a small Styrofoam ring I had purchased.
Took a bunch of pictures from a bunch of angles, re-inflated the tire and snuck the car back home.
She never knew!

Then of course when the print was done I showed it to her. "I have a car just like that!".
I know. Hahahahaha.
So, here is the print (and yes, I noticed that boo boo in the spoke, it is now fixed for any future prints):

One of the things you may not notice right off the bat is that I got just a little crazy with the cross-hatching. I wanted to see how small and intricate I could get, kinda like a personal challenge. Here are some close ups of the final printed image:




Here is the decorative capital:
And the Illumination:

I felt like I needed to have this design encompass more than just the bottom, it was so strong of an image.
And the final print!