escapingbabylon.com

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The Blue ink brush pen, originally uploaded by toad1981.

I like doing drawings in duochrome. Once I was planning to do a webcomic in two shades of ink. Black for outlines, and brown for toning/shading. It was to be set in a summer camp, with the brown ink providing the sepia tone that summer memories often take in my mind.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for me since my last post. It’s taken me this long to write because I had not been able to completely process it. In many ways I still can’t. But I’ll try to explain how I feel.

Moments arise when you see your weaknesses very clearly. There are moments when you are shown exactly how imperfect you are. These last two or so weeks have been that sort of time for me. As you can imagine, it’s really hard to deal with, especially when you are about to jump into something as important as this. The thought came to my mind that if this was how I was dealing with life now, why in the world do I think that I am suitable for ministry.

And in many ways, that thought was correct. However, I am reminded of Paul’s thoughts that he rejoices in his weaknesses so that God’s strength may be revealed. And that is where I stand now. I’m not sure I ever said this here, but I am truly excited to be in a place where God will necessarily have to work in ways beyond my abilities. And even though it’s hard to be shown where some of the limits currently lie, it makes this all the more exciting.

I’m going to end this on a positive note with some shout-outs.

Big shout out to George for the timeliest email ever. It was definitely exactly what I needed.
Shout out to the family for a great thanksgiving, for always being an inspiration. For putting up with me when I get cranky on vacations.
Specific shout outs to my parents for being more supportive of me going on InterVarsity staff than I had expected.
And to my sisters for being the two people who probably understand me best (albeit in very different ways)

Much love to all of you.

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Samurai in landscape, originally uploaded by toad1981.

So here’s the samurai in landscape. I know the hair makes no sense, but the balance seemed off everytime I tried to draw it in the opposite direction. I’m also had some trouble with his right foot. That being said, I like this image.

P.S. one of the drawbacks of experimenting with tone is that it definitely makes for messier pages.

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Woman and the samurai, originally uploaded by toad1981.

Sometimes choosing someone to draw is very arbitrary for me. For example, there were two (and a half) reasons why I chose to sketch this lady. The first was that she had interesting looking earrings, and the second was that she had prominent cheekbones, neither of which really made it into the sketch. I think this one came out well though and is definitely capable of holding the page on it’s own.

The samurai was interesting, I was going for a simpler “animated” style, which mostly worked, but I did that drawing in landscape format, but I’m not sure if it works better that way or this way. Check out the next image to see what I mean.

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Screw it, I’m drawing pirates., originally uploaded by toad1981.

From top left, counterclockwise.

I was on the bus, and this group of guys were talking pretty loudly in the back. These are two of the more quotable lines in their conversation. I’m probably going to use the top one in the graphic novel I’m currently writing.

The bottom, is a pirate. I was bored and I felt that pirates were worthy subjects.

On the right side are two sketches of people on the bus. More on that in the next pic.

tone makes all the difference., originally uploaded by toad1981.

I rarely shade my sketches, so I’m not particularly sure what inspired me to do so now (probably that ugly Superman head from a while back) Anyway, I like how these came out. I like using pattern to shade. It’s surprising, when I first started to draw I wanted to do the photo-realistic, smooth as silk shading. Now, I have almost no interest in doing that. Gabrielle Ellertson(my former Drawing I teacher) would be proud of me. She probably thought that I was a complete flake. In part because I was somewhat of a flake, and also in part because I liked comic books and illustration and she didn’t. Who really knows. I think part of the problem on both sides was that first impressions lasted.

Oh, And I still like Norman Rockwell.

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Glamorous Woman on the Bus, Clown, and other, originally uploaded by toad1981.

Hmm… Maybe I should explain the clown. It’s one of those livejournal memes, you put your name in and it spits out a band name. Mine was The Tender Circus. I like that name a lot. I may noodle with that sketch some more, but we’ll see.

As for the two women on the right, I made the top one look a lot friendlier than she does in real life, and I definitely did not give the second one as much Eartha Kitt styled glamor as she had. She was wearing an awesome dress though. And both the dress, the hat and the scarf/stole were satin. Dignity is hard to come by, she had an abundance of it.

There are some struggles that seem typical of the college experience. Your chosen major/career doesn’t ignite your passions in the way that you expected it to, and you wonder if you were wrong when you chose it. Or maybe as a senior, you have to decide on what you will do with your life. Your passions point you in one direction, but the practicality of living, and the expectations of your community at home point you in another. Or maybe as a freshman, you feel like God is leading you somewhere, but you don’t know where.

Imagine all three struggles being brought up in one night, at a small group. Now imagine that this was a small group for international students, and besides these problems, you still had to deal with navigating a culture that is familiar to you through media, yet strange when you are actually there. if you can imagine this, then you can imagine what it was like about a week ago at the International Student Small Group that I lead. And why I want to minister on college campuses.

During college, students have the almost unprecedented opportunity to shape who they will become. And quite frankly, the amount of choice you have in that respect is often overwhelming. It becomes difficult to navigate these choices, and to see how God is leading you through them. My involvment in InterVarsity, and with the awesome people I met there helped me to figure out a lot of those issues in my life. As we talked about how to hear God’s will, and we prayed about their decisions, it is my hope that I can also help, and continue to help current students do the same.