How To Get Stuff Done

Today is also one of those days for me.

He knows us

A thought I had:

In Narnia, people often address humans as 'Son of Adam' or 'Daughter of Eve'.

In The Silver Chair, this confuses Jill, as she comes from a non-religious background and hasn't heard of Adam and Eve.

However, while Aslan himself often uses 'Son of Adam' or 'Daughter of Eve', he never addresses Jill this way. He knows her, and where she's coming from, and always calls her simply 'Human Child'.

I like that.

Children's books

"this is a children’s book only in the sense that the first of many readings can be undertaken in the nursery"

C.S. Lewis on The Hobbit

Think before you drink

A poster I made for a friend. Those are real bottles/cans, and it's real sugar.
Quite scary, some of the amounts!

From Hillpark Secondary's Twitter - click picture for full tweet.

The sugar is in little boxes I bought from the British Shell Collectors Club, so they'll hopefully last longer than the examples I've seen with the sugar in bags.

It was meant to have blue lettering, but I discovered at the last minute I had no blue card. So I tried green, and I think it actually looks nicer, so that was good. I cheated and cut the letters on my Silhouette machine - that's not why I got it, but might as well use it. It's certainly paid for its (second hand) price!

The bottles/cans are attached with a strip of clear acetate wrapped round them, which goes through a slit in the cardboard. And a glue dot stops them wobbling.

Joseph's cup

Teacher: Why do you think Joseph's brothers were upset when the silver cup was found in Benjamin's sack?
5-year-old: Because they didn't have silver cups in their sacks.

Final artwork

Thought you might like to see the final artwork.
(Apologies for paranoid copyrighting, but when it's for someone else I feel I really really need to be careful)

I'm pleased with the mum's 'sari' here, though I spent way way way too long researching sari drapery (with little result) and those shawl things people carry their babies in. I don't even know if they did in those days, but the drapery looked suitable. 

Now that's where flowing clothes are useful - the mum's skirt hides the dad's legs!

That low view was HARD. But I felt it was needed to a) give an intimidating feel, and b) have a view which made the small children take up enough of the picture space.

I'm pleased with Jesus' cloak here. And the cute baby (got him from a photo).

Change of story here! I'm particularly pleased with the young guy on the right. I got the pose from a photo, but I draped the tunic out of my head.

I really need to practise drawing people, though. Then I wouldn't find this kind of more realistic drawing so difficult.

Bible clothes

Life would be soooooo much easier for poor biblical illustrators if historical people wore jeans and long-sleeved t-shirts (they follow the shapes of arms and legs, but are loose enough to conceal the muscles, and can even be simplified to tubes, if that fits your style), preferably with trainers (which cover the feet with a chunky and simple shape).

Instead we're stuck with this sort of stuff:

Click pictures to enlarge.

Both from synagogue at Dura  Europos (slightly later than NT times - the long sleeves were not in fashion in the 1st century - instead they wore a baggy poncho-like tunic belted at the waist, making it even more difficult)

Taking sides

"A principle of moral psychology is that “morality binds and blinds.” Part of what we do when we make moral judgments is express allegiance to a team. But that can interfere with our ability to think critically. Acknowledging that the other side’s viewpoint has any merit is risky—your teammates may see you as a traitor."

Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt 

This can be a problem in theology. Ideas are seen as bad, not because people have actually thought through them, but because that's what the other side thinks. Or right because that's what you side thinks. I've seen views condemned because Catholics hold them, or defended because that's the reformed view.

Particularly ridiculous when we're all Christians, so there is no 'other side' - just a variety of views (some better than others) on the same side. Calvinists and Arminians, I'm looking at you :-)