Politics

"Let the believer rejoice that the government under which he dwells has an immortal ruler at its head, has existed from all eternity and will flourish when all created things shall have for ever passed away."

~ Charles Spurgeon

Maker of Mornings

Here's another in my 'morning songs' playlist.

Even before I heard it, I liked the title. And you can hear the sunrise in the intro.

It's interesting - many of the ideas are similar to his older song Good to be Alive. But the second verse of this one adds something that was missing in the earlier song.

French army grooms eagles to down drones

My attempt at using AI 'photography'

There's a site which allows you to create fake photos of landscapes using AI.

I thought I'd try it out with a scene I know well:

Quinaig & Loch Nedd

Here's what I inputted. Each colour represents a particular preset 'material' - turquoise is 'sky', grey is 'cloud', khaki is 'mountain', green is 'hill', lime green is 'tree', brown is 'rock', blue is 'sea', and olive green is 'bush'

And here's what it came up with 😆😆😆😆😆

Here's another with a sunset filter on it:

I know it's not really mean for recreating real scenes, so I tried a made up one (purple is 'river', bright green is 'grass', brown is 'house' and that weird greeny browny yellowy colour is 'sand'):

Hmmmmmmm.....

You are all I need

Woke early this morning, my mind whirling with many things. Getting ready for church I was tired, and getting more and more uptight.

In church, the first song we sung was given out by an elderly widower who probably has more difficulties in his life than I can imagine. The song was We bow down and confess, and one line simply says, "You are all I need."

It got me thinking:

When everything seems terrible,  

  you are all I need.
When I'm aware of my sinfulness, 

  you are all I need.
When I think I'm actually good enough, 

  you are all I need.
When I think I can do it on my own, 

  you are all I need.
When I feel inadequate, 

  you are all I need.
When things don't go my way, 

  you are all I need.
When it's hard to believe, 

  you are all I need.
When I'm full of good ideas for things I want to do,

  you are all I need.
When I worry about the future, 

  you are all I need.
When I feel like a loser, 

  you are all I need.
When my to-do list is growing, 

  you are all I need.
When the world is confusing, 

  you are all I need.
When it's hard to live your way, 

  you are all I need.

Planning an outfit for King David

I went for a golden brown colour as it's similar to his shepherd clothes, but also looks regal.

More illustrations

Just finished these illustrations this week for Go Teach.

Top story is Jesus healing the demon-possessed girl (which is an incredibly difficult story for children - and adults for that matter. But I just had to draw it, not teach it!) Bottom story is Jesus bringing Jairus's daughter back to life.

The last two pictures are closely based on ones I did for my own PowerPoint. But a very different style, to fit with others in the series!

I really like the hands in this.

And finally, a set of illustrations for the 2nd commandment (no idols), based on Psalm 115.
If you think these don't look like my illustrations, that's because they had to fit into a set done by a previous illustrator, so I tried to fake his style.

The first picture is the writer of the Psalm. I wanted him to look like he was trying out ideas while writing his song, and I immediately thought of this album cover:

Only I've swapped out the guitar with a lute, which actually was an instrument at the time, though looks familiar enough to kids not to need explanation.

The last one, with the body parts, was actually the hardest to draw! That, and finding idols to draw that weren't nude or otherwise inappropriate :-)