Mural

I like this!

Mural on Mitchell Street, Glasgow

Noah's Ark jelly

The KitKat finger is - believe it or not - almost the same proportions as the ark. And, as an added bonus, when you bite into it, it has three floors!!! 

The ark on calm water

You will need (per person):

• About 150-200ml of blue - or clear - soft drink. (I used berry & tropical flavour Powerade - a 500ml bottle between 3 people)
• Gelatine. About 1 leaf per 100ml of juice.
• 1 finger of KitKat.
• A small bowl wide enough to fit the KitKat.

What to do:

1. Soak gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, put some of the juice in a pan, and heat.
3. Take off the heat, and add the gelatine. Stir to dissolve (it was pretty much instantaneous when I did it).
4. Add the rest of the juice and pour into bowls.
5. Put in fridge to set.
6. (Optional, if you want stormy water). Chop up the jelly small and stir around a bit.
7. Place KitKat finger upside down on top of 'water', to make an 'ark'.
8. Eat. 

P.S. Don't be put off by using gelatine - it's actually even easier than using jelly cubes.

The ark on choppy water

Definitions

Pedantic: Focussing on details I think are unimportant or wrong.
Accurate: Focussing on details I think are important and true.

In search of beauty

My brother's new blog - click banner below.

The unexpected

    God holds the key of all unknown,
        And I am glad;
    If other hands should hold the key,
    Or if He trusted it to me,
        I might be sad.

    What if tomorrow's cares were here,
        Without its rest?
    I'd rather He unlocked the day,
    And, as the hours swing open, say,
        My will is best.

    The very dimness of my sight
        Makes me secure;
    For, groping in my misty way,
    I feel His hand; I hear Him say,
        My help is sure.

    I cannot read His future plans;
        But this I know:
    I have the smiling of His face,
    And all the refuge of His grace
        While here below.

    Enough; this covers all my wants;
        And so I rest;
    For what I cannot, He can see,
    And in His care I saved shall be,
        Forever blest.

Joseph Parker

Jesus figure

Here's a Jesus figure to go with the 12 disciples character sheet.
A couple of people have asked for one.

(new version uploaded 13th Sept 2014)

After posting this, I realised that it may not be what people are expecting when they ask for a picture of Jesus! It's not your typical picture, but it's how I'm drawing Jesus at present, so I'm used to it. 

There is a reason for all the things that might be considered 'strange'.

There's nothing in this picture that would tell you it was Jesus unless you knew. This is deliberate:

• He is ordinary. Humanly speaking, Jesus was just an ordinary, working class man.  There was nothing special-looking about him. I have deliberately made him as average as possible.

• He is a man. Obviously very few people would argue with this in theory, but so often he is portrayed as a sissy. A 'girl-with-a-beard' as I heard this type of picture once described! Masculinity is not somehow less spiritual, and it's unhelpful to imply that it is.

• He is middle eastern. Does an average middle eastern man have lily-white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes? Why do people draw Jesus this way? Especially when they draw everyone surrounding him in a realistic manner. The implication that fair skin is somehow more holy is dangerous. 

•  He is not wearing white. At his transfiguration, his clothes 'became white'. The implication, I think, is that they were not white to start with (nor is it likely they were off-white; ancient people had much simpler colour vocabulary than modern English). White is also an impractical colour when travelling! I have chosen red for two reasons: a) it is symbolic of blood, and b) I often do main characters in red to stand out. Any story Jesus is in has him as the main character.   
• He is wearing a short tunic. He is an ordinary working-class man, and archaeological evidence appears to show that short tunics were the norm at the time. Jesus didn't think much of people who dressed in special clothes to look more holy, so we can assume he didn't wear anything out of the ordinary.

• He has short hair. There's no reason to suggest Jesus would wear his hair differently from anyone else. (Sometimes people think he was a Nazirite, but he wasn't - he was a Nazarene: i.e. someone who comes from Nazareth.) It seems that short hair was the norm at the time. The reason I have drawn his hair curly is simply to be different. I don't think it's helpful if all pictures of Jesus look the same - no-one knows what he looked like, but we can recognise a picture of Jesus at a glance - this is silly!

Paper boat

Was looking through some stuff, and came across this.