An advantage of a 'post-christian' society

From an SU leaflet about holiday clubs:

Clearly there’s less knowledge, because fewer children are in Sunday school. So they start a bit further back – you can’t assume as much. But there’s no less curiosity – and if anything I think there’s more thoughtfulness in their response. They are more honest about what they do and don’t believe.

Steve Hutchinson

Goliath (life size!)

Last week my church did a Holiday Club about the life of David, and they wanted a life-size Goliath for the children to see - and get their pictures taken with.

Here's how we did it (sorry the pictures are a bit pale):

Plan First I drew Goliath on A4 paper and added a grid of squares on the computer - each square to be 6 inches when scaled up. I also added some faint lines half-way across the squares to help when copying.

(You can get the template free if you buy the David & Goliath PowerPoint from Lamp Bible Pictures - www.lampbiblepictures.co.uk/product/david-goliath/ OR buy just the template here - http://www.lampbiblepictures.co.uk/product/goliath-template/)

Grid I drew a grid of 6-inch squares on the wall in pink chalk. 

I needed a tall step-ladder and even then I was worried I'd not be able to reach - 10 1/2 foot (top of spear) is higher than you think! And I'm not tall. But I managed to reach - just.

We situated him at the bottom of the stairs as it's the only suitable place with a high enough ceiling.

Pencil I copied each square from the paper to the wall. This picture was as high as I could reach without the ladder.

The pencils finished. It was hard to get the lines smooth when drawing this big.

Inking I used black acrylic paint and a flat brush about 8mm wide. I think I used another pointy brush for the finer lines (details on armour etc). Interestingly, it was easier to get smooth lines with the paint than the pencil - for which I was glad. 

And then I had to wash the chalk off the wall - I used a furry dusting thing with a long handle I found in the cleaning cupboard.

From chalk lines to this point took 2 hours, and my work was done.

Colour Finally, the talented Jenny Hamill did the colours (acrylic also) - and here's the finished result.

RUN the RACE

Just got my sample copies this morning. I'm very pleased with it. A few minor anomalies, but, as they say, only Allah is perfect ;-) *

 

The Visual Aids posters are A3, folded into a non-stapled A4 book for ease of distribution.

They were drawn by Jo Le Prevost and coloured by me. First time I've tried cel shading (hard-edged shading in computer colouring). This page was extremely helpful, as I have no idea what I'm doing really. I also used lighting a lot more atmospherically than I do usually - I want to learn more about this. The internet is a great place, full of people sharing their 'how to' secrets.

Order through your local Christian bookshop if you're fortunate enough to still have one, or buy direct from Go Teach.

*Btw, 'Allah' is the Arabic word for God, and used by arabic Christians too. It's not specific to Islam. Just in case you were thinking of complaining...

New

Happy New Year!

New desk:

It's an old door (which, I'm guessing from the marker stains all over it, my granny used to make flannelgraph) and Ikea legs. I plan to use it as a painting and drawing table.

New programs to play with: 

I have downloaded the trial version of Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, etc). I'm seriously thinking of getting it. I have been very happy with Corel PhotoPaint, but it does have some limitations. And after the fiasco with Publisher, InDesign is definitely a requirement if I want to design a book again!

There are some really good features - such as the ability in Photoshop to cut out photos of people with frizzy/wispy hair.

Sample photo before:

 

 Photograph ©Trevor Goodwin | Dreamstime.com

Sample photo after: 

This took me exactly half an hour. Well, when I say me, Photoshop more or less does it for you. It's not perfect, but good for a first attempt. Would have been quicker if I was more familiar with Photoshop's controls. Before, this would have probably taken hours of tedious work - and not been as good.

And, on the theme of New Year, here are a couple of little verse cards I designed for the RUN the RACE Holiday Club (coming soon...)

 Photograph ©istock/mediaphotos 

Photograph ©Sparkia | Dreamstime.com

Reference material

Amazing what a difference reference material makes.

My attempt at a picture of arm wrestling, out of my head:

After I Googled it:

Easier to draw, infinitely more convincing!

The studio progresses...

A bit of DIY (with a little help from Ikea):

Now I just need to transport all the books and files...

I couldn't do this when I was working at home:

I actually drew these as 2 inch thumbnails, but printed them out A4 to see how they'll look. Quite a good idea actually - forces you to be simple, which they'll need to be, due to lack of time. I won't actually be drawing these - I'm just commissioning them for the Holiday Club I'm designing.

I have also met a couple of people in my corridor - in fact, the lady who has just moved in next door and I spent a couple of hours cleaning the kitchen! We don't think many people had been using it, and it was a wee bit untidy and grubby.

Coming soon...