Comment on this (0 so far) y2008m11d21 - For quite a number of years now, we've published a year-end family newsletter called the Sissons Sentinel. Rachel is the editor and I'm the artist. This time I drew a comic which ended up taking a full page. It was fun to put together! The basic drawings were done by hand and then cleanly traced in GIMP. I'm hopeless at drawing canines and had to find images online to semi-trace in GIMP. I was quite pleased with the whole result.

The story is embellished. Well Telum was torn up on his neck and the top of his head, we don't know what kind of animal did the damage. However, the placement of the injuries has led to conjecture that it was a larger animal.
 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2008m07d12 - I found this eye-rending pattern online and decided to make a wallpaper out of it. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2008m05d07 - "The Station"
I had an urge to do some bizarre pencil drawing and a bit of an idea came to mind so I got down to business. I think Silent Hill influenced my inspiration. After scanning I added colour and background but did almost no touch-up on the lines.  

Comment on this (0 so far) y2008m04d07 - "Sunbeam"
I have a lot of ideas for drawings but often they are difficult to translate from my mental image to an picture on paper / screen. This drawing was started because I wanted to make something straightforward and uncomplicated, just a cute anime-style face. I think it worked out the way I wanted. All the drawing was done from The GIMP and I used more layers than ever before -- one for each element (eyes, hair, shading, etc). The background is a combination of cloud photos. In all the piece took a touch over 10 hours.
 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2007m11d03 - "Crafted of String"
The idea for this came to me out of no where while I was waiting for Bible Study to begin. I had a sheet of paper and pen and doodled down the "element" shaped pieces. Later I played around in The GIMP for a while and added some other bits to complete the thought. 

Comment on this (2 so far) y2006m10d21 - "Anthropomorphic"
I've wanted to draw something of this nature for a some time and had actually begun on a similar drawing a while back. But it just wasn't going in the right direction so I left off. But the other day I suddenly wanted to give it another shot so I sat down on the hardwood floor in the computer room and scribbled out a line drawing. Then I coloured it on the computer using The GIMP. 

Comment on this (2 so far) y2006m09d26 - "Aerograspius"
After watching the trailer for Silent Hill 4 I felt the urge to draw something bizzare. (Note that I don't endorse the game!) So I whipped out my pencil, pen, and paper and went to work. I scanned the drawing and then (using The GIMP) I adjusted the contrast, added some colour, and made the background a little "crinkly". Don't know what this thing is but it is most assurely still alive... 

Comment on this (2 so far) y2006m08d24 - "Jabee Na'avraan"
While chillin' at the cottage I was totally into the whole Star Wars universe (I was reading the final book in the NJO series: The Unifying Force). So I did a little drawing of some made-up Jedi girl. I kinda liked how it turned out so I scanned it when I got home. I used The GIMP to touch it up, colour it, and add a background.  

Comment on this (0 so far) y2006m06d01 - "Invincible"
This was scanned from a pen drawing and coloured with The GIMP. The idea is that though throughout history all of Satan's forces are vehemently trying to obliterate God's people, Christ will protect His church. The devil may rage, but we know Who holds his chain.

"...the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." - Matt. 16:18b 

Comment on this (2 so far) y2006m02d15 - "Light at My Feet"
"As I aimless wandered around
how could I ever expect to be found
until looking down and seeing a light at the ground
by my feet I heard angels resound
and there I avowed this is the road I would take
just to make it there for my sake
now I say that I'll never break

I can get there by the light at my feet"

"Light at My Feet" by Pillar

Once the light of the cross has shone into our hearts, it will also cast a path for us to follow home. We will be plagued with the grasping evils of this fallen world while we yet tread that path, but the grip of evil cannot maintain its hold.

I drew this with pen on white 8.5 x 11 " paper and scanned it. Then using The GIMP I cleaned up the drawing a little, darkened it, and added the cross. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2005m12d13 - "Extruded"
I felt like making an abstract work with large chunks of colour. Here it is. Created using The GIMP. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2005m08d01 - "Web of Lives"
This picture is from a rough pencil work. Once scanned, I cleaned up some of the lines, added more shading, and some colouring. I generated a base layer using a few effects to give the smoother areas of the picture a bit more texture. That together with the crude pencil lines made for the gritty feel I wanted. Naturally all the touching up on the computer was via The GIMP. The general idea of the picture didn't just come to me - I wanted to do something of this style so I thought about what to do for a bit. After sketching some ideas I decided to go for this. The gist of the picture is that our lives are all connected - what we do can and will affect others around us. 

Comment on this (2 so far) y2005m06d28 - "Unlikely Friend"
The style I wanted for this was a smudged, uncrisp, sort of hazy look, with faded colours. I did all the painting freehand in The GIMP with very little use of cutting and pasting or effects or other handy computer tools. I thought that would help to keep a more organic feel. I toyed with the idea of going macabre with the picture, but decided that was too cliché for scarecrows and crows and so I went for something cheerier. BTW, my mom suggested the pipe. ß-) Kids, smoking isn't recommended though - the pipe is only the scarecrow's fashion accessory. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2005m06d11 - "Guardian"
I was inspired by seeing a picture of a sunlight patch of grass on an artwork site and wished to create a similar effect. I thought just the egg would be a little too simplistic so I added a armored figure in the background, protecting the egg until it hatched. The lines are from a scanned pen drawing. Then the colouring, shadow, and light beam were added using The GIMP. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2005m04d19 - "Heart Burn"
I was sitting in the office on April 15, 2005 and somehow this title and image came to mind. Don't ask me what it represents 'cause I haven't a clue... I tried drawing the figure on the computer but that didn't turn out well. Instead I opted to do a pencil drawing and scan it. The cards are also scanned. The scanned elements were altered and arranged and the background was created all with The GIMP. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2005m03d19 - "Icon"
I was driving on my own a one day and suddenly, wham, this image of two black, but shining, arms curving upwards impressed itself on my mind's eye. So after fiddling around with the design I came up with this. It looked rather plain with just the center shape so I added a horizon and the geometric writing on the sides. That added a bit more meat to the image while preserving a clean, simple feel. It was created with The GIMP. 

Comment on this (2 so far) y2005m02d18 - "Resident Depravity"
This was done using the same technique as used with "Enter the Light" below. I always hate it when people say that humans are "good at heart". No they aren't! Just check out two little kids fighting over a toy. Betcha didn't have to teach them that! 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2004m12d13 - "Abstracted"
This was done with The GIMP and I referrenced a photo for the the general design (facial features, hair, etc). The background is a composite of two cityscape photos I found online somewhere. "Abstracted" means "separated" or "preoccupied". Sometimes we've got to get away from the motion around us and take time for introspective contemplations. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2004m12d11 - I learned about some new effects in The GIMP when I built this wallpaper. Layers and controlling how they blended came in very useful too. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2004m07d19 - I drew this with black and green pen when I was flying back home from Tepic, Mexico. There are *heaps* of graffiti works in Tepic so I think that inspired me to create something wild. I scanned it and did a tiny bit of cleaning up to make it a little crisper. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2004m03d20 - Here's another graffiti work. I thought "Imperial Militia" would be a fresh name for a hip hop crew, you know, the church militant. The radiation symbol represents the need to shine in the world, and the album title "Undestroyed" refers to 2 Corinthians 4:9. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2004m01d23 - "Enter the Light"
One sunny winter afternoon I was contempating the reflection of my sun-lit face in my computer's monitor, particularily when the monitor was displaying mostly black. So I started up The GIMP and traced my reflected face with a white paintbrush on a black background. It was uncanny when I pulled back and saw what I drew. An interesting effect. And I like the grim look of partial shadowing from the hood I was wearing. 

Comment on this (0 so far) y2003m08d23 - I like this quote by Yoda from Star Wars and then I was inspired to do some graffiti-style painting. This is the result. I like how the blurred paint looks on the brick wall background (taken from a screenshot in a computer game based in New York, BTW).