After I shared a few of my
first drawings on Facebook, I was surprised when people started asking me to do their children and grandchildren. I was hesitant at first; I didn’t want to
disappoint anyone if the drawing turned out badly. But I guess people have been
happy because I’ve been very busy doing commissioned drawings ever since.
I don’t think of myself as
especially artistic. I think of an artist as someone who designs, decorates, or
does crafts. I’m not good at any of these things. I freeze up at T.J.Maxx just
picking out throw pillows. I’m a disaster with a glue gun in my hands.
I’m more like a human copy
machine. I draw what is already there as realistically as possible. I can draw an animal freehand. It doesn’t
have to be exact. A cow is a cow. But
drawing people’s faces is laborious. I use a ruler and a grid to get the
proportion right. If it doesn’t look right, I will hold it over the reference
photo to see where I’ve gone wrong. If I am off even an eighth of an inch,
the baby I’m drawing can end up looking a lot like Winston Churchill.
My skill lies in being a good
observer. I am obsessive in the details. My favorite part is drawing the eyes. Get the eyes right and you've captured the soul. My drawings take between six and eight hours. Sometimes more, especially if I don’t have a
clear reference photo. It’s really difficult to fill in the blanks if I can’t
see the details.
I’ll keep working on
perfecting the drawing until I’m happy with it. Or until I force myself to be
done, spraying it with fixative so I can't make any more changes.
While I’m drawing, I often think of the supreme and ultimate artist. I get just a very small
glimpse of the delight God must have felt when He made us. Genesis 1:27
says God created human beings in His own image—His likeness. Crazy.
There are lots of verses about God
making us perfect, one being James 1:4. “And let endurance have its perfect result, so that
you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
That’s
always stumped me. I know Jesus is perfect, and once we’ve accepted
Him God sees us through His righteousness and perfection. But we ourselves aren’t perfect. We'll continue to mess up right until the end.
Since I've been drawing, I've gotten a better understanding of God perfecting us. God is the original and ultimate artist. He's the potter; we’re the clay. If we yield to His hands, we begin to look
more like Him. He continues to mold us. Our desires change, our actions change, our love grows. We’ll
never be perfect this side of heaven, but we’re a work of art (albeit messy at
times) on which He is putting the finishing touches. So cool.
