Following Jesus

"Following Jesus never ends with "what's in it for me?"

I heard this quote was from a sermon by Andy Stanly a couple of weeks ago. For me, coming back to faith was about "what's in it for me." I was in a rough place in life and needed help. After recommitting my life to God things began to get better. My attitude, health, relationships, etc. Life hasn't gotten easier but it has gotten much better.

I went from being a consumer to being an advocate.

Paint Your Little Village

"Paint your little village and you paint the world."

I love this quote because it feels so empowering to know that we don't have to buy a plane ticket and travel to another country to do a mission trip to help change the world. We can do it right here! At home, work, the grocery store, etc. A smile to a stranger, a kind word to the cashier, a phone call to an old friend.

We are all connected.

Inspirational Chalkboard Art

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
- Psalm 118:24

Lately I've been learning a lot about hand drawn fonts, typography and layout. It has been a fun challenge and I like how it adds another skill set to my "artistic tool belt." I feel grateful to be able to make art that coincides with my beliefs.

Thank you Erin for the free chalkboard background!

Priorities: What's Important in Life

Inspired by the professional golfer, Bubba Watson, this is a short list of my priorities in life.

1. God
2. My wife
3. My kids
4. Helping others
5. Art

Five years ago the list would have looked more like this...

1. Art
2. Health
3. Family

I've learned that by shifting my focus on God and other people, rather than myself, life seems to have more meaning, purpose and fulfillment. Getting back to church and making that a priority in the last several years is turning out to be one of the better decisions I've made.

Surrendering

There is a contemporary Christian radio station here in the Twin Cities (KTIS) that I'm really into lately. I was inspired by the Chris Tomlin song, "White Flag" on the way to work one morning and sketched this out. Lately, with planning the wedding and getting ready to move into a new apartment with Heidi, there's been a lot going on. I'm learning to let go of what I "think" is best for me by surrendering, applying faith, taking one day at a time and trusting God. With this surrender it feels like life falls into place with ease rather than when I rigidly try to control everything. I guess that's why this song really hit home for me. These last nine months have been amazing but certainly came with their challenges. I know that it wouldn't have worked out as well as it has if I didn't trust in God.

4" x 4.75"
Ink, marker, and colored pencil on card stock

Art Inspiration!

Such a great resource for all artists, students and professionals!

The Chris Oatley website and podcast are full of amazing resources! This isn't new news, but if you are an artist and haven't done so yet, please visit this site.

Chris, God bless you. You are an inspiration and hope to us all!

Art Podcasts

Over the last few years I've been fortunate to stumble upon some great podcast shows related to illustration, comics, animation and art. It has been an education listening to these, and best of all they are free!

I feel an enormous amount of gratitude while writing this and thinking about all the people that so generously gave their time and energy into creating these. To keep it short, here is a list of my three favorite art related podcasts. They are the ones that I've learned the most from and check regularly. 

Chris Oatley's Artcast: http://chrisoatley.com/category/podcasts/

Hosted by Chris Oatley, a wealth of knowledge is shared in the areas of animation, digital painting, time management, goals and good old fashioned inspiration.

Paper Wings Podcast: http://www.paperwingspodcast.com/

Hosted by Loura Innes and Chris Oatley, the PaperWings Podcast is a community geared towards comic books and story telling.

Sidebar Nation: http://www.sidebarnation.com/

Hosted by Dwight, Adrian and Swain, Sidebar is a podcast on the topics of comic books, art and pop culture. The guests on the show are artists working in the industry (comics, film, illustration, ect.) and always have plenty of wisdom and inspiration to share.

Attitude

by Charles Swindoll

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on my life. Attitude, to me, it is more important than facts. It is more important the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gifts or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

John Singer Sargent Quote

"Cultivate an ever continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to make slight notes of postures, groups and incidents. Store up in the mind... a continuous stream of observations from which to make selections later. Above all things get abroad, see the sunlight and everything that is to be seen."

I love this quote. It reminds me of the importance of practicing mindfulness, being in the present (rather than you mind wandering in thoughts) and getting out to see the world.



On a side note, I've been drawing up the Dark Knight for fun in the evenings. The plan is to print it out to be five feet tall, mount it on cardboard/foam core and hang it up on a wall. The file is HUGE! Put it this way, it takes about three minutes to save and open the file in Photoshop :) More to come soon. For now, here are a couple screen shots of the work in progress. (The Magneto image is from the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 game art and is being used for reference).

Love Your Work

"Do what you love to do, and do it so well that those who come to see you do it will bring others to watch you do it again and again and again."

- Mark Victor Hansen

Paper Wings Podcast

Paper Wings Podcast: Learn to make & sell your creator-owned comics, graphic novels, picture books & animation!

How do I make a living from my own ideas?

For most visual storytellers, and creative people of all kinds, this is the question of the century.

Led by by Disney character designer Chris Oatley and IDW comics creator Lora Innes, the Paper Wings Team is pursuing answers to this question by covering relevant topics such as:

• How to craft beautiful and engaging visual stories.
• How to get attention from big studios & publishers with an independent project.
• How to grow an audience through technology and social media.
• How to run a small, creative business legally and profitably.
• How to make the most of your limited time and energy.

This was all copied and pasted from the Paper Wings website; I figured they can sell it better than me :)

I can't say enough good things about what's going on over at this site and am continually blown away by how much information is so generously shared on the Internet. You can almost call it free art school, not to mention a community of other artists/storytellers to grow with.

If you're a visual storyteller, this site is definitely worth checking out!

Follow Your Dreams!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

Gratitude

Two of the greatest words my parents ever taught me while growing up were "thank" and "you." At the time, it seemed like a polite thing to say when someone else did something nice for you. As I grow older, the significance of these words becomes more understood.

Gratitude can be thought of as a multiplier of good things in life. By the law of attraction (also known as the law of love) what we give we shall receive. Gratitude is also a form of love, and by giving thanks we are giving love. This is a really great way to bring more positive people, circumstances and events into our lives. The cool thing about this is that you can feel and think this way any time you choose! If it's hard to find something you're grateful for, you can always fall back on the things we might take for granted (running water, health, eyes, ears, friends, pets, nature, etc.) By really dwelling on the things we appreciate and love, we can turn around a tough day or create better days for the future. :)

In closing, a certain inspirational figure comes to mind on this subject. Is it any coincidence (if you believe in coincidences) that one of the greatest minds that ever lived, Albert Einstein gave thanks at least a hundred times a day? Could it be that life revealed so many of it's mysteries to him because of his understanding and practice of gratitude on a daily basis?

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."

- Albert Einstein

Goals

Today, I wanted to share something that's close to heart and hopefully valuable to you in some way. It's nothing new. It's significance, though, can not be praised enough.

When I was 16, I went to a wrestling camp at the University of Minnesota. Along with the vigorous training, drilling and learning new moves, the camp instructors gave us booklets to work in at night. The booklets were meant for the wrestlers to figure out what goals they wanted to achieve as athletes and in our personal lives.

A couple years ago when I was living in California, I revisited my goal list from the wrestling booklet and to my amazement one of my goals was to "live in California." It blew my mind. I had written that goal maybe 6 or 7 years ago, forgot about it and was then currently living a dream and didn't even know it.

There's something about writing out our goals that is so helpful in getting to places that we wish to be in life. It helps us figure out what we really want and desire. In this short time we are here on earth, what is it that you want to do? Who do you want to be? You can think of goals as a bull's eye on the dart board. When you know what you're aiming for, it's easier to hit the target... otherwise, you're just throwing darts and it doesn't really matter where you hit the board. And that's OK, too.

On my computer there's several word documents with personal and career goals filled out. As artists and designers, we all ready have that creative muscle we use regularly. It can be applied here as well... and when doing this, just let it run wild! Have fun with it. Imagine yourself selling a painting for "XX,XXX" amount of dollars. Imagine yourself being published in a popular magazine and picking up the issue off the shelf at the grocery store. Image yourself eating dinner and having an amazing conversation with your favorite artist. Imagine your children's book or personal sketchbook being published and holding it your hands.

I could write about this for another hour it feels, so I'll try to rap up this post with some encouragement to make your own goal list. Look at it often and change and add to it as you go. Again, have fun with it! And don't wonder "how" you're going to achieve these... this isn't important. Just let go of hindering thoughts and dream big.

:)