Hello friends,
First, this is the finished piece of art that I did:

The Story

There were multiple things that led to the creation of this piece: To begin with, I have been on my own journey with God where He set me on a course of not working and trusting in Him alone for all of my needs - this could be and probably should be its own blog post in due time -suffice it to say, that there was a lot of personal inspiration from my own circumstances that went into the creation of this. Secondly, the overall look was an idea that I had already been contemplating but then my sister messaged me from South Africa with a very similar idea and that set the wheels in motion of actually doing this. Finally, some friends in my church had a neighbor who is a doctor and was taken advantage of by co-workers through the writing of prescription drugs and the short of it is that he is now potentially going to prison for a few years though no fault of his own (or at least no intentional wrong doing) - he is also a Christian and he and his wife are handling it as well as they can be, but once I completed this piece I felt that I should give it to them as some encouragement that, no matter what goes down - even though it can be very difficult - God's eye is still on you and your circumstances.

There is a hymn I have always loved, "His eye is on the sparrow."
Here is the background to that hymn: "Civilla Martin describes the context out of which the hymn was born: “Early in the spring of 1905, my husband and I were sojourning in Elmira, New York. We contracted a deep friendship for a couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle—true saints of God. Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for nigh twenty years. Her husband was an incurable cripple who had to propel himself to and from his business in a wheelchair. Despite their afflictions, they lived happy Christian lives, bringing inspiration and comfort to all who knew them. One day while we were visiting with the Doolittles, my husband commented on their bright hopefulness and asked them for the secret of it. Mrs. Doolittle’s response was simple: ‘His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.’ The beauty of this simple expression of boundless faith gripped the hearts and fired the imagination of Dr. Martin and me. The hymn ‘His Eye Is on the Sparrow’ was the outcome of that experience.”

Easy to quote Matthew, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?... And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”, but difficult to understand when conflict arises and the proverbial barns are, indeed, empty.

I would suggest that it is precisely at that point when God will reveal more of Himself to you than any other time. Instead of worrying, notice all the burdens God has allowed you to cast off as the barn burns to the ground - now you are free to go wherever God directs.

Some art process shots

First I did the contour drawing to mark out all the shapes:

This shows the practicing I did first to try to get the look I wanted using watercolors.

This is my best impression of Edward Scissorhands as I work:

I used Oil Paint for the black parts:

Annnnd clearly this is where I stopped taking pictures!

Thanks for stoppping by!