A Guest Post by an Artist

       In today's post we have a guest blogger, my brother Chris. He is developing into quite a fine sketch artist, and I thought it would be fun to showcase some of his work here. Chris started drawing when he was very young, drawing picture books (stapled together) of stories about all his favorite Thomas the Train characters. As he got older, he continued to draw endless pictures of whatever he was currently interested in. Star Wars characters, animals, religious art, etc have all been included, as well as the illustrations of characters and particular scenes from his recent chapter books. (we hope to be able to publish those before long and keep you updated!)

    I always really liked drawing.  The earliest things I remember drawing are Thomas characters on a magna doodle.  I'm was always looking for ways to improve them, and still am.  I recently started using the techinique of starting the picture with basic shapes just to get all the proportions right. I learned that when I got some books from the library with step-by-step directions on how to draw marine creatures.  It also introduced me to shading.     

        Well, actually, the first time I ever heard of shading, and thought of doing it my drawings, was when I asked my Aunt to help me.  She told me about shading on the side of objects that were away from the light, and so from that time on until recently, whenever I drew faces one side was darker than the other.  To the left are two characters from my first book, The Two Knights.

                                                                                                                            

    Then, this Christmas, I got two books on drawing.  One was about how to draw comic book characters, and I used that for a while.  It gave me some good tips on proportions and things like that.  Then there was the other book, which was about drawing life-like portraits.  It was by a professional, and the pictures were extremely life-like.  I also got one of the most useful tools for drawing: tortilions.  These were rolled up pieces of white cardboard that help make the blending much smoother.  This picture above and to the left is the first picture I ever used them on.  It's a character from one of my stories, ATO (Anti-Terrorist Organization).  The one below is a picture of Saint Anthony of Padua, which I drew for a religious  art contest.  I hope you enjoyed reading this!

May it please the supreme and divine Goodness to give us all abundant grace

ever to know His most holy will and perfectly to fulfill it.

- St. Ignatius of Loyola