The Art of Shawna Apps
Today’s drawing was not what I was expecting. I even forgot this one was in the challenge!
Oops.
I was mentally prepared to do tomorrow’s drawing when I went to the office today, so when I saw the schedule, I was caught off guard. I guess I could have switched today’s drawing with tomorrow’s, but I stuck with the original plan, and it actually worked out pretty well!
Title: Deer at the Lake
Medium: Graphite pencil on acid free paper
Size: 5×7
This next Christmas gift reveal was so hard to keep under wraps as I worked on it. I love sharing sneak peeks of what I’m working on, and I know a lot of my followers on Facebook enjoy them as well. This piece I couldn’t share much of anything, just a tree and my signature basically. When this gift was for one of my biggest followers and supporters, anything more than that would have given the whole piece away!
Without further ado, I give you….
Title: Little Country Church
Medium: Graphite on paper
Size: 10 x 12
Hey guys!
I’ve been getting asked a lot of questions on the Jesus drawing series (thank you; I love questions!), and I figured a frequently asked questions post was in order 🙂
You’ve mentioned some are on permanent display at your church; where are they and how are they displayed?
They are all framed and hanging in a foyer between the sanctuary, fellowship hall, and kitchen entryways. Here’s a glimpse of how they’re displayed:
How long did it take you to do all of them?
About 14 weeks, start to finish. There were some drawings that took over a week, others took just under a week to complete. The hours varied for each drawing as well, from about 5 hours to almost 15! There were times I had to be working on two drawings at the same time.
What’s your favorite one? What’s your least favorite?
I love Nativity, Transfiguration and Communion! Least favorite is definitely the Wedding Miracle, although I appreciate it more now than I did when it first debuted at church 🙂 Ascension is another least favorite.
If you could redo any of them, which one would you choose?
Ascension. I was so physically and mentally tired at that point that it’s not as strong of a piece as the others.
Which ones will be in the note card set?
Definitely Nativity. I’m also thinking about Communion, Crucified if I can get a better picture of it, and the rest is still up in the air. I’d like to do The Boy’s Lunch because I like that one, but not sure it would fit with the theme. Resurrected would also be nice, but as that’s controversial, I don’t know if it will happen. I’m always up for suggestions!!!
Will they all be available as prints?
No. Nativity is available now, and a few others will follow soon.
What was the biggest challenge from undertaking this big project?
There were a few challenges we came across throughout this project! One was how we were going to convey Jesus. He’s not the blue eyed, long brownish haired man we see so commonly today, and I wanted to make these drawings as historically and Biblically accurate as possible. After lots of discussion with my pastor, we decided to keep him the typical Jesus we see portrayed today as to not confuse anyone who may not be as familiar with each story depicted.
Another challenge was trying to find time to get these done! They were debuted at least one every Sunday from the start of Lent to the first Sunday after Easter, so there was a big rush for each drawing to be completed. I was babysitting and had two kids not in school at that point, so it wasn’t easy.
I think the hardest part for me was the physical limitations I had at the very end. A lot of people don’t know this, but this project actually gave me tendinitis in my right arm (I’m right handed) from all of the drawing. If I spend too much time drawing at one time now, it will flare up again, but it’s much better than it had been.
Thanks for all the questions over the past few weeks! What was your favorite piece in the series? Which ones would you like to see available as a print or note card? Let me know below in the comments!
Title: Ascension
Medium: Graphite on paper
Size: 18″ x 24″
When: Winter 2012
Time to complete: About 10 hours over a week
Thought process: This one was fairly easy to design; I knew I had to have Jesus ascending into the clouds with people watching in awe. My biggest problem was going to be figuring out how to design the clouds as clouds are not the easiest thing to draw.
Problems I encountered: This one was mostly physical. My arm and hand were so tired by this point that doing the act of drawing was really difficult. I think this drawing suffered because of my discomfort and exhaustion
Favorite part: The light rays coming down around Jesus.
Least favorite part: Most of this drawing I felt can be better. It almost makes me want to redo this whole piece!
Product availability: Unavailable.To see the other drawings in this series, click here.
Happy Resurrection Sunday! Here’s a bonus featured piece as it’s appropriate for today:
Title: Resurrected
Medium: Graphite on paper
Size: 18″ x 24″
When: Winter 2012
Time to complete: About 10 hours over a week
Thought process: This one was pretty challenging. I had a hard time designing this one! I felt like this one is so overdone by seeing people at the tomb looking in, or just the stone rolled away from the tomb. By this time in the series, I was exhausted mentally and physically, and didn’t have much left in me for doing a complicated piece. I was browsing the internet, and saw a picture of the empty tomb from the inside, and that’s what ended up inspiring this piece from this vantage point.
Problems I encountered: Keeping the white outside of the tomb white! The graphite kept smudging into the white, and it was pretty frustrating.
Favorite part: I like the different vantage point on this one. I feel like it keeps it fresh, if that makes sense.
Least favorite part: In some areas, the graphite was put on too thick and it’s super shiny. It makes parts of the shadows distracting to me!
Fun tidbits:
This isn’t necessarily a “fun” bit of information, but this drawing is the #1 most controversial piece in the series. Quite a few people have told me that although it’s a great drawing, that they don’t like it because the vantage point is from being inside the tomb. We’re supposed to be looking in to the tomb and seeing it empty, not looking out from the empty tomb. And I totally understand that! However, my thought was that I’m sure at least one of the people who came across the empty tomb would have gone in and searched it at some point, so it wasn’t always empty. We’ve all agreed to disagree 🙂
It is one of the six drawings from the series on permanent display in church.
Product availability: Unavailable at this time, but may be included in the note card set.
To see the other drawings in this series, click here.
Title: Crucifixion
Medium: Graphite on paper
Size: 18″ x 24″
When: Winter 2012
Time to complete: About 5 hours over a week, making this by far the least time consuming drawing of the whole series!!!
Thought process: This one was the easiest to design and draw, but by far it was the most emotional one of them all to create. I won’t get all theological as that’s not the purpose of this blog, but this one really reinforced that an innocent man died for me many many many years ago. It was challenging doing this one!
Problems I encountered: Getting through this one mentally. It was a simple drawing, but it carries so much weight with it’s meaning.
Favorite part: The sunrise behind the crosses. It was hard getting the effect just right. It’s hard to tell in this picture; there is so much graphite it’s hard getting a picture without a reflection. I’ll have to rephotograph this one so it will show up better!
Least favorite part: The fact it won’t photograph well 😉 But I’ll work on that!
Fun tidbits:
This is one of the most popular drawings in the series; I’ve gotten the most comments and even compliments on this one.
It is one of the six drawings from the series on permanent display in church.
Product availability: Unavailable at this time, but will probably be included in the note card set!
To see the other drawings in this series, click here.
Another one of my favorites from my Jesus drawings series is featured this week!
Title: Communion
Medium: Graphite on paper
Size: 18″ x 24″
When: Winter 2012
Time to complete: About 10 hours over a week
Thought process: This one was fairly easy to design. I knew I wanted Jesus breaking the bread and a glass of wine as the main composition. The balance was a little off, so I ended up adding the bowl of bread to help get the composition right.
Problems I encountered: Oh man, I remember how hard it was to get the shadows just right. They either looked like they were black construction paper on the table or the perspective was off. I still don’t think they’re quite right, but they’re so much better than they had been!
Favorite part: I love the folds on Jesus’ tunic sleeves. I love doing folds in fabric anyway, but I think they’re pretty awesome.
Oh, and the fact that the hands turned out as well as they did was no small miracle. Hands are hard!!!
Least favorite part: I’m not sure. The shadows still bug me, but overall I think this one turned out well and I’m happy with it 🙂
Fun tidbits:
This is one of the most popular drawings in the series!
It is one of the six drawings from the series on permanent display in church.
Product availability: Unavailable at this time, but will probably be included in the note card set!
To see the other drawings in this series, click here.
Title: Triumphal Entry
Medium: Graphite on paper
Size: 18″ x 24″
When: Winter 2012
Time to complete: About 10 hours over a week
Thought process: This one took awhile for me to design. I wasn’t sure how I was going to portray Jesus entering Jerusalem. I originally wanted to see Jesus riding the donkey and arms waving the palm branches, but that was going to be really challenging to design on a really short time frame. I don’t remember what my exact inspiration was for this, but I thought is still told enough of the story that you could understand what was going on without seeing the crowd or Jesus’ face.
Problems I encountered: Getting the palm branches to look right! They were somewhat problematic.
I also wasn’t sure what to put in the background. I originally was going to put people in the upper right corner waving palm branches, but it threw off the composition. I think it’s okay without something there and just shaded gray as it keeps the focus on Jesus and the donkey. What do you think?
Oh, and the foot. Feet are hard. Especially ankle bones.
Favorite part: Fuzzy donkey legs! And the fabric on the ground 🙂
Least favorite part: I’m not sure. There are little parts that still are off to me, but nothing that I really don’t like!
Product availability: Unavailable at this time, but will probably be included in the note card set!
To see the other drawings in this series, click here.
One of my favorites from my Jesus series is the featured piece this week!
Title: Transfiguration
Medium: Graphite on paper
Size: 18″ x 24″
When: Winter 2012
Time to complete: About 13 hours over a week (this is the most time consuming one of the series!)
Thought process: Pretty straight forward. However, this drawing posed a huge question for my pastor and I: how do we portray Jesus’ face? The other drawings I’ve either been able to show him from the back or another part of the story where he’s not pictured. Jesus did not look how we see him pictured in art and pamphlets today, and that was something I was concerned about. After much discussion, we decided it would be best to just convey him that way to not confuse people looking at the drawings.
Problems I encountered: So many folds in the fabric…so many folds. And getting Jesus’ face to have features yet still glow? Oh man, so stressful.
Favorite part: I love so much of this piece, from the composition to the balance between light and dark…
Least favorite part: The hand in the top right corner. It looks like it’s puffy like he had an allergic reaction to something! I know, I know, I’m such a perfectionist…
Questions on this piece:
How did you get the blades of grass to be so white? Did you leave them white and draw around them? That sounds time consuming!
Oh that would be very time consuming! I color in with my graphite pencils, add some grass marks with the pencil, and then use my eraser pencil to erase blades of grass as well. I used to use this one, but now have this one because it was available when I ran out of eraser refills and desperately needed one for a project. I will be switching back to the Papermate one as soon as possible; I like it a lot better and is worth the higher price!
Product availability: Unavailable at this time.
To see the other drawings in this series, click here.
This week’s featured piece is:
Title: The Boy’s Lunch (Jesus Feeds Five Thousand)
Medium: Graphite on paper
Size: 18″ x 24″
When: Winter 2012
Time to complete: About 10 hours over a week
Thought process: Originally I was going to have a crowd of people by the water with Jesus handing out food. However, as I was pressed for time, drawing a crowd of people is time consuming! I ended up simplifying the design by just focusing on how little food was really available, then adding the boy holding his lunch and just a hint of water in the background.
Problems I encountered: I didn’t really have a lot of trouble with this one. I was really nervous about drawing the fish, but they only took about 10 minutes each to do. The basket, however, proved to be more of a challenge by taking about 3 hours to do! It was well worth it though, I think it looks amazing.
Favorite part: Everything; I think this one turned out amazingly well.
Least favorite part: I’m actually pretty pleased with this piece!
Product availability: Unavailable at this time, but will end up in the note card set!
To see the other drawings in this series, click here.
Back to the Drawing Board 