Anglo Saxon Colored Pencil Folk Art Bible-Judges

Anglo Saxon Colored Pencil Folk Art Bible-Judges
18" x 24" on Sketch Paper

Book 7 Poster 7

Deterioration, Deliverance, Depravity
Religiously, Politically, and Morally

Judges is a cycle of sin, the consequences of those sins, and salvation from those sins, repeated seven times over a period of about 350 - 400 years. Rather than make a picture of all that was done wrong I chose to concentrate on the people that were the judges after Joshua died.
I often use photos from magazines for my models and I was looking for faces of leaders when I found one that was of Presidents Reagan, Bush, Carter, Ford and Nixon, and thought that would be great to include them. You probably won't recognize them because I always try to make enough changes when using someone else's photos so as not to be copying but to just use them for ideas. Reagan and Bush are on the left and Carter, Nixon and Ford are on the right. Of course their attire changes their appearance as well.
One of the judges was listed as left handed and he is in the yellow ochre outfit at the top holding his sword. I'm afraid without looking back I do not recall his name. Gideon is at the left wearing a rather turquoise blue holding his wet fleece. Shamgar is beside and towards the middle wearing blue and holding his ox goad (stick). Barak was a whimp and wouldn't do it with out the help of Deborah. He is the one in green and yellow just behind her left shoulder. Samson is at the bottom left corner. I know I haven't named them all but that is all I can remember off the top of my head.
What I do remember is that by the time I finished studying Judges, drawing and coloring this picture I had come to know these judges as people not much different than ourselves. They were left handed, right handed, brave, afraid, insecure, questioning, raised by believing parents, family men, morally weak, spiritually strong, and just everyday people.
One other thing you see in this picture are idols. These may look like little statues but they are there to represent not only false gods but the spiritual decline of the tribes in general.
There is one free floating hand holding a gavel in the center representing the judgment of the nations.

2010 Books

This post is for all you book readers out there.

In 2010 I read the following list of books.
The Associate by John Grisham
Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Ricochet River by Robin Cody
2001 a Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C Clarke
2016: Odyssey three by Arthur C Clarke
3001 The Final Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin
Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway
Landscape Painting by Mitchell Albala
War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Bone is Pointed by Arthur W Upfield
Tisha by Robert Specht
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhentsyn
Daughter of the Eagle by Don Goldsmith
Ragtime by  E L Doctorow
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
The Cain Mutiny by Herman Wouk
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Candide by Voltaire
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland

My favorites were Demons and The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
If you are prone to depression don't read Demons and if you are prone to depression read Ultimate Hitchhiker, it's a gas. :-)  Although it was fun to read the Space Odyssey series especially since this was 2010.

Anglo Saxon Colored Pencil Folk Art Bible-Joshua

Anglo Saxon Colored Pencil Folk Art Bible-Joshua
!8" X 24" on Sketch Paper

Book 6 Poster 6

Conquest and Consolidation
Securing the land and settling the land

These are my key memory triggers for Joshua.
Ok, here is where my artistic license took over a bit. If you look in the back of most Bibles you find a map of Canaan divided among the twelve tribes with the sea on the left, Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben to the right. I've turned mine so the sea is on the right and Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh are on the left. In the lower left hand corner you see that I have marked north at the bottom and south at the top, east on the left and west on the right. I did this to stay consistent with my other pictures. In the top left corner you see the pillars of Egypt. Artistically speaking, things in the past are further away and come toward the foreground where in this case you find cows and flowers with bees since this was the land of milk and honey and a great vineyard. Just a bit of artistic humor.
The land is divided by tribe and indicated according to the tribal colors given to their banners in Numbers. Reubens tribe were first to cross the river to fight so the little tiny figure leading the mass troops across the Jordan is red. If you look very closely you will see the ark of the covenant and the stone altar at that crossing point as well. You can also see the red cord hanging from the window in the wall where the harlots family was to be protected because she hid the spies. There are kings and other figures running away in fear as they are being invaded.
Also at the bottom you will see a key to the cities of refuge and judgment and the Levite's cities. I've marked these as approximate, possible, and unknown locations.

Anglo Saxon Colored Pencil Folk Art Bible-Deuteronomy

Anglo Saxon Colored Pencil Folk Art Bible-Deuteronomy
18" x 24" Colored Pencil on Sketch Paper

Book 5 Poster 5



This is the last of the 5 books of Moses.
It is a book of review and preview to me.

What you see in this poster is a visual review of the creation clouds, the pillars of Egypt on the left side just past the mountains, the silhouette of Mt Zion, the tabernacle and the offerings, the grave markers in the valley of the wanderings, the banners of the tribes, the ark of the covenant, and Moses aura after conversing with God. Moses relates spiritual events and sets out clear laws before all the people.
His preview is of the blessings of the promised land if they will obey God and rely on Him for the consequences.
If you look back at the previous 4 posters you will see how I have used symbols from each of them in this one.
In my mind Moses is pointing toward the promised land.