Following

"If anyone would come after me..."

Illustration for a teaching series called "Following," about how Jesus Christ calls his disciples to carry the cross and follow him. 

I really enjoyed studying how light and shadow behave when the sun is at a low angle. Generally I'm learning more and more the importance of really studying and gaining enough reference material at the beginning to enable a successful painting. Initially I was intimidated by having to fill so much space with nondescript abstract shapes like dirt and grass, but with enough reference study, eventually my mind was able to understand more how those objects work, so I could be thoughtful in inventing them for this image.

Painting all the dirt and grass was also a great opportunity to get practice with Photoshop's "scatter" brush tools. Special thanks to Chris Oatley for his great scatter brush tutorial.

This image is available for purchase as a high quality art print at Society6.com.

This cross image as well as several other sermon illustration images are available for licensing by churches, ministries, and Christian publishers.  Contact me if you'd like more info.