Start date
September 28, 2007
Last updated
March 2, 2021
Art is a celebration of God's gifts, both in our minds and in the rest of His Creation.
God's Morning Art
captured by my youngest
Artists finish their work, and an audience completes it.
Ed's Art Net aspires toward spiritually and mentally engaging you with aesthetic art and compelling words predominantly inspired by God's truth, beauty and goodness. Plus motorcycle adventure accounts and a zany nerdy humor page, then finally with an abridged bio focusing on bipolar disorder.
Page Design:
1. Workings
drawings, paintings, expositions, Bible references
2. Writings
Page Contents:
Photo credit: Phoebe Chen
Credits:
Glory belongs to God!
God's incredible Art and Word awakens our senses and heals our soul. see Isaiah 53:5
God's Little Cloud
God is the reason I have survived, the reason I have a loving family and is the only reason I have this art to display to the Net. God inspires and helps me every step of the way. And Jesus Christ is the only reason I will survive the new heaven and new earth. see Revelation 21:1-8
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Remarks:
Ed's Art Net has undergone a lot of changes since I retired. I diligently seek improvement, have high aspirations for new works and am grateful that my audience continues to grow.
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Art - it’s an audience that completes a work!
art awakens the senses
composing reflections from life's reasoned fences
encoded skill and mind is the foundry
beyond the grip of night's emotional boundary
Works done before retirement
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." Psalms 19:1-(3.5) NIV
Thanks to folks such as the good people at APOD we have at our Internet fingertips an impressively large quantity of very high quality artistic and scientific images from the seeable universe. These Astronomy Pictures of the Day are wonders to behold and many would argue enough for our astronomical appetite. But for others the
thought of exploring space from the comfort of a faster than light starship is a bit more palate pleasing.
Unfortunately, travel to even our closest stellar neighbor is well beyond a reasonable human journey today. However, these distant space traveling dreams so many of us have likely indicate possibility. I believe we look and outreach with hope to the heavens because it's part of our nature. How the star trekking dream is fulfilled, who can say... maybe Heaven holds the answer!
life’s flame burns like fusion
propagating emotion like starlit nebulae
who can hide from its beckoning
to the stars
onward outward
ever reaching...
for love's reward
Space Traveler
"For now we see through a glass, darkly;" from 1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV
1978 - Acrylic and ink on acetate with background photographic print
This is my rendition of Ed White's historic 1965 spacewalk. The above space traveler was drawn with black
ink on one side and painted on the opposite side with acrylic in the fashion of early animation cel production.
1977 - Acrylic and ink on acetate
This animation cel started as a drawer handle sketch and evolved. It's called Balance due to its symmetry. If you look closely at the center of the image (see detail) you will notice two separate humanoid heads merging together to form a third... two looking toward the center and one looking at you, three perspectives from one source... Kind of like how two people in marriage can act as one... and if you will indulge me, a symbolic model of the Christian Holy Trinity.
1975 - Acrylic and ink on acetate
This was my first work in this medium (animation cel)... I found it when cleaning out my files while sheltering in place. I had mistakenly painted George's pants yellow before painting the Yellow Submarine so I opted to paint the submarine tail red instead of starting over.
1979 - Acrylic and ink on acetate
"And I'm hovering like a fly, waiting for the windshield on the freeway..." lyric quote from the band Genesis, Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, released 1974
The highlight I painted on Ken's windshield reminds me of the inevitable bug collisions. I reckon it's a good argument for a full face helmet...
1982 - 11x14 Lithograph
I printed several of these with the intent to sell them... I did the entire graphics production including sketch, pen and ink, rubylith color overlay,
grayscale screens, camera ready mechanical, graphic arts camera work and printing on a 1250 Multilith offset printing press.
1971 - Pen and ink
This is my first pen and ink of this dragon. I found it when cleaning out my files while sheltering
in place.
1980 - Metal Etching/Carving
I made two of these (left and right) for my 1979 Kawasaki LTD 1000 motorcycle (below). The two holes align with a gas tank mounting bracket. It started as a pen and ink drawing that was etched in magnesium then I carved it out of the etch panel and painted it gold to match the LTD's blue and gold pinstriping.
1976 - Watercolor
This painting of "my Dragon" is the third of a set of three storyboard watercolors that were inspired by Gandalf's fireworks at Bilbo's Magnificent Party
from The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.
1978 - Pencil Drawing
This was my study for the painting below.
1981 - Acrylic watercolor on illustration board
This Log Cabin Church painting is my personal favorite work. My adopted mom always said this was my masterpiece. I discovered this
beautiful church in 1973. I saw the two buildings as reflecting the Christian Bible "Old Testament" (log cabin) - the Tabernacle was built of cloth
and wood, see Exodus 26, and "New Testament" (stone building) - "And I tell
you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not
overcome it.", Matthew 16:18 NIV.
The ghostly shadow in the painting that's approaching the front of the stone church is symbolic of the evil that constantly challenges us all, see Romans 12:21. I took artistic license there and replaced the road that runs directly in front, (see pencil drawing).
The original church was held in the small log cabin. The stone church was built later as the congregation grew larger.
1971 - Original pencil sketch
2008 - Wacom Intuos3 Drawing Tablet, MS Paint
Jesus Christ's Birth - Such a humble beginning for the Savior of mankind. And what a strong mother Mary must have been to travel over one hundred miles in those days from Nazareth to Bethlehem at nine months pregnant! see Luke 2:1-21
Portal is a study for a Christmas card. The three stars are symbolic of the Trinity. The upper most star symbolizes the Godhead (God the Father). The middle star is the Holy Spirit bridging us to the Father in this mortal life and the star closest to Earth. Hovering above the manger, represents Jesus who is God compressed into a human, come to Earth as the Father's Son to redeem us from our sins. Jesus Christ is our "door" to Heaven. If we love God and do our best to follow Christ's teachings, it's God's good, pleasing and perfect plan that we will live a second time, eternally in His Holy presence. see Revelation 21:3
Santa is symbolic of us humans. I attempted to portray the transitional phase from this life to the afterlife with "Santa". see Isaiah 65:17 The evil that we dealt with in this life is blowing away into flames of the second death. The flames trailing off Santa's eyebrows and hat brim represent the internal self-destructive types of thoughts many of us fight. The dragon's head in the beard is dissipating into flames symbolic of the external evils that we dealt with in this life's world. Evil is always closer to us in this life than we like. see Revelation 12:9
Notice the fish symbol in Santa's hat. The early Christians used a fish symbol to represent themselves as followers of Jesus. The red coloring covering Santa's head and body is emanating from the fish's mouth. Jesus's blood is our armor against evil. see Ephesians 6:11 Jesus Christ came to Earth to save us. see Matthew 1:21
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 NIV
The overall Portal theme is that Christ's legacy lives throughout time. The prophets of the Old Testament told us about Jesus Christ. i.e., see Micah 5:2 Even Job, probably the oldest book of the Bible, refers to Jesus. see Job 19:25
1974 - Pen and Ink
Grasp as in "Get a Grip"... This drawing symbolizes Satan's spiritual posturing. Satan is perched with a grip on the earth as he's reaching out to take hold of our spirit. We frequently deal with his influence as we grow throughout life.
Satan is God's creation to help us develop as we grow. God knows we're not perfect and the Devil provides us with spiritual challenges so that we must make choices in our behavior. We can develop into honest and good Jesus followers or become dishonest and evil Satan followers. I believe that most of us live somewhere in between. The Devil seeks us and Jesus wants us to do the seeking. It's part of God's good, pleasing and perfect plan.
<<< >>>
God Christ Jesus is our salvation from evil. Reach out when asked about the hope you have with gentleness and respect while holding fast to the light offered by Jesus Christ. see 1 Peter 3:15
Our world is spinning and moving and has been gradually slowing down since shortly after its creation. Our time here is numbered and we shouldn't be satisfied with all we have learned. The earth will too soon blanket this life in quiet solace. see Isaiah 65
Who of age has not pondered life’s destination... whether it's to a final resting place or to another beginning. And who doesn't want truth as the foundation of reason. see John 18:37
Believing in something does not make it real... we humans are not that powerful. Truth makes a something real. Truth is what we seek and humility is what we should know. see John 4:23
"My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6 NIV
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climbing the tree
what to see
dare we aspire
a journey higher
to find key
beyond the lee
stars of fire
twigs of pyre
every soul be
on bended knee
light we acquire
evil will expire
<<< >>>
"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you." Luke 11:33-36 NIV
September 1992 - Computer Animation
Commodore Amiga 3000, Imagine 3D 2.0 software - This work won honorable mention in a national Computer Animation competition for the Amiga computer. Unfortunately, this digitized video is made from a VHS tape recording. I no longer have the Amiga computer this was built on that would provide a sharper image.
The overall theme for HummerHead is that much of our inspiration and inventiveness comes to us by studying nature. When we do finally realize how to build a starship, it will be with God's help.
Works done after retirement
January 2020 - Net Circuit Board
The above colorful picture is a raster graphics image of my career final PCB design. It's a pseudo partial "X-ray" rough representation of a small portion of a cable modem Internet circuit board. The actual production graphics data is rendered in a CAD tool then manufactured from multiple individual layers of copyrighted proprietary vector graphics artwork (not shown here). You might have a "real" one of these in your home.
March 2020 - Watercolor
I originally started drawing this dragon in 1971 (see Dragon One). He's always been full of mischief, but I hadn't thought about naming him until deadly COVID-19 hit.
April 2020 - Acrylic and ink on acetate
This animation cel character painting cartoon of COVID was another post-retirement refresher project for me. One thing that you might find interesting about painting on transparent acetate is that the
cartoon is viewed from the opposite side that the paint is applied so that the brush strokes aren't visible. That means the highlights are painted first then background last. For example, the flames'
red highlights were painted first, orange second and yellow background last. So that in viewing from the opposite side through the clear acetate, the red highlights appear to be on top. In contrast,
on canvas and illustration board, two common examples, paint is normally applied background first and highlights last.
August 2020 - Ink on acetate
This is the second step in producing an animation cel. In this case, I traced a print of Glen Keane's rendering. Usually my first step is a pencil drawing on paper then trace my drawing using a rapidigraph pen or ink brush on the acetate as shown above. The $1.00 cotton garden glove with thumb and two
fingers removed is the same one I've used since my Beatles painting. The glove protects the acetate from my skin and the fingers are cut
out to help with drawing and painting control.
In the early days there was usually an assembly line team of artists employed to produce each individual cel for a commercial production animated film. First an animator would sketch broad step character positions on paper. Next cel artists would trace the sketches with ink on acetate. The cel artist would bridge the motion sequences between the broad step sketches. The cels were then painted with acrylic by cel painting artists.
September 2020 - Acrylic and ink on acetate
This is the
third and final step in producing a cel. This painting is a present for my favorite oldest ❤️ daughter's toddler... the "apple of my eye" granddaughter. She loves this Disney character and
calls her "Ariel Mermaid".
This work actually combines my Princess Ariel cel with my Sebastian and Flounder cel to make a single picture frame from two cels. Since acetate is transparent, multiple production cel artists were able to work on separate characters at the same time then overlap them for one camera film frame.
Typically there are 24 individual camera frames per second of animated film. Disney's first feature length animated film, Snow White (released 1937), contains hundreds of thousands of drawings done by a crew of 750 artists. This traditional by hand labor intensive method of animation has since been outdated by computers.
Princess Ariel was created by Glen Keane.
Sebastian and Flounder were created by Ron Clements and John Musker.
Princess Ariel, Sebastian and Flounder are copyrighted by Disney.
Saint George Island Beach
Art is a celebration of God's gifts, both in our minds and in the rest of His Creation.
Most definitely a loving God's Art moment! Above is my very patient and favorite youngest ❤️ daughter's photograph of the sunrise beach scene I'm currently working on. I'll post my painting below after it's finished.
Start February 2021 - Finish TBD - Acrylic Watercolor
Our favorite time of day is sunrise. Her favorite place is the beach. The beach gives us an unobstructed view of the sun rising above the sea's surface. It's amazing to watch how fast the sun climbs in the beautifully colored sky (close to 902 mph at this latitude). The clouds make a clever natural artist's frame for the magnificent Florida sun!
Start February 2021 - Finish TBD - Computer Animation
Autodesk Maya 8.5 - 64bit 3D modeling software - This work is under development. It's a re-creation of my 1992 HummerHead rendering remodeled in a newer design tool. I will be learning Maya on the fly so working with a familiar design will reduce the complexity of the project.
Next Project...
TBD
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