I just recently wrapped up an illustration job for Carol Oates, author of Shades of Atlantis. Carol wanted to develop illustrations of two of her characters to post on her website and blog to promote the upcoming release of her new book Ember.

I did the line art for Sebastian and Draven in India ink on smooth Bristol board. The background and colors were done in Photoshop.

I thought I might share a couple rough pencil drawings from my sketchbook today. As I mentioned yesterday, I've been drawing the Scripture we've been reviewing in the Bible study class I'm currently attending. It's really helped me get into the stories in the gospel rather than just reading them. Since this isn't a devotional blog, I won't go into all my insights, but I hope you enjoy the sketches!

Jesus Calls Levi and Eats with Sinners

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

I'm currently participating in a Bible study class where the goal is to see Scripture in new ways and expand my understanding of the texts. There are a myriad of methods we're using in the class, but the one I have found most helpful is drawing, sketching, or, in this case, painting the text. It becomes a meditative exercise and really gives me a chance to ponder Scripture more deeply than if I were just to read the text.

This painting is based on the parable of the mustard seed:

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

- Matthew 13:31-32 (New International Version)

In celebration of the coming of summer, I decided to break out my colored pencils and draw this little lady (bug). Original size: 10"x10" on cold press illustration board (thanks to ender for the free illustration board-you rock!)

The past couple months have been crazy busy for me as you might have guessed by my stellar lack of posts! I've had several freelance projects which I hope to share with you in the coming weeks, but for today, I want to share something very special with you.

Although I do try to limit the amount of work I do for free, I do give a good bit of my time and talent to my church, Southside Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in South Bend, IN. I consider my volunteer service to the church a part of my tithing, and I found its also a great testing ground for me to try new things.

For the past several months I've been serving on a worship committee planning services for the Lenten season. Way back in November we started planning our Ash Wednesday service, and as we read the scriptures for the service, I saw an opportunity to try something I've wanted to do for a while now. The Old Testament readings from Joel and Isaiah were incredibly visual; as we read them, I could see vivid images flashing in my mind's eye.

I've wanted to try my hand at a motion comic for a while now. However, I'm not much a writer, and I never really knew where to start with it. Besides, I knew a motion comic would be a monumental undertaking (and I was right). So I had just left the desire on the back burner... Until I was presented with the imagery in Joel 1:1-13.

Several months and a couple hundred hours later, my very first motion comic premiered at the beginning of the Ash Wednesday service at Southside. Now I'd like to share it with you.





I used multiple translations for the voiceover script and edited it for inclusive language. The idea was to create a sense of urgency, danger and foreboding (easy enough with the Joel reading) and then show our hope in God (from the Isaiah reading). After the comic ended, it was followed up by a reading of Psalm 51: 1-17 (this is another paraphrase based on several translations):

God, be merciful to me according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out all my wrongs.
Wash away all my guilt and make me clean again.
I know about my wrongs, and I can't forget my sin.
You are the only one I have sinned against; I have done what you say is wrong. You are right when you speak and fair when you judge.
I've been out of step with you for a long time.
What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
Take away my sin. Wash me, and I will be clean as new snow.
Let me be happy and joyful! You crushed my bones, now let them celebrate.
Turn your face from my sins and wipe out all my guilt.
God, make a fresh start in me. Create in me a pure heart, God, and make my spirit right again.
Do not cast me away from your presence, or take your Holy Spirit away from me.
Make me as happy as you did when you saved me; make me want to obey!
Then I will teach your ways to those who do wrong.
Keep me from any deadly sin. Only you can save me! Then I will shout and sing about your power to save.
Lord, let me speak so I may praise you.
Offerings and sacrifices are not what you want.
The way to please you is to feel sorrow deep in our hearts. This is the kind of sacrifice you won't refuse.

I was working on a watercolor portrait yesterday when I got kinda... well, stuck. I just couldn't seem to get the colors right, and I was stressing myself out over it. So I decided I needed a break from it. So I decided to do an acrylic painting. I wanted to do something stylized so I wouldn't have to stress out about the details. I just wanted to paint some broad, sweeping strokes and enjoy the the colors doing whatever they wanted to... So here's what I came up with:



I call it "Embrace" and it's 30" x 24" acrylic on canvas.

I had a couple inspirations for this painting... First the sky feels kinda "Van Gogh-ish" to me, which I really like since Van Gogh is probably my favorite artist. But the bigger inspiration here was an artist I just recently found through Facebook (yay, social media!). David King is a Canadian artist whose bold use of colors and stylized depictions of everything from landscapes to dogs just really struck me. His work is absolutely beautiful, and I'd recommend checking out his websites: dkingdesign.com and pugcasso.com .

Some of my readers will remember that I spent four months staying with my sister's family in Ireland at the beginning of the year. During that time, Aunt Mandy (a.k.a. me) spent a lot of time doing art projects with 3-year-old Evie and trying my best to turn her into an artist. It was a rewarding experience for me to be able to help Evie progress from scribbles to actual, recognizable illustrations, and apparently Evie enjoyed it as much as I did. She draws a lot all on her own now, and she is so proud when she tells me, "Look, I have a 'ketch book, just like you!"

Yesterday, I spent the day helping my mom look after my two nieces while my sister collected her husband from the airport. Both the girls, Evie and 18-month-old Abby, love reading (or rather being read to), so no sooner than I had arrived at Mom's they were after me to read the library books they had picked up the day before.

So the three of us curled up in Evie's bed and read books. When I start a book with them, I always read the title, the author and the illustrator. Yesterday, Evie interrupted me to ask what an illustrator was. I explained that "illustrate" was another word for "drawing" and that a book's illustrator drew all the pictures in the story.

Evie looked very serious as she considered this information, and I could tell it wasn't quite sinking in. I had asked her when I was staying with her at the beginning of the year if she wanted to be an artist when she grew up and she told me no... Mostly I think because she had no concept of work and what it meant to "be" anything when she grew up. However, she must be getting a better grasp on the concept of work now that she's a few months older.

I told Evie, "You know how Daddy goes to school most days and that's where he works? That's his job?" She looked at me and nodded slowly. "Well, an illustrator draws at work. That's an illustrator's job." She looked at me with a bit of doubt. "That's what I do... I'm an illustrator, Evie." The light started to go on in her mind. "Daddy goes to school to work. Mandy draws to work..."

And "CLICK!" the light bulb switched on, and Evie's jaw literally dropped! She looked back at the pictures in the book and stared in awe as I read the next several books.

I don't know how long that information will stick with her (since she is only three), but I will always treasure her reaction. And should my sweet little niece decide she'd like to be an illustrator, she's got a good start and a fair amount of natural talent.

The Christmas card my mom sent to me this year included an Evie original... I enjoyed it so much I decided to do another Evie/Mandy collaboration and post it here. This is "Gran in Bed with Nostrils." Initially I was tickled pink by Evie's very intentional inclusion of her Grandma's nostrils, but as I colored the drawing to post it here, I found I was even more amused by the way Evie drew Gran's eyes... Take a look...



Knowing the long to-do list my mom has prior to the holidays, I couldn't help but chuckle at Evie's wide-eyed depiction of her...  Something tells me Gran is not having visions of sugarplums!

Here's the original without Aunt Mandy's coloring:



Merry Christmas, everyone!

I don't really consider myself much of a writer in the sense of creative writing. I work much better in actual pictures than I do in word pictures. However, in a conversation with a friend today, I somehow ended up talking about a short story I wrote in high school with which I was particularly pleased. I've actually batted around the idea of turning it into a comic, but I don't know that I'll ever get around to it.

So in case I never do put it into pictures, I thought I'd share it in words. I did a bit of editing, but all in all it's almost the same story I turned in for my 10th grade English class. Let me know what you think and if you'd be interested in seeing the story in comic format. Thanks!

Captain Tory

 A thick fog rolled over the surface of the black sea, illuminated by the dim moonlight shining over the bay. The cold, salty air stung the skin of late-night sailors. Rotting wooden boards creaked loudly as sea merchants walked down the dock to their run-down ships.

The ocean held the dreams of young boys and the memories of old, forgotten sailors. Boys dream of fighting one-eyed pirated and battling fierce storms. Old sailors know the disappointment because it was never how they imagined it.

Now all the ships had left the bay, leaving the docks guarded only by the stray dogs. Tonight, however, the dogs had company. A large, dimly-lit figure strolled along the docks. Every so often the figure would stop, turn to look at the surface of the starlit sea, and then resume walking.

The alley cats had a friend this evening, too. In the shadows lurked a young boy who longed to become a sailor. He watched the hulking figure on the dock intensely. From where the boy stood, he caught a glimpse of the figure’s face. He was an older man, with gentle eyes and smile lines around his mouth. However, his skin was weathered, as though the man had spent most of his life outdoors.

As curious as the cats whose company he kept, the boy slid out of the shadows and snuck toward the man to get a better look. As he got closer, the boy grew excited. The man was wearing a captain’s hat! He was a sailor!

The child’s attention was so focused upon the man that he failed to notice a twisted, brown branch lying in the dirt in front of him. The boy’s foot slid under the stick, and he fell to the ground with a painful thump.

The noise had attracted the sailor’s attention, and he ran toward the boy. The old man knelt down when he reached the child. “Are you all right, son?” asked the sailor as he effortlessly hoisted the boy to his feet.

“Yuh-yes, sir. Yes, Mista,” replied the confused and frightened boy.

The boy and the man looked at each other in silence. The sailor saw a boy of about eight or nine with matted sandy blonde hair. He wore a dirty, thin shirt and tattered blue denim pants with holes in both knees. The boy’s feet were not covered and had scratches and bruises on them.

The boy saw in the man what he could not see from the alley. The old sailor was of good humor; that he could tell from the smile lines. However, now the boy saw deep furrows on the man’s brow. The sailor was obviously a man in the autumn of his life with too many sad memories and not enough happy ones.

The two continued to stare at each other until finally the sailor broke the silence. “The name’s Tory, Captain Tory. And you are…?”

“Timmy. My name’s Timmy, Mista Cap’n Tory, sir,” replied the boy with his big chocolate brown eyes still staring in awe at this magnificent Captain.

“So, Timmy, my boy, what are you doing out here this late at night?”

“I wanna be a sailor, Mista Cap’n Tory, sir,” answered Timmy in the most polite tone he could muster.

Tory let out a hearty laugh that shook the belly that hung over his belt. “Son, you can call me Tory.” He chuckled again and asked, “Well, Timmy, aren’t yer parents gonna be worried about ya?”

Timmy looked down at his dirty feet. “I ain’t got a mommy or daddy.”

“Oh,” replied the Captain sadly. “What happened to yer mom?”

Timmy continued to study his feet. “She died while I was being borned. Now I live over there,” he said, pointing at the port town’s children’s shelter. Timmy looked up and puffed out his skinny chest in pride. “I sneak out almost every night and come here, ‘cause some day I’m gonna be a sailor, so I’m learning the ropes now!” exclaimed Timmy with a grin.

Tory winced at Timmy’s smile. The boy’s teeth were rotted and crooked. The Captain quickly regained his poise and asked the boy, “Why do ya wanna be a sailor?”

“The lady at the shelter told me that my daddy is a sailor. I never met him, but he fights pirates and sea monsters, an’ I wanna be just like my daddy,” Timmy said happily, flashing Tory another toothy grin.

This time the smile did not make the sailor wince. Tory smiled wistfully and looked up at the stars. “Do you like the stars, Timmy?”

“Oh, yes, sir! I love the stars.” Timmy mirrored the sailor’s gesture, smiling as he looked up at the sky.

“You know, you gotta use the stars when yer navigatin’ a ship, don’t ya?” Tory asked as he looked back at Timmy.

The boy did not look back at the sailor. “Yes, sir. Like that one,” Timmy said while pointing to the northern sky, “that’s the North Star. If ya get lost, ya use that one to get back home.”

Tory smiled, impressed. Timmy was still stargazing when Tory scooped him up into his arms. “Come on. There’s somethin’ I wanna show ya.” Tory carried the boy to the end of the dock. “So, ya wanna be a sailor?”

“More than anything in the world, Cap’n Tory!” Timmy replied wholeheartedly.

“Then ya can be a sailor!” The Captain picked up a lantern that was sitting on the end of the dock. As he lit it, Tory said to the boy, “I’m gettin’ too old for sailing. My bones are creakier than this dock! I’m gonna give ya my boat and crew. I want ya to take over for me.”

“Really?” asked the wide-eyed boy, “Yer gonna let me have yer ship?”

“Yep. The schooner’s all yers. She’s old, but if yer kind to her, she’ll last ya.” Having said that, Tory swung his lantern three times and slowly the schooner appeared. It was old but beautiful. It sailed smoothly and cut the waters like a knife.

Timmy squirmed excitedly in the Captain’s arms, and then hugged the sailor’s neck. “Aw, thanks, Cap’n Tory, sir! She’s everything I ever wanted! Thank you!”

Tory set the boy on the ground and said, “Yer welcome, Captain Timmy.” The sailor tousled the boy’s sandy blonde hair. “Now ya’d better board her, ‘fore she leaves ya here!”

Timmy ran to board the schooner. Once on the deck of the ship, Timmy stood at the railing, waving frantically at Tory and shouting, “Thanks a lot, Mista! I’ll never forget ya, Cap’n! Goodbye!”

As the schooner sailed slowly into the rising sun, one could almost hear a whisper from the lonely, forgotten sailor left on the dock. “Goodbye, son. Daddy’s gonna miss ya.”

© Amanda Tromley 1997

I recently finished this photo-realistic pencil drawing for a client. The original is 8"x10" graphite drawn on a 9"x12" sheet of watercolor paper to allow for easy matting and framing. I used watercolor paper because I like the rough tooth of the paper and the resulting texture in the illustration.

Custom portrait illustrations make great holiday and birthday gifts. This drawing of Baby Hazel will be a Christmas gift to her parents. If you are interested in getting a quote for a custom illustration, please email me at Amanda@amandatromley.com with "Quote Request" in the subject line. If you have a photo you want me to work from, please include it in your email.

Happy Holidays!