Monday, December 1, 2014

Jesus Tempted in the Desert


For the past year I've been working on a series of Bible story illustrations for the Christian publisher Lifeway.  These are just starting to come out under NDA so I'm going to start posting some of my favorites on this blog. The're part of a Sunday school curriculum called "Explore the Bible," and the things I'm illustrating are called...well..."diaper cards."

Yes, diaper cards. Truly the Lord is keeping me humble. They're little cards that the Sunday school teacher can put in the child's diaper bag for parents to read later.

So...yes...anyway. Diaper cards.

The art order for this card was simply the scene of Jesus being tempted in the desert, which is found in Luke 4:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

This was my first rough. I really wanted to emphasize the emptiness, loneliness and heat of the landscape.


The art director asked for a rougher, rockier landscape.


With this revised rough, I was good to go to final.


The lurking crow is something I thought of and added just now. I wish I had thought of it last year, before this was published. I like trying to fit little bits of spiritual symbolism into these drawings.

This is how the illustration looks as part of the diaper card:


If any of you attend church, keep an eye out for these, ok? I'd love to see them in action.

NOTE: This image is NOT available for licensing, even for non-profit purposes.

3 comments:

  1. He sure looks bored. i like how you kept to the customary European Jesus with a slightly larger nose and somewhat darker skin, which could make him believably middle-eastern.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll bet Jesus wishes he'd brought his smart phone.

    ReplyDelete

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