The Good Samaritan

Here's an illustration I did for Lifeway's Explore the Bible series. This is an ongoing project that I work on year-round. These Bible scenes are printed on cards, which are included in curriculum for Sunday Schools.

For this assignment, I was tasked with drawing the story of The Good Samaritan. Specifically, the Samaritan was supposed to be reaching into his bags to retrieve water or bandages, while saying "hold on!" to the wounded man.

This was my first rough:

But the editor said, "it honestly looks like Yoda is using the force to raise this man up off the ground."

I was about to argue that we don't know that the Good Samaritan DIDN'T use the Force. The Bible just doesn't say.

But the lovely folks at Lifeway generally give me a lot of artistic freedom and very, very rarely ask me to re-do a rough, so I figured I could concede this important theological issue. They asked me to instead draw the Good Samaritan administering aid to the wounded traveler. This is the second rough that I sent:

I pulled away from the scene slightly to show more of the landscape. The empty and hostile environment highlights the traveler's plight and shows just how lucky he was that a Jedi...I mean...the Good Samaritan came along when he did. I like this rough much better than the first one, so I'm glad that Lifeway asked me to re-do it.

I used this stock photo from Deviantart to help with the poses: