Here is a drawing I did of St. Junipero Serra! Its based on an image from Wikipedia as shown here:

 

Image Source

I wanted to draw it for several reasons, firstly because it was one of the statues torn down by the black lives matter movement last year sometime and I like the idea of trying at least in some small way to replace and even build on what was lost. 

And second it gave me an opportunity to practice my crosshatching which is great because a lot of the stories that continue to inspire me, like the Narnia books and Alice in Wonderland incorporate a lot of hatching and crosshatching in their illustrations.

And thirdly I really like the idea of drawing Catholic saints and religious art in general because I’m a Catholic and because there’s so much in it that’s beautiful.

So yeah, that’s three birds with one stone!  I always like having multiple reasons for working on the same artwork especially since I usually end up spending a lot of time on whatever it is I’m working on.

Domini Canis - Color!

I just did a color version with brush pens, and its brown because the dog next to Saint Dominic is often brown.  And then I put it in grayscale because black and white is the Dominican color scheme! :)

Domini Canis

St. Dominic is often pictured, or sculpted, with a dog beside him with a flaming torch in its mouth. This derives from the tradition that before his birth his mother had a dream where a dog leapt from her womb carrying a burning torch in its mouth and set the world on fire.

What it means of course is setting the world on fire with the Holy Spirit, which Saint Dominic certainly did with his preaching, and writing, and founding the Dominicans, who continue to be awesome like that.

This is my attempt at a Celtic version of this popular motif.  Of course I’m absurdly happy with it.  :D

The dog’s pose and leg tangle are from the Book of Kells originally, although I was looking at it on page 113 of George Bain’s excellent Celtic Art The Methods of Construction.

I hope you like it and would like to wish you all a happy 4th of July!     (whether you celebrate that sort of thing or not), and if you celebrate with fireworks, please don't set too much of the world on actual fire!  :)

Our Lady Undoer Of Knots

I finished this today, it is an outline drawing based on this artwork:

Our Lady Undoer of Knots

By:

Portraits of Saints

I'm fairly happy with how it turned out and I like to think Our Lady is too. ^-^