Jesus painting WIP

[Infinit]

Ok First of all I rly don´t want any kind of religious discussion in here
thx

I want to do a Jesus painting
here is the first sketch

http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/5765/jesussketch2uu.jpg

the finished piece will be acrylics on board about 50x70 cm

the scene is: Jesus walks out of the stone grave and becomes blinded by the light of the angels
I want to show a very human Jesus here
sugestions and coments very appreciated

[stoph]

nice start, but i feel the head is a little small in proportion to the rest of everything. on that note, the face doesnt say "jewish", as that was Jesus' descent. the upheld hand looks as if its having cramps/spasms, and the angle of the lower hand feels a little off. the musculature is odd in that it reads as being covered in clothing instead of being naked. slim him down a little more, particularly around joints, and you may want to work particularly around his armpits and neck area (as they are the weakest elements for the moment). love the concept, maybe a referenced pose is all you need? ill keep an eye on this one :)

[Infinit]

thx for the c&c 'stoph

I worked it over
http://img432.imageshack.us/img432/3519/jesussketch2uu28nf.jpg

could you explain what you mean with:
"the face doesnt say "jewish""
?!

I rly don´t know what you mean (I confess his face isn´t typical israelish)

[stoph]

great improvements, tho id like to see his legs a little more distance appart so as to add more stability. other than that youre close to having this ready for painting. as for the "not looking jewish", i say that because he retains a lot of european characteristics. its a fresh change from the icon-style byzantine art, but its still too european for my liking.. but hey thats just personal preference. keep going!

edit: oh and try showing more of the dorsal muscle (i cant remember the actual name, but its dorsal something.. i think) and elongating the pectoral of the raised arm, like this guy

http://brightbytes.com/collection/images/flex.jpg

[Infinit]

I´ll try thx for the reference
I actually want him to look weak and instabil to symbolise that he still suffers from his bodys wounds (they will come with the paint)


I´ll start painting then

[xzacto]

it's nice, but I refrain myself from creating images of Christ for many reasons, I am not sure if you thought of them and I don't mean to burst your bubble or discourage you, this is just food for thought.

The Second Commandment

"You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I The Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My Commandments."

“Neither God, nor heaven, nor Christ, who is the image of the Father, can be truly represented by the art of man. If the Lord had thought it advisable to represent Christ in this way, His person would have been described in the writings of the apostles... We need not any external representations of the person of Christ.” (Ellen White in Manuscript 131, 1899)

If this raised an eyebrow, here is a refrence. http://home.bluemarble.net/~heartcom/godlyperspectivesonthesecondcommandment.html

I just thought this was interesting, (another artist portraying Christ)
being a born-again Christian myself I was convicted when I began to do so, and sharply stopped. Instead I depicted metaphorical images that refrenced "the Good Shepherd" without actually making an image that could stumble another Christian's walk, or even worse (and more extreme and outlandish example) a non-believer being detoured from knowing Christ by getting a false image of something that is most likely way off. Did you know Christ was more likely to be of dark skin and shorter than depicted in many images? and his lifestyle would have made him out to be muscular and toned.

What did Jesus look like? Many people depict him as a very good-looking man. when in fact He was nothing special to look at, He was a man that could easily disappear in a crowd. He did not stand out. He was desired for what he was (and still is). We would desire him not because of his physical beauty (in whatever cultural standards may have been applicable at the time) but for his essence. However, that probably does not connote “average” in the sense that he would not stand out in a crowd or command authority by his stature and appearance. One does not have to be beautiful in order to have a commanding presence.

Isaiah 53:2-3

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.


anyway. food for thought.

as for the image, the anatomy could use some work. try and find someone to pose for you and do a few gesture drawings to nail in the pose. Unless you are going for abstract.

Praise Jesus.

Peace and blessings!

[stoph]

Ok First of all I rly don´t want any kind of religious discussion in here
thx

no offense, xzacto - and i appreciate the refresher course in theology - but i dont think infinit was after that sort of response. i think what matters most in all of this is that nobody takes this image as a direct and literal representation of Christ, lest they be going against the commandment against idolitory (as you pointed out).

just because its a Jesus themed painting does not make it a blatant disregard for God's word. if anything, its promoting Gods word in that it depicts Christ and what he did.

a picture can be worth a thousand words. let infinit finish, and see if it speaks a message to you worth hearing. same goes to everyone else.

peace.

[JERI]

What 'stoph said about the body.

Yeah, Jesus doesn't look like a Hebrew there, but then how many pictures of Jesus are there where he actually resembles his ethnic group? I actually think a goatie Jesus' pretty fun. It's up to you.

Btw if the light is actually coming from an angel, you should probably rework the composition to include the angel. You might as well forget about the angel thing as this seem to work well by itself as "Jesus blinded by sunlight as he walked out of cave".

[Fl3wk]

Blasphamous! But anyway, on to the art:

If you want him to look weak, make him skinny and with bones showing. Make big dark rings under his eyes. Make his cloth dirty and dripping with urine and such. Make his skin look cracked and sore.

Just some suggestions. I'm atheist, so if I sound disrespectful to some of you that believes in this sort of stuff by my suggestions then i apologize.

[Mr. Visions]

I would suggest catching the moment the light blinds him. Maybe have one leg slightly in front of the other to suggest haulted movement. It might help the composition a bit. Also, regards to what was said above, I feel that God gave us gifts to glorify Him, and considering this piece is used as a tribute to him, and not causeing us to worship other things like angels, or beasts, or so on, I feel this is a great piece. I mean what would you say if someone had a camera back in Jesus's time and took a snap shot of Jesus? It's a likeness of Christ, in fact a record of Christ much like the words in the Bible. I'm sorry for responding to that comment, and I don't meant to fill up this thread with theology discussion, I'm just saying we have to take scripture in context. Heaven can also be translated as sky by the way. Ok, Ok, back to the pick, I would draw maybe a page or two of gestures of this pose so that you get a feel of how his body is reacting to the light, and also I'd get a friend maybe to pose and set up a light source so you get reference for anatomy and light hitting the muscles. I would also get reference on Hebrewish hairstyle and facial features to add some authenticity. I recently did a Jesus piece that I'll be posting soon, but I got a friend to pose and shot about 30+ shots from different angles to get a feel of the whole figure, and then made different judgements that would strengthen the piece. Anyways, good luck and God bless.

Edit: I would agree with Andrew on if you are going for a human Jesus, I would make him maybe pale and looking as if he has struugled with something. Iwouldn't go as far as urine stains considering it would come off a disrespectful and the fact that bodies where cleaned and so forth, wrapped with clean sheets and so forth. I would also show the nail marks in the hands, sense he carried those on after death.

- Visions

[Fl3wk]

Ok maybe no urine : S , I'm unfamiliar with the story so I just suggested all alternatives, well not all, but many.

[Infinit]

thx for all of your response

xzacto: I know what you mean and, trust me, I´d never try to paint god ^^
but
it´s more a personal project to show my feelings about Jesus and his actions
to nail in the pose
sry but I couldn´t help to laugh

'stoph: thank you very much

JERI: I don´t want angels to appear in the piece to get the Focus on Jesus
(shiny flying angels would distract too much imo)
in the end everyone will be able to think about what blindes Jesus at this very turningpoint of his existance

Fl3wk: as Visions said: he has been washed and wrapped in new clothes before his body entered the cave
It´s only a fast sketch I did in the middle of the night up to now and colour will be added in the real piece (traditionanlly btw)

Mr. Visions: I abolutely agree with you about the jesus photo
I just realized that I have to do a lot of things before I get started with the real pic
now that the time of my final exams comes to an end I´ll have the time for it too^^

I´ll keep you updated as soon as I have enough time to... :(

thx for your support Infinit