shepherd boy

Still part of the Moody magazine series but this was a story within the story. Again, my oldest son posed for this. Now that I look back on it, because he has grown-up and left our house for his own, what a sweet memory. All of my four children have left behind a precious part of themselves within the paintings and illustrations they helped me produce.

my salamander

Another chapter in the Moody monthly magazine series involved a science project that one of the boys makes. I think there was a moral dilemma involved where someone breaks his valued terrarium and he must struggle with forgiveness. I  had fun coming up with that terrarium image.
My oldest son and I constructed a model from a warehouse size mayonnaise bottle, he made the wooden base and posed for me. We wished we had a salamander too.

missing his grandfather

The story lines in this series didn't always involve time travel to the New Testament days.Yet it was important to be consistent with the children as I kept introducing the same characters in the illustrations. In this chapter, a boy has to attend a funeral for his grandfather.

the father and the son

This is one of my favorite spots in a favorite story. This art appeared on the page after the opening spread. I love the part with the description of the prodigal son rushing into his father's arms, receiving unexpected, undeserved, love and grace.

climbing the tree

Every kid that attends Sunday School knows the story of the short man who was also a tax collector (not a popular guy anytime). This fellow wanted to see over the crowd that was following Jesus, so he climbed a tree to get a good look but not be conspicuous. Jesus knows he is up there anyway, and calls to him. I have my story kids climbing the tree as well, because of course, kids would like getting up in the tree. And kids understand about being short and wanting to get a good look from above the crowd.
Again, I was going for the more unusual vantage point. And I had to climb a tree, pose my kids, and take reference photos for this, which was tricky, but fun.

on the Sea of Galilee

The characters in my time travel story really get to experience it all in this chapter. They get wet and frightened too, until they see Jesus walking across the water and calming the storm.

the discovery

The title for the series was "Discovery Kids".  This is the second spread showing the moment when the kids see into the time machine and find out where they are going. They follow Jesus around, listen to His sermon on the mount, and watch Him perform miracles.
I was influenced at this time by the illustrations of  Chris Van Allsburg. I wanted to use the strong shadows, interesting lighting, compositional angles, and viewpoints that I was learning from the work in his books.
If I could have a wish for this series, I wish that it would be published again, I thought the authors wrote a really interesting series, and I put my heart into the work.

Moody Monthly Magazine

I had the opportunity of working on a series of children's stories for this magazine a few years ago. The plan at the time was to turn the final process into a children's book. (That did not happen.) There were two authors for the story who took turns sending me a manuscript every month. It was published in the magazine for two years so in all I did 22 full spread illustrations and 22 1/4 page spots for another page. It was really fun to get that manuscript in the mail (before email everything) and plot out my next visual with the recurring characters.
The premise for the story was about a group of children, all friends and neighbors, who went on adventures together. The unique part of the plot was what,where, how, and when they had these adventures. The fathers of these kids were computer geniuses, and had invented a time machine that could send people back to the times of the New Testament days. So, they were able to see and hear Jesus in real life, but the people in that place and time couldn't see them. I suppose the dads had already made time-travel trips of their own to make sure it was safe before they started sending the kids on trips.

The first spread I illustrated shows two of the children discovering the time machine set-up on a ping-pong table down in their own basement. It just looks like a very old computer and some really antique equipment and lots of wires. I made it all up, and those are my dusty basement stairs. The kids who modeled for me are my own and the next-door neighbor's.
I always thought it was a funny name for a magazine. I understand that it was founded on a very famous and honorable person, a Rev. Moody, (but...monthly and moody too?)  My parents subscribed to it when I was growing up so I have long appreciated the quality of the publishing. I understand it is no longer in circulation, like a lot of out-of-print publishing, sigh.