New Creative Challenge…

Each year in May I run an online artistic challenge called Art Mayhem. It’s pretty much from the pop art/low brow/creature art side of my art work and designed to stretch people a little. Nothing deeply spiritual here, just a way to connect with others and to build relationships.
It’s always fun, so if you’re looking for a way to ramp up your gifts, give it a try.

You can even join the Art Mayhem Facebook group if you want to share your work with the world.

Welcome to Rat-ruary…

As many of you know, I have a Facebook page/group called The Daily Creative. I’ve been wrestling with it a little as I try to figure out how much content is too much, versus not enough, but one thing I have determined to do is post a daily art challenge each month. Well yesterday I heard that Chinese New Year was on January 25 and that this year is the year of the Rat. Well if you know my artistic history, you’ll know I’ve drawn a lot of rats, from fan art of Ed Roth’s Rat Fink to my own characters Rikki Rat and the Vermin, I love to cartoon rats. I decided that February’s Challenge will be called Rat-ruary. So if you’re feeling a little “rat-ical” come on in and join in the fun. Be sure to join the Facebook group so you can share your creations. It’s just a challenge to trigger your creativity.

Inktober is here again

Every year in October there is a challenge for artists who work in pen and ink, called Inktober. The make a list of prompts every year. I usually do at least a few, here’s the list and my entries so far.

Sell-It September- September 1

Over the course of the last year, I have participated in a number of daily art challenges. They have all been really fun experiences, but the truth is that’s as far as it’s gone and this year I want to do something more. I want to make more than just art. I want to make real, marketable products. So here’s the goal. I want to create a marketable product each day and post it for sale. I have a feeling a lot of these will go to my Zazzle stores, but I hope to publish a few of the ideas I have been working on as well. Maybe I’ll make a few marketable craft items, really the skies the limit, it just has to be available for sale when it’s done. What is my reason for doing this? Well there’s nothing wrong with doing art for art’s sake, but sooner or later if we are going to keep doing this, we ought to at least be able to cover the expenses from sales of our work. I’m not sure where this is going to lead, or if I will be able to keep up the pace. (I even came up with this idea a day late.) but you never know if you don’t try.
The thing is sooner or later we artists have to put ourselves out there and find our tribe. So here we go.

So as not to interfere with the flow of this page, please follow the project over at Beware of Artists.

Toon Joon

One of the things I love to do is encouraging people to create. I have found I really love to post creative challenges every so often. These are not necessarily faith-based, just an effort to get people to flex their creative muscles. For the month of June, I posted one called Toon Joon. The idea is simple. I give you the “gag” you draw the cartoon. If you’d like to join, head on over to Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/344554023081413/

By the way, I am thinking through passing some faith based challenges if there is any interest.

Making Art

Sometimes I just like to make art. This past month I entered into a challenge called Marchartoon. They gave a prompt for every day of the month and the objective was to create a cartoon character based on the word. I decided to go with an art style some call “low brow art” which is a favorite style of mine. Now you might ask what this has to do with faith and spirituality. Truthfully, not a lot, but it is a way to develop my gift and increase my abilities, and that is very biblical. I made a video of the results.

Marchartoons and a Question for the Readers

From time to time, I will join a creative challenge online. I did Inktober in October and it unleashed a whole new kind of art in me. This month, I found a challenge called Marchartoons, which challenges me to create a different character each day based on a prompt. I was thinking of doing a few of these for April. The one for this site would be AMOKApril and would contain a different Christian art challenge prompt each day, and then on Beware of Artists, I would do April Runs AMOK with a more “secular” challenge. If I do this, would anyone be interested in participating? Please let me know in the comments.

In the mean time, I have been posting my Marchartoons to social media and to my visual art blog, Beware of Artists. Here is today’s creation for the prompt “PLANT.”

It would figure that the day after I finish designing villainous plants for our flower show, the prompt of the day would be “plant.” I decided to go with a classic. Audrey II. One thing this always reminds me of is the old adage. What you feed grows, what you starve dies. It applies to murderous plants from outer space, and it applies to the attitudes and actions we carry through this life. Feed the positive and let the negative starve!

Daily Bible Challenge: February 19, 2019

This year, I am going to post creative challenges from God’s Word, the idea is simple, read the passage and create something based on it.

Matthew 23:11-12

A few words on greatness from God’s perspective. How can you use your gifts to be great in the Kingdom today?

Daily Bible Challenge: February 13, 2019

This year, I am going to post creative challenges from God’s Word, the idea is simple, read the passage and create something based on it.

Exodus 28:3

What is the spirit of skill, and how might that spirit be manifesting in your life?

Daily Bible Challenge: February 6, 2019

This year, I am going to post creative challenges from God’s Word, the idea is simple, read the passage and create something based on it.

Proverbs 3:5-6

What does it mean to acknowledge God? How do we lean on our own understanding? How can we express this passage to someone else?