An actor's perspective (Dallyn Vail Bayles of Liken the Scriptures)

I stumbled across this on youtube, and thought it was really neat. Actors who play scripture characters have a unique opportunity to get inside the heads of the people they play, and try to understand them. It's neat to me to listen to how Dallyn Vail Bayles prepared for the role of Alma.

You and I may not be acting in the next big Liken the Scriptures movie, but I think maybe we can learn something from the way an actor prepares to assume a persona of a scripture character. I know I could stand to think more about what the people were thinking and feeling, why they did what they did, and how they became who they were. And after all, are we not all striving to take on the persona and attitude of Christ? Perhaps as we read, we can think about how we can "act" more like him.

Oy'm not dead yet :)

Hi folks, this is Josh again. Contrary to popular rumor, I have not been captured and enslaved by the Priests of Noah. I have merely been procrastinating. Drawing plenty, scanning some, but procrastinating actual factual posting. I stand sorely in need of repentance. So here goes:

King Noah- (The Book of Mormon, Mosiah 11»)
(different Noah from the one in the Bible) Wicked King, destroyed Church in land of Nephi, persecuted the prophets


Speaking of King Noah (who may be hereby absolved of kidnapping charges), this is a drawing I did of him a few weeks ago on a camping trip. The proportions are a bit wonky, but I like how it turned out. It's kind of a different take on King Noah than artists normally do. The story describes him as a wine-bibber, greedy, living off the labor of his people, etc. Thus traditionally Noah has been depicted as heavy-set with lavish clothing decorated in jewels, gold, and feathers. That's the stereotypical, iconic depiction we owe to the late (and great) Arnold Friberg. I thought here, though, it would be fun to try something different. I made Noah instead a man of taste- a connoisseur of the best of everything, but not gaudy. For this Noah, only those "in the know" would actually know how ridiculously expensive his tastes were.























Elder Robert D. Hales-

Trying to learn digital painting lol
This I painted earlier this afternoon listening to an address by the Apostle Robert D. Hales on BYUTV.


























Nephite Fort-

The sketch on the bottom I took on the same aforementioned camping trip. I was looking at some rocks and thought they looked like a really cool Nephite fort. On top is what I got colored this afternoon before my stylus broke :)


Alas, broken pen tablet pen . . .



. . . I searched internet how too fix it








Dr Google prescribes Superglue. No Joke.













I knew I shouldn't have practiced surgery without a licence.













Mourning














Recovery.












Huh. Pen guts.















Until next week, though likely it's going to be mostly plane jane sketches until I can get a new stylus :( Thanks for following!

A Smattering of . . . Smatter?

Hi everybody (I can say "everybody" now, there are 3 of you following! That counts, right?)

Today in lieu of sketches I have a couple poems:

Bountiful

Even now
The stones smolder with jungle steam
Simmering, as the fog rolls off them
Wishing they could speak
Roots reach to entangle
The trees roll overtop
To cover them beneath
Their root-bound, earthen cloth
Bountiful
Like Desolation
Slowly reclaimed
It sinks into the earth
The womb from whence it came
This place, once full subdued by man
Is now by nature tamed
At one time all men flowed to it
Now no man knows its name
Where Judges sat now jaguars sleep
And monkeys play their games
And lo, in the grandest of the courts
A tree grows through the floor
It has pushed its way up through the roof
To touch the sun and storm
It's strange
How proud magnificence
Though broken and decayed
When adorned with nature's burial clothes
A new, strange beauty displays



Deeper:

Life does all it can
To distract from Reality
But there is something deeper

The crowds press in
To convince you you're alone
But there is something deeper

Cascading heaps of riches
Pretend there's nothing more

Depravity and squalor
Bemoan there's nothing less

All men fear to sleep 6 feet down
In their Sunday last and best

But there is something deeper
And there is something higher

Dig deeper
Reach Higher
And though you cannot see God's face
You will find yourself caught up
By His unseen Embrace

Captain Moronihah

One of my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon is the story of Captain Moronihah. His father, Chief Captain Moroni, made his mark as one of the greatest Nephite Generals of all time. He saved the Nephite nation many times, from treacherous rebellion within and from vast armies of marauding conquerors without. He was a giant of a man- but, giants cast long shadows.




















When he retired, Moroni appointed his son Moronihah as Chief Captain. Although he had some success, soon the country faced even greater peril than before. Lamanite conquerors took the capital city of Zarahemlah. People lost their homes, thousands of men died, and the Lamanites took over half of the Nephite Lands. Moronihah had failed. He had failed his father, his people, and himself. But despite all this, he was still his father's son. Moronihah did not give up. He taught his men to live righteously, to gain the favor of God. Only when he felt his men were spiritually prepared would he advance. Many cities were regained- but they were unable to maintain more than half of the land. The Lamanites were strong- but the faith of Moronihah and the Nephite army was stronger. They prayed for a miracle.

If you're interested to know what happened next, you can read Helaman 3-5 for yourself. It tells the story much better than I can. I know, I know, cliffhanger. But seriously, it's a great story.






















As for the art this week, the top two are pictures of a maquette, or model, of Captain Moronihah that I made out of tagboard, a tennis ball, a clothes-hanger, and a spaghetti strainer (mixed media, lol). Often in animation maquettes are created to help the artist draw a character from many different angles.

The third picture is a pencil design I did for an animation class of Captain Moronihah. I hope at some point to ad inks and colors.

One more great video

This is another great video I found on "Churchfuel". It talks about art as it relates to the gospel, how our creating things is a reflection of the Great Creator, our Father in Heaven. I believe that the desire to create is something God has passed down to his children from his own nature.

Creation from Media Fuel on Vimeo.