I used no photos, no models, not even myself for reference. So...? Read on...
So it started with the idea of entering a Christmas themed art contest. In August of this year, When Mom and I were looking up Christmas Craft Markets that were looking for Artisans, we booked with one that was having a Christmas themed art contest. When we told the nice lady of the things we handmade and sell, like our crocheted women's fashions, Christmas wreathes and decorations, my Mom's oil paintings, my brother's wood burning artwork, and selected prints of my charcoal artwork, etcetera, etcetera; the nice lady asked if we would like to enter their art contest. When I thought, "Christmas themed art contest? Well it should have something to do with the birth of Christ!" This image instantly and clearly popped into my mind before I could even think any further. This image looked VERY MUCH like the finished artwork (below) I never thought I would create. After the image first popped into my mind I thought, "God, if I'm gonna draw a picture of Mary and baby Jesus, I don't want to draw a woman holding a baby and say it's Mary and Jesus. I want to draw the real thing!" Little did I know that God already granted my request... if you would call that a request.
My Mom, my brother and I talked about entering the art contest. We decided to only enter if any of us three felt up to it after we got all our other crafts ready for the upcoming craft sales that Mom and I would be working at. So I tried to put the art contest out of my mind so as to not pressure myself too much, but there were several times when I just barely started thinking about the art contest and the same image instantly came into my mind, the same baby, the same woman, the same details, the same lighting, the same colouring, the same everything! I started to wonder, "Maybe? That's what Mary and Jesus really looked like?"
So about three weeks to the art contest deadline, I could see that we were near ready for the upcoming Christmas Markets and it looked like I just might have barely enough time to work on putting this image onto paper. I thought about the art contest more frequently and the same thing would happen; I'd see the same image in my mind of baby Jesus and Mary before I could even remotely analyze an inkling of what I thought the picture should be. But instead of the image being shown to me in my mind for a brief time, I would see it for longer and I noticed they started moving like I was right there watching the little baby Jesus moving his little baby mouth in his little smiling baby way, fidgeting his little hands under the cloths he was wrapped in, turning his little head up to look at his mommy Mary like he was trying to reach up and touch his mommy's face. Mary was smiling, looking in constant awe and immeasurable love for her little baby Jesus, tilting her head a little, just so completely mesmerized, delighted, amazed at her baby, the Christ, she was holding so snuggled up in her arms. This was mesmerizing me as I saw all this in my mind.
So on the first day I had the chance to rest from all our pre-market stuff, I somehow managed to juggle resting with sketching throughout most of the day. You can imagine me with a little sketchbook in my left hand and my pencil in my right as I was snuggled up in a blanket on the couch. I was trying to make a little rough sketch of the image I saw so I could later project it onto the 11"x 14" paper so I could get all the proportions just right. I'd be drawing while trying not to fall asleep for one moment. Then the next, my head hit the pillow, my hands, still holding the pencil and sketchbook, fell straight onto my lap. It appeared that I was down and out. But wait! My body still limp, my eyes open slightly, I look over, I see my sketch needs something! Somehow? From somewhere? I've drawn up the energy to bounce back up and keep sketching for a minute. The next minute, my tiredness strikes again, I'm down. Then I'm back up! Then I'm down again! So I basically rapidly alternated between napping and sketching at frequent intervals. I'm serious, it really went down like this. It was very entertaining for my Mom to watch, Just ask her.
Then a few days later (about a week until the contest deadline), we're almost all prepped and ready for our Christmas markets coming, Mom decides to make an acrylic painting on canvas (which I'll share in a later post) to enter for the contest. When I was less tired, I crammed as much time into drawing Jesus and Mary as I could. When I looked back at the video footage I was stunned at how I put much more time into "Baby Jesus and Mother Mary" in a little over a week than I have with some of my other artwork (I'll post the video soon).
So I finished the artwork before the deadline. I felt very accomplished not because I finished an artwork before the deadline, but because I never used a real photo or any models (not even myself) to sub in as Mary or Jesus and I feel like I want to say, "I got Jesus and Mary to sit for me!" (with a large grin on my face, trying not to giggle) because I kind of did, except it obviously wasn't like "sitting for an Artist" the way one might typically think of "sitting for an Artist." I think it's safe to say that my artwork was based from a vision God gave me, because I know I didn't imagine it, it was far too detailed and so real for me to have fabricated it all so instantaneously. If my extremely analytical mind concludes that this had to have come from God, that should tell you something. If you don't believe me, I don't care. That's your choice.
I know the artwork in its finality is not totally photo-realistic, honestly I really wanted it to look like a photo because what I saw looked so real and so detailed. After a long time working on it, it was getting harder to focus on just one image in my mind; and I did not want the image to get distorted in any way by using a model or photo of somebody else for reference. I wanted Mary and Jesus to look exactly how they were shown to me. The lines, the proportions, every little detail; I wanted it all to be exact. If I felt this artwork was in any way distorted from the image given to me, then I wouldn't even show it. I'm very much a perfectionist and I take my art very seriously. By the time I started drawing the image, whenever I'd think about it or want to refer to the vision God gave me, I'd start seeing Mary and Jesus again and they just wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get over how mesmerizing it all was. It was all so beautiful to see. All the Mommy and baby love, Jesus and Mary, the purity, the beauty, the snuggling, the cuteness -- just writing this now and I'm trying not to become a blubbering mess. Whenever God has let me to see this vision again, I've noticed that the way the lighting was and how it looked almost surreal or a little cartoonish because of the way the lighting was. So I don't feel so bad about it not looking like a photograph of Mary and Jesus. Plus I think if God wanted it to turn out like a super realistic work of art, then I think God wouldn't have made me such a big mushy softy. So, I'll just settle for realism... this time.
Yes, Mary's eyes are that big. I think I caught her when her eyes got really big out of such awe and amazement overwhelming her.
Yes. Jesus's eyes are that big too.
And yes, he was smiling like that.
Obviously I could not have created this work of art without God's help.
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