My wife is a talented woman in ways that I can’t fathom and that leave me absolutely envious. One of which is her clear and natural way of writing, which she doesn’t think is the case– but that’s a crock, says I!

Some great proof of her authorial brilliance is now up at Tellurian Things– mosey on over and check out her overview of The Wheel of Time series!

I first met Robby Mayne when I was a gangly, myopic high school freshman attending the Pine Cove Shores camp. Anyone in college qualified as “coolest thing ever” in my book, and Robby especially had one of those unique combinations of dry wit and spiritual enthusiasm that made him an exceptional counselor. The only thing I couldn’t parse was his weird obsession with LSU (These sorts of things don’t compute for a native Texas boy).

But the cool thing about Robby is, he wasn’t content to just stay “cool.” Instead of making a career out of working at the High School camp, he made a lateral move to Pine Cove’s Towers camp for grade schoolers. As its current director, he’s inspiring a whole new generation of kids, and in the process, he’s showing a remarkable gift for writing compelling Bible Studies that have definite all-ages appeal.

It’s always a joy to illustrate his work, and this year was no exception– Robby’s study focused on Scriptural characters who lived like God was everything to them. The stories he picked and retold reminded me of the great rewards found in our faith, and offered some cool opportunities to depict a lot of drama and emotion in some dynamic settings.

Pine Cove Towers 2012 Bible Study Illustrations:

Caleb entering his part of the Promised Land, from Judges.

Jonathan and his armor-bearer climbing to a Philistine camp, from 1 Samuel.

Stephen, seeing Christ just prior to his stoning, from Acts.

Paul surviving a shipwreck, from Acts.

Jesus heals a blind man while John looks on, from the Gospel of John.

I’ve enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Pine Cove Christian Camps for over a decade now. I started going as a camper in 2000, came on summer staff in 2004, and even spent 8 months after graduating college in their discipleship program, The Forge. They’re a ministry that values excellence, and they have a very clear sense of mission that’s molded the way I approach my work.

They’ve also contracted me to do Bible study illustrations since 2009. At this point, I do covers and single-page illustrations for up to four studies a year, so they’ve become responsible for a large part of my professional catalog. But one thing I’d like to produce more of is comics. And wouldn’t you know: this year,  one of the Bible studies called for comic pages.

What?! Well, I’m on board with that!

Below is my first round of sketches. The challenge was to depict five separate sequences from the Gospels (each individual page had to correspond with a different passage of Scripture) and still make them feel like installments of a single, continuous story. I’ll let you judge if I hit the mark:

More to come on this front…

Well this was a busy season!

Between Easter, planning a volunteer thank-you party, and prepping to break ground on new buildings, things were hopping at StoneBridge last month. Some highlights from the rush:

Pamphlet cover for our Good Friday program. Since it was outdoors, we sought to give it a rustic, old-timey feel.

First-time visitors get a coupon to our in-house cafe. Here’s our latest (for Easter!) with background courtesy of David Wittenmyer

The final version of our volunteer thank-you party’s Save the Date. 

…and the final version of the Beach Party invite itself. (You can see the black-and-white draft here).

Baptism slide. Background images via otjep on Stock.XCHNG.

And finally, the logo for our new sermon series. (You can see the concepts for it here).

One last thing of note: while we worked to develop the Soak Up the Son material, my pastor ran across some art he really liked from a company called Stampendous. We reached out to them and they actually donated their orignal art (the umbrella and tree) for the series. If you’re in the market for crafty stuff, hit them up– we owe them some big-time thanks.

Why is this interesting? Plug: “Find out in this month’s issue of BLEEP!”

In other words, I’ve got another strip in the mag. There are also some neat articles and personalities covered inside– it’s worth a read! Click through below:

The Comics Reporter blog pointed me to a neat Tumblr a few weeks ago. It’s called Redrawn, and they encourage folks to redraw their favorite comics pages and post them up as a learning excercise.  I was on a Moebius kick at the time, so I scribbled out a sequence I’d just read. It made the cut.

It’s totally esoteric, but feel free to take a gander!

Redrawing Moebius

The process begins! My pastor and I have started the glorious creative ping-pong of branding our next sermon series. This one’s based on Philippians and looks like it’ll have a summer-y feel.

Here are some pieces of the puzzle thus far. Here’s to figuring out how they fit together!

One train of thought for logos

An entirely different train of thought for the same

A throwback, beach-y feel

Another option-- just going with a stamped, stark look.

For the church’s relationship series earlier this year, we had a specific request and a short window of time. I’ve talked before about our bumpers; this time, the in-service transition between music and preaching was to be bridged by… a romantic comedy?

Well, sort of. The series title being “What I Did For Love,” we suggested to our pastor that we do a short spoof of a guy getting ready for a date. He gave his approval, but asked that the protagonist be played by the unflappable Derek French, who would also appear on the series logo. In fact, the last shot of the bumper and the logo were to match exactly.