No Greater Love

Selections from John 19
Moleskine Sketchbook
Uniball Signo RT gel 0.38

Post-Easter comments...Now that Easter is over, I thought I would add some additional text to this post. This drawing was a challenge. I have been thinking about how I could depict some aspect of the crucifixion for years. I have been very intimated by the whole concept. The other morning just before rising out of bed, the idea you see above suddenly came to me: to draw the nailed hand of Christ. Again, I was intimidated - this time, not just because of the subject matter, but also because they say that drawing a realistic hand is one of the hardest things to draw well. In the end, I surprised myself at the level of realism I was able to achieve.

I took a digital shot of my own hand for this drawing and then I "beefed it up". While I like the overall effect, there are some things I am not happy with in this drawing. I think Jesus' hand would have been stronger than this one. I also believe it would have been dirtier and more gruesome than I managed to draw. More blood, more cuts, more dirt, more stress.

I love the text on the cross beam - and how it informs me that the Savior literal laid his life down for me. That's amazing love. TS