Prayer category cards

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CEF Europe is producing small cards that can be used to print prayer requests on the reverse side and encourage children with their daily prayer time.
There are 16 categories that will be reduced to fit eight per A4 page.  The CEF national offices will be able to run the A4 pages through a copier or office printer to add prayer reminders on the reverse side.  This way the text can be customized to their need, in their language and updated easily without the need to print large quantities.  The cards will be cut out and given to the children through the Good News Clubs®, etc..

The three cards to the left cover the categories:
• food (top)
• missionary work - evangelistic (middle)
• home and shelter (bottom)

Tech notes: I photographed the children and masked out the background in Photoshop.  The vector line drawings were done in Adobe Illustrator.

Video for CMLC

This past weekend, I completed work on a video that will be used to help promote the Children's Ministry Leadership Course (CMLC) held at "Kilchzimmer".  The course is also held in other locations around Europe – Russia, Georgia, Balkans, Ukraine, etc.. For the video, we interviewed four students from the summer 3-month course.  An interview approach to a promo video seems to work well and involves far less production time.

Students attended the summer course from across Europe.  For example, one couple came from the Faroe Islands (located between Scotland and Iceland) and are preparing to head up a children's camp in Greenland.  As you'll notice in the video, while the summer course is held in English, many of the students have English as a second language and will be returning home to reach the children in their country and language. 

The 3-month Autumn course at Kilchzimmer is going on now in German and English.  There are plans to create a similar promotional video in German, interviewing several German speaking students.  This also avoids the need for translation or sub-titles.

More info on the CMLC in Europe: www.cefeurope.com/training

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Tech Notes: All video was shot using a Nikon D7000 (DSLR).  Edited in Adobe Premiere (CS4) and "questions" created in  Adobe After Effects (CS4).

Kilchzimmer projects - photo challenge

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In CEF we usually need photos of children or CEF ministries.  Wires, circuit boards and pipes are not normally on my list of subjects to photograph.  Kilchzimmer is raising finances for three urgent needs and will be including an insert with the Kilchzimmer newsletter.  Projects include a vehicle, regulators for the heating system and a new phone system.  

My photo challenge was to make an old dusty telephone circuit board of wires and switches not only semi-recognizable but also visually interesting.  The heating system with it's regulators and control units had a few more photographic possibilities.

I needed to keep the photos true and accurate so Photoshoping smoke, sparks, or steam into the images wasn't an option. :-)

The Call of Jeremiah (2, 5)

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This is an illustration for a single lesson (10 illustrations) on The Call of Jeremiah.  The central theme of the lesson is "God has a plan for your life".  This is a younger Jeremiah when God called him.  "I knew you even before you were formed in the womb of your mother; I set you apart to serve me even before you were born.  I have chosen you to be my prophet to the nations."

The image to the left is one of the application pictures.

Excerpt from lesson text:  ".... If you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God gives you a work to do.  He asks you to be His witness – to show and tell to others who He is and what He has done.  We are to be His witnesses where He has placed us – at home, at school, at play...."

The illustrations were drawn in Adobe Photoshop CS4 and digitally painted in Corel Painter X.  [print size: 24x34cm]

Copyright ©2011, CEF Europe.  Do not use pictures without permission. Thank you.

The Call of Jeremiah (6)

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This is a recently completed illustration for a single lesson (10 illustrations) on The Call of Jeremiah.  The central theme of the lesson is "God has a plan for your life".  At Kilchzimmer we have a series of single lessons that come with B/W drawings for making overhead transparencies.  Several of these lessons are now being updated and printed as full-colour flashcard lessons (24x34cm).

For this illustration, I used darker values than usual as I wanted to create more drama and draw attention to his mouth.  The initial idea was to have the background completely dark but, for the children, I added the wall to show Jeremiah in a physical location.  The light hitting the stones on the right may need toning down or reduce detail in the cracks, as it competes a bit for attention away from his face (mouth).  This is the scene where God touched Jeremiah's mouth and gave him the strength he needed to speak to the people.
Thanks to Felix D. for patiently posing for 30 photos, giving me enough references to use elements from several to create this final painting.

The illustration was drawn in Adobe Photoshop CS4 and digitally painted in Corel Painter X and ArtRage Studio.

Copyright ©2011, CEF Europe.  Do not use pictures without permission. Thank you.

The Call of Jeremiah (9)

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The above illustration is for the Call of Jeremiah single Bible lesson (10 pictures).  This is the scene where God gave a warning and showed Jeremiah a boiling pot tilting from the north and explained how an enemy will come from the north and invade the country. (final printed image is 24x34cm)

The illustration was painted entirely in Artrage painting program with minor adjustments made in Photoshop.  If you want to try an excellent paint program I can recommend trying out the free version of Artrage (Artrage 2 starter edition).  I normally would only use Artrage to do quick (2-5 min.) color comps for new illustrations and complete the illustration in Photoshop and Corel Painter.
 
Here is the initial thumbnail sketch.

When working on this illustration I couldn't help but picture a specialty of Switzerland – cheese fondue!  With that in mind, I customized the illustration slightly that our Swiss friends will appreciate.... ;-)