5.1.12

Angel Head Study

I went to a men's retreat several months back and was looking forward to reading a book I had purchased, The Angels & Their Mission.  I think Ted Schluenderfritz did the cover design - nice work Ted!  Strangely enough, the priest at the retreat centered his talks around Angels.  It went well with the book, and I remember something he said he heard while in the seminary.  One of his instructors made a point while starting a talk that (paraphrasing) Angels are not our friends by definition, but spiritual allies… you have to share the same nature to be a friend.  An interesting thought worth pondering.  If you haven't read the book mentioned above, it is a quite good.  It broadened my understanding of the relationship between God and mankind, and how it changed from the Old to the New Testament.

I finished this sketch in my notebook last night.  It's colored pencil with an acrylic/watercolor wash.

5 comments:

theodore said...

Thanks Anthony. And THANKS for posting this lovely little image. how big is this? I would love to see the process here. If you have time, maybe you can scan the stages next time you use this technique and post them for us?

Anthony VanArsdale said...

Thanks Ted! This is about four and a half inches wide. Next time I'll be sure to scan the picture in progress.

Christine said...

It is a lovely image, however angels are fearsome and male.

Alex VanArsdale said...

Can we have a clue as to which choir this angel belongs?

Anthony VanArsdale said...

Thank you Christine and Alex.

I myself do not believe angels look like this. This is just a sketch with 19th century angelic imagery in mind. I wanted to emphasize purity using the look of a child and intended the angel to appear as genderless as possible, angels being pure spirit. The angels Isaiah described sound quite terrifying.

Alex, the angel in my mind is one of the lower choir - maybe guardian angel? I kind of thought on a mission in disquise or something.