Me being me, I went ahead and explored what abstract hymn prints might look like.
I also played around with making one in Blender via depth maps:
A new experimental nerdy thing, for people who like hymns, sheet music, and textures:
How I make these hymn prints (as I’m calling them):
convert input.png -morphology erode disk:18 -morphology dilate disk:16 output.pngI’m still figuring out how I want to do these (full bleed or not, barlines, clefs and key signatures or not, etc.). Also thinking about possibly doing some abstract versions as well, to avoid all these music typesetting issues entirely.
Four new pieces tonight.
Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength III:
New story: Saying Goodbye. About eight pages long, science fiction.
This one came from wanting to write a story with virtual reality involved (which admittedly ended up being more of a bystander in the finished piece) and then my recent experience with my dad took over and became the main driver, though the details in the story are all quite different.
Two new pieces:
Together Forever II. This one came out of losing my father. (That said, it isn’t actually a depiction of my own family — my parents were divorced and I have more siblings than this.)
Abide with Me II. This has felt applicable to me a decent number of times these past few months.
In the Image of Our Heavenly Parents: A Couple’s Guide to Creating a More Divine Marriage, released today, edited by McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding, with illustrations by yours truly.
New artwork: On These Two Commandments.
New artwork: Before the World Was VII. Exploring the idea of using semicircles to represent Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father. (The other ways I’ve tried so far include interlocking circles, yin/yang shapes, whole circles, triangles, and circle-and-triangle figures.)
New story: Bag Field. About twenty pages long, fantasy.
I started writing this story in March 2021 but didn’t get very far. Picked it up again at the end of August and here we are. Ten minutes of writing a day is still working well, by the way, especially when I look back at the year — six stories finished, roughly 90 pages together. Much better than not finishing anything. (That said, I do hope to spend more time on writing going forward.)
A few new pieces of art.
He Will Deliver Me, about David and Goliath:
Nevertheless II, another Gethsemane piece:
By Day and by Night, about the pillars of cloud and fire. I’d tried to do this piece multiple times in the past but it never clicked for me until I brought the pillars together at the center.
