Every artist needs inspiration. The following quotes
have been just that to me.
"We need an artist who has a childlike heart and
love for children, who desires to help them understand the ways and
things of the Lord with the simplest childish illustrations. We don't
need slick, fancy, colorful, expensive, perfectionist works of art
or masterpieces. We just need something to very simply pictorialise,
in the easiest cartoon fashion, the basic ideas of the words." (This
was the quote which inspired me to primarily illustrate for children.)
"Don't ever get discouraged
that [your artwork] is not perfect, for neither are you nor I, although we too
are supposed to be illustrations of God and His love! We just do
the best we can by His help, and that's all that He asks and
that's all anyone should expect."
"It's really the
illustrations that bring a book to life and give life
to the dead pages and fascinate us like children, arousing our
curiosity to want to know more and inspiring our lazy spirits to
read the text to find out more of what it's all about and to understand
the pictures better."
"It's a known fact that we remember about
80% of what we see, but only about 40% of what we hear,
and God only knows how little we remember of what we read! So may
God really inspire you to portray the Message by pen, more and more!"
"Quit thinking about
yourself! Think
about the Lord! You've got to have the faith that He's giving it! That's
what I've had to have all these years. Forget about your damned presentation!
Trust the Lord! It's better to even get it said poorly than not at
all!" (This was originally given to someone who was having
a difficult time writing, but it has encouraged me in my drawings to
just trust God and His inspiration and not to worry about my ideas
or presentation so much. I just pray, get the inspiration, and rock
and roll!)
"A picture's worth
a thousand words, and
one of Zeb's pictures is just about worth all the words on the page!
You read his pictures and you've got the message! A little child could
get the message with his pictures! And they're cute and funny and comical
enough that they even make the message very palatable and enjoyable.
They give you a good feeling, a happy feeling, because they're sort
of comical.—Very simple!"
"If a picture needs
explaining, then
it's not much good. Its message must be plain and simple and self-evident.--That's
the best kind of picture."
"The main idea is
to get the message across, and
the simpler you can do it, the easier you can do it, the better!"
"Artists really are
very spiritual. They
are imaginative and very creative, and they must stay on the right
channel and be very close to the Lord and keep in tune with God."
"Pictures are powerful! When
God gives you a picture it really sticks with you. Never underestimate
the value of a picture, because God Himself uses pictures--moving pictures
called dreams and visions!"
"People like pictures! We're
all children and it's easier to grasp a picture, an illustration
or a story than mere theories and facts and lectures, etc."
"Make your pictures
appeal to the children and
then they'll appeal to everybody! Make the Message so simple and so
clear that every little child will understand what the picture's about."
"A man who works with his
hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain
is a craftsman; but a
man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist!"
