Hope is difficult for me to draw or paint. It is even more difficult to write about.

Hope is always in me. I take it for granted, usually, unless things get bad. But things have to get really bad before all I have left is hope.

I think this is due to hope being an emotional state rather than an optimistic point of view reached by conscious logical thought. Hope happens when reason is gone. When life feels so overwhelmingly bad, all I have left is hope… for something better.

Although, I can’t deny when life feels positively good, I feel an undercurrent of hope for stability. “I hope that nothing bad happens!” Hope can work against change when things are good and comfortable. Maybe that reflects the arbitrary nature of emotion.

Each of the drawings and paintings below are reflections of hope. The artworks are approximately 9″x12″ on card stock paper, created with markers, pens, watercolors, paint pens, and acrylic paint. The first piece of art is a Face of Hope at its time of overwhelming need. The second artwork is a Ray of Hope, shining through the darkest hour; a time it’s most clearly visible. And the third drawing is a nod to the American Democratic political party which connected popular culture’s idea of hope to a campaign, in the Smiling Eyes of Hope.

Special Thanks to Martha Marshall for contributing the idea for this 4th Art Challenge! And check out Vikki North’s blog (the originator of these art challenges!) to see her interpretation of HOPE!

~Michael

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These are 2 drawings of lion cubs. The first lion cub was drawn with markers, oil pastels, and paint pens. The line work in the first drawing started out fairly loose, but tightened up as I tried to correct proportion, value, and position mistakes. I left the second lion cub drawing abstract and cartoonish, and also used markers, oil pastels, and paint pens. The drawings are 9″ x 12″.

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This is a drawing of eyes, created with a combination of mediums, such as pens, markers, paint pens, watercolor, and multiple layers of laminate. A variety of vivid colors were used to build up the eyes and the surrounding facial structure with washes of color and energetic lines. Each layer of laminate allowed for greater depth of features to be added without much blending of color and shapes, allowing for an extremely crisp and vivid final drawing. The eyes are drawn on 3″ x 5″ paper.

For more eye drawings visit the Marker Drawing of an Eye.