Goat on a Phone

Screen Time

Mobius the Goat tries his best to send a message on his phone, but that is difficult for someone who does not have any thumbs!

Mobius the Goat tries to operate his mobile phone in the latest entry from Steve’s Sketchbook.

Phones these days can be challenging sometimes. But just imagine how much more challenging it would be if you are a goat without thumbs. You think hitting the right letters are tough? Try it with hooves! But Mobius the Goat looks determined to do his best here, even if it is taking all of his concentration. So if you get a text from him with a few misspelled words, cut him a little slack. He is doing the best he can.

Remember When?

Remember back when we did not have cell phones at all? You had to actually call and talk to someone using a phone connected to the wall. If you were not at home, someone could leave a message on your answering machine. And then cell phones came out and you could call someone from anywhere. Text messages were the next big thing. But you had to “type” your messages using the number keys, which took forever. And then smartphones arrived, bringing the whole internet and everything else into your hands, no matter where you are. Unless you can’t get service, of course.

Times have certainly changed. And most of that change has happened in the last 20 years. Cell phone towers are everywhere. Some of them try to disguise themselves as trees, but the disguise usually is not enough to conceal their identities.

Just be sure that you do not get so caught up in the technology that you miss out on actually talking to someone!

Bible Verse

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. - Ephesians 4:29

About the Artwork

Speaking of all you can do on phones, this artwork is a direct result of phones. I drew it on an iPad, of course. But then iPads probably would not have been possible if it were not for iPhones that came before them. Just another example of what phone technology can do.

After the previous Mobius the Goat in the Snow artwork, I went back to my more traditional style for this one. As with the first Mobius artwork, this one has a watercolor-style background, but this background is a little less busy than that first one. Also, Mobius’s look continues to evolve slightly. I really liked how he turned out here.

Here is the rough sketch that I started with:

It almost looks like scribbling. And maybe that is what it is. I start out with a really rough idea and then refine it as I go. The blue version that you see above was the original sketch, followed by the black version sketched on top of that. As you can see, I moved things around and made some refinements as I went along. Again, with this modern technology, it is easy to have several layers, turning off the ones you don’t need as you work your way to a final version. And then you can bring the layers back to show what you started with. That would be much harder to do with a pencil and paper.


World Bible School


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About Burnsland
Burnsland is Steve Burns, with generous help from his lovely wife Laura. Steve is a husband, father, photographer, webmaster, writer, podcaster, artist, Christian. Steve enjoys sharing his photography, art, and stories through Burnsland.com, from the Burnsland World Headquarters in Tennessee.