Be Thou My Vision

Edit 11-20-2007: The music link on the bottom of this description is no-longer active. This arrangement/performance I found on YouTube, is just as good... of not even better. [link]

It's kinda big, but full view is best

I love how my digi-camera distorts my pictures…. Not! *Chako wishes she had a bigger scanner but is thankful she even has a scanner...* They're really not quite so brightly colored in real life. Sally's hair is more brown than red, and Shugo's shoes have more of a shadow. Oh well, what can ya do? *shrugs*

A commission by

He requested a “full-throttle” colored-pencil piece of Sonic and Sally praying together, but left it kinda vague on how exactly he wanted it to look. So, I searched Bible verses and songs to try and find the right mood for this piece. I looked for a couple of weeks, but couldn’t quite find the right one. For whatever reason, the tune to “Be Now My Vision” kept popping into my head. No matter were I was, what I was doing…. It popped up randomly, at work, whilst walking, biking, or horseback riding, digi-painting, listening to 89Q (local Christian radio station)….It just wouldn’t go away! It was then I realized, the Lord was maybe trying to help me pick out the best inspiration for this piece. After that it was easy coming up with the idea of the background. The harder part was actually doing it. Research, research, research…. I looked at a lot of water fountains both online and in town to come up with the one that these two are sitting at. I must say, I’m actually fairly proud of how the cross turned out. I worked for over an hour on that! As simple as drawing a celtic cross may sound, for me it was a challenge for some reason. But, it is the most important part of this piece I suppose, so it should look its best. : )

Music can be a form of prayer, at least it is for me… So I went ahead and put a pan flute in Shugo’s (Sonic) paws. Shugo likes his flute. Just for you guys, and because it is the total inspiration for this picture... you have to view it with this song playing in the background... ...here is the song that he’s playing: [link] You’ll have to scroll to the bottom of that page and click “Download Now” and after a few seconds it should play. And click that link! I worked hard, and used lots of limited brain power to get it there for you all to listen to! So... Click it now!

*ahem* You’ll be proud to know, I taught myself how to copy a sound file from one of my CD’s… (anyone who knows me, knows that I’m techno-challenged.) Because I just had to play this song for you guys… and I didn’t wreck the computer! What came next though was finding a free audio file host, which wasn’t so easy, because I had no clue who was the best one and whom I should’ve been looking for. It’ll do for now, I suppose.

After even more research, I learned a lot about the song, “Be Thou My Vision.” If you can’t tell by my audio-link, it’s an old Irish hymn, that wasn’t even translated until this century, by a woman named Mary Byrne. It was originally written to be a prayer/poem. There are five verses in print to this song, but there were actually 14 different little paragraphs that where paraphrased and condensed to be sung as a hymn. There were three of these paraphrased prayer/song verses in particular that stuck out at me and said, “Hey, I can fit with these guys!” Especially the 3rd and 5th verses. The first verse just kinda helped me come up with the background.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou art my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,
Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, and Thou my high tower.
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

And so, that is how, “Be Thou My Vision” became the title of this piece. I hope you like it DB. I enjoyed putting it together. And for the record, I now can’t stop singing this song. That’s alright though, it’s good for me.

Prisma colored-pencils on 16 x 20in cotton watercolor canvas... and a touch of acrylic

“Be Thou My Vision” performed by Reta Ceol
Shugo (aka Sonic) and Sally Acorn © SEGA and Archie/DIC or whomever owns all the copyrights to these characters
Art © < -- (myself!)

Note: No anti-Sally/anti-Christian comments please. This artist is very much so fond of both, and was more than happy to do this picture. So please keep any derogatory or rude comments to yourself. Thanks.