Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Using Photoshop to illustrate a Psalms verse

Shield of David photoshop
Dvoit Ben Shaul made this illustration which includes the verse in Psalms where King David prays to the Lord, his shield, the Shield of David. In order to strengthen the association to the Bible I added the fonts of the Bible with Photoshop clonning brush and replaced the white background of the books' page with clouds filter that used Dvorits colors.

It Takes a Whole Village to Raise a Blog

Star of David village
This is the third illustration of Psalms 18:3 made by Dvorit Ben Shaul that I publish here on this blog.
Dvorit introduced me to Dr. Goldmann who taught me a lot about Stars of David. I learned a lot also from
Uri Ofir who let me translate into English his Hebrew research about the Jewish origin of the Star of David . There is a strange coincidence concerning these names- Ofir in Hebrew is a kind of gold. Last week a painter called Ofira Oriel sent me her Star of David Mandalas to publish. Ofira means-gold
This coincidence reflects my gratitude to all those who help me raise this blog - to me they all look as if they were made from pure gold...

When was the Star of David invented

Star of David invented
IMHO King David, who according to the Jewish tradition composed Psalms, invented the concept of the Shield of David. In Chapter 18:3 King David prays to the Lord, using the word shield - and that's when the concept of the Shield of David entered our world.
It happened around 1010 BCE, after escaping from King Saul, a few years before 1004 when David became a king. He ruled until 965 BCE and lived, like us, in the turn of a millennium...

Ofira Oriel - Mandala

Mandala Magen DavidThis amazing colorful painting is the last in a series of four mandala designs made by Ofira Oriel, which were published on this blog

Who is the Star of David

Star of David Psalms Usually we ask "what is the Star of David" but in Psalms 18:3 which was written by King David the Shield is a verb, not a noun, and it stands for the Lord. My friend the painter Dvorit Ben Shaul helped me express it as an image.