Hero's of the Salvation Army

William Booth, the founder. As a young methodist preacher he loved to go out and preach the gospel on the streets. Now, I had thought that he left because the church would not let him bring the poor into the church. Since I have started studying the Army history I realized it was not because of that but, because the methodist church refused to allow him to devote all his time evangelizing. That is going to the people in the streets and preaching the gospel. After several requests to do so he resigned his position with in the church.

Being barred from preaching to methodist congregations he simply decided to do what he felt God called him to do. He went to the streets and preached. Not long into that he teamed up with others like him and formed the Christian Mission. It is from this the the Salvation Army was born(I say by accident).

As people came to know them by that name he organized it using all military terms to describe all aspects of it - Officer(pastor), Soldier(member of the Church), Corp(Church) and so on. But at the center of this was a passion to bring the gospel of Christ to those at the bottom, As the motto goes "Heart to God - Hand to man."

In drawing him I took my time wanting to start this one. Of all the famous people of the Army he is the most recognizable. So I wanted to make sure I did a good job of rendering him and still use this same style. To make this image unique from all the other images of him I drew him wearing his glasses. Not a single photo or painting do I see him wearing them. I do see him holding them in his hand but not wearing them.