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Matthew 13:3-4 (NLT)
3 He [Jesus] told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. 4 As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them.”

DRAWING NOTES:

TIME OF DAY:
Unspecified in the Bible. I have set the scene in the mid morning.

LIGHTING NOTES:
The sun (unseen & off to the right) illuminates this scene, casting shadows to the left of figures and objects.

CHARACTERS PRESENT:
A farmer scattering seed in his field.
Various small wild birds eating the seed that fell on the footpath.

RESEARCH/ADDITIONAL NOTES:
This is the first scene in the parable of the sower, which shows the farmer in Jesus’ story, casting seed onto his field. In Biblical times ploughing was mostly done using oxen or donkeys, and sowing seed was done by hand: the farmer literally scattering seed from a basket he carried, flinging it out to scatter it as evenly as possible across the prepared soil. Naturally some seed fell on the prepared soil, and had the best chance of growing into crops, whilst other seed fell along the edges of the field. Here, the oxen and plough could not reach, so field margins would have been untilled, compacted earth… not much chance of the seed making it into the ground before the wild birds spotted it & ate it!

The wild birds are behind the farmer, pecking at the grain that has fallen on the footpath around the edges of his field.

Notice I have included a stone watchtower in the background (the building with two windows), from which a farmer or shepherd could keep watch over their fields, crops &/or flocks by day or night.

Here’s the scene without the figure or birds in the foreground.

Background of Matthew 13 – Parable of the sower – Scene 02 – Birds eat seed

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Background of Matthew 13 – Parable of the sower – Scene 02 – Birds eat seed

Here is the pencil sketch I drew for this scene.

Matthew 13 – Parable of the sower – Scene 02 – Birds eat seed – Greyscale