Angel(s) character design sheet

This is my character sheet, or design specification, for Angels. The purpose of this sheet is to keep a record of the attributes or characteristics of my drawing, so that I can draw a similar-looking cartoon in all future scenes including angels.

I first drew an angel in December 2008, very early on in the history of Bible Cartoons, entitled Luke 01 – Births foretold – Scene 07 – Angel Gabriel & Mary. The next day I drew one in Matthew’s Gospel entitled Matthew 01 – The Nativity – Scene 02 – Joseph & Angel.

The early drawings of angels showed them with simple outline wings. In later versions I added feather-like details to the wings. You can see this change in the two drawings below.

Matthew 01 – The Nativity – Scene 02 – Joseph & Angel

Matthew 04 – The temptation of Jesus – Scene 06 – Angels

I have drawn arch-angels as well, as in the following scene, which shows Gabriel, one of the few named angels mentioned in the Bible. I drew him with a simple gold crown/circlet, and a gold sash, denoting his high position in the angelic hierarchy.

Luke 01 – Births foretold – Scene 08 – Jesus birth foretold

Occasionally I have had to draw the heavenly host, a vast array of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of angels. Drawing this many angels can be something of a challenge, and usually takes quite a lot of time! Below are two more scenes, showing how I illustrated the heavenly host. The first scene was drawn in November 2009, in which the angels are simple glowing outlines, and sort of ghost-like! The second was finished in November 2014, and has very tall angels with much more detail and drama in their expressions and gestures.

Luke 02 – Nativity SET01 – Scene 05 – Angelic host

Luke 02 – Nativity SET02 – Scene 05 – Heavenly worship

Additional Notes
‏מַלְאָךְ (Hebrew)‎, mal’ākh; Septuagint and New Testament, ággelos (Greek) – both meaning “messenger”.

Sometimes the Bible refers to angels in reference to human beings (Malachi 2:7; Revelation 1:20); sometimes figuratively to impersonal agents (Exodus 14:19; 2 Samuel 24:16-17; Psalm 104:4), but most commonly the term “angel” refers to spiritual and superhuman beings introduced as messengers of God.
There are only a few books of the Bible (eg Ruth, Nehemiah, Esther, the epistles of John, and James) that make no mention of angels.

Angels appear most often in connection with the coming and ministry of Jesus. According to His teaching they are personal, sinless, immortal beings, existing in great number, and in close relation not only with individual people but also with the history of God’s kingdom (Matthew 13:39; Matthew 18:10; Matthew 22:30; Matthew 25:31; Matthew 26:53; Luke 15:10; Luke 16:22).