Gouache Painting – Bible Art Journaling Challenge Week 50
Hello Everyone! Welcome to week 50 of the Bible Art Journaling Challenge!
Let’s talk about painting with gouache and responding to God’s presence! I’ll get you going on my video straight away. I’m excited to share this with you.
Gouache is a real favorite of mine and God’s presence is something I revere with such deep respect and adoration. I am honored to talk with you about it today.
Today’s Bible art journaling supplies
Before I head into the devotional part of this post below, here are the supplies I featured in this weeks video. I hope they help you find anything you may want to try out. All links will lead to Scrapbook.com and Amazon.
Bibles and supplies for Bible art journaling
There are always those who are new to me that find their way to various blog posts so, I’ll again mention for those who are new and interested… There are several wide-margin Bibles and supplies which I recommend for this art form. I’ve created a linked recommendations collection on my Bible Art Journaling Supplies page, to make your starter choices easier. I hope they will help you.
So let’s talk about this Bible Art Journaling Challenge.
Scripture
I used my Single Column ESV Journaling Bible, for this Bible Art Journaling Challenge. The scripture for this week, finds us looking at a story where a star has shown up as a sign, which three wise men notice as an indicator that the Savior of the world has been born. Matthew 2:9b-11 says…
9 …And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
A response to God’s presence
In the above section of scripture, you can see I underlined three points, which stood out to me as I read through it.
When they saw the star…
- They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
- They fell down and worshiped Him.
- Opening their treasures, they offered Him their gifts.
That is incredible. They saw a sign which pointed to Jesus and their response was firstly of exceedingly great joy. Secondly they fell down and worshiped Him and lastly they offered Him gifts.
Our own reaction to God showing up in our midst, is one which brings exceedingly great joy. It is THE BEST NEWS EVER. Ever. And, our response to God showing up in our midst should be to worship Him in abandon and offer Him our treasures as gifts.
What can you do to let go of yourself a little more and lay it as God’s feet as an offering?
What are your treasures which you can offer as gifts to God?
We can always grow by asking ourselves these tough, but important questions in our personal journey with Him. Let us bring our best to Him – regardless how insignificant it may feel – and watch Him make something indescribably beautiful out of it, which we can use to glorify Him. Our best is good enough and is a beautiful response to God showing up in our midst.
The star pointed the way to Jesus, for the wise men. What signs has God put in front of you to lead you closer to Him?
Painting with gouache
Back in week 3, I painted a lion with watercolor pencils. As I finished him up, I used some Caran d’Ache gouache, to paint his whiskers with a less transparent feel, than the rest of his very transparent body. It helped his whiskers to appear to be on top of his face and was easier than masking them off, to preserve the white paper for them later in the painting.
While watercolor is transparent, gouache has “body”. It is not transparent and instead opaque. I love using watercolor and gouache together, to make more interest. They act just like each other, except one allows you to see all the layers under it (watercolor), while the other hides what is under it (gouache).
Because gouache painting is rather opaque, it can be a problem in Bible art journaling, when you want to read the Bible text through the creativity. When using gouache in a Bible, we can use it two particular ways without covering the text in an opaque fashion.
- We can paint gouache in a watered down amount, so it acts like a color wash.
- We can paint gouache only on the margin or un-printed areas of our Bible.
Both of these ways will work great, while preserving the readability of the Bible text. In my Bible Art Journaling Challenge today, I’ve painted gouache into the margin area of my Bible, which of course meant it didn’t have to be watered down in order to be transparent over the Bible text.
In my opinion, one of the real benefits of using gouache instead of watercolor, is that gouache is very vibrant in comparison. I am very pleased with how it turned out today.
Join me
As for the creative techniques I have shared with you today, I would love you to try any if you’re interested in them. I also want you to feel free to gather inspiration in other places for joining me in creating about/on this week’s scripture. The goal is to get in to the Word and spend time with God. I’m looking forward to seeing what you create!
You can find answers to most any question you may have about this challenge, on the Bible Art Journaling Challenge page. It also has a full archive! Be sure to head over to our Facebook group and/or Google+ Community, to chat about this weeks Bible Art Journaling Challenge and get started on your own creativity! Many of you ask if it is okay to share these posts with your friends. Please do! It is a simple way you can partner with me to impact lives.
Thanks for joining me today. Please take a moment and say hi below! I’d love to hear from you!
You are loved. x
***Scripture is from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Juli Schlicht
Feb 9, 2016 @ 5:01 pm
I enjoy your site but I haven’t been able to register for your emails…That would make it easier to follow you daily..
Rebekah R Jones
Feb 10, 2016 @ 1:24 pm
I’m sorry to hear that Juli! I’ve just used the email you’ve submitted with this comment, to get you signed up which seems to have worked. Hope that is helpful! You should get an email from me soon and when I get my next devotional out you’ll get an email then. If you’re still not receiving them, have a look in your junk or spam box and set the email as “safe” to ensure you receive them from me moving forward. 🙂
Debbie Reed
Jun 25, 2019 @ 11:06 pm
Beautiful lesson…and one that is so very meaningful – the birth of our Lord and Savior.