Simple Colored Pencil Blending – Bible Art Journaling Challenge Week 28

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Hello Everyone! It is week 28 of the Bible Art Journaling Challenge!

I have lost track how many countless times people have asked me about how to use colored pencils in our Bibles. I am finally sharing an introductory to it all with a simple colored pencil blending tutorial while focusing on an ENTIRE book of the Bible. Yes. You read that right. Exciting stuff!

So, I want to be clear that I am not trying to answer ALL the wonderful questions I’ve had on colored pencil. I am starting super simple today. And I promise to share more about various colored pencil blending techniques and even about colored pencil generally.

This is just a great place to start, with regard to colored pencil use on bible pages, which are not designed for art products to be put on them. 🙂 Lets do this!

Proverbs

The whole, entire book of Proverbs was on my mind this past weekend. I read 8 chapters of another book and 4 of yet another and then lost count. I really couldn’t decide on a verse for this challenge and then it came to me. I was boxing things in. Wisdom calls to us in the streets. She is everywhere in our life. I decided to challenge you about the whole book of Proverbs and its influence in our life.

I LOVE how the Bible is an ancient book yet remains relevant to every generation and each individual in all seasons of our lives.

God is a master at providing us the tools to live well for Him. Proverbs is one of those books FULL of wise things to live by. While the book is not a promise for an awesome life in every season, it IS a guide to living well regardless of what life throws us. We can often have more opportunity for those awesome seasons, when we live by its truths to our best ability. 🙂

Proverbs is one of those books which has wisdom for all seasons of life in it. If you’re in need of an answer to a problem in your life, you’re likely to find an answer in it. The answer may not be the one we like to hear, but it will guide us to a life which we’ll ultimately be more happy with.

listen to her challenge

I’d like to challenge you to take time to consider what the book of proverbs means in your personal life and create something as a reminder of it. For me, what I created really is the heart of it all. I need to listen to the wisdom of Proverbs if I am to live well.

Bible reading

There was a time in my teenage years that I was so hungry to learn God’s ways that I began reading several chapters of Proverbs and Psalm each day after getting home from school. I couldn’t get enough of it. I did the same in the Kings and Chronicles. Then the whole Old Testament.

All of it was like a novel I couldn’t put down. I fit my school work around it. How did I have such a hunger? I prayed every day asking God to give me a hunger for His Word. He did. Simple.

I learned in that time, that the best way to understand a fuller picture of what the Bible is trying to say to us, it to just simply read more of it. Literally. I started reading whole books in one sitting. Or several chapters at once. Anything to put what I was reading, into fuller context.

It really paid off as I started to pay attention to different things while reading. I would try to learn who was writing and then figure out what was going on in their life at that time when they wrote what I was reading. This would help me understand what sort of perspective they could have been thinking from when they wrote. Which of course, meant I was more fully able to understand what they were trying to communicate.

I then moved on after a season of it, to jumping around the Old Testament following the life of each king mentioned. I would use a concordance to look up their name and find every Bible verse I could about them.

I’d check the surrounding text to be sure it was the correct king and then read all the verses together in one sitting until I felt I knew that king as an individual – nearly as a dear friend. The corky things about their personality. The way they made decisions in different types of seasons of their life, etc. etc…

I moved on to doing the same with other Biblical characters. I wanted to know the characters in the Bible like you would a film or novel. It really transformed my life over time. I read about our heroes of the faith, having success and failure, making hard choices and transforming communities. I read about the battles and hardships they endured. I learned the effects of one generation passing things on to another – or not doing so.

Scripture when read as a whole, can give us an amazing insight into our own actions and how they affect whole generations after us. They can show us how our actions affect others today and teach us to live abundantly full of life. I hugely recommend this sort of Bible reading practice in your life. Have you done anything similar? How has it impacted you?

If you find the stories boring – or rather, hard to be hungry for – try taking a character who is interesting to you and just searching through the whole Bible for their story, to learn ALL about them. It will ignite something in you which is beautiful and unstoppable. My first randomly chosen characters were Moses and king David. My favorite is king Josiah.

Alternative options

If you have already created in the first page of Proverbs or don’t want to create on your Bible page like I have done, you can add an insert or tip-in to create on, like I have in these previous Bible Art Journaling Challenge weeks. You can click on either image to go view tutorials for those if you’ve not seen them yet.

I personally think adding a super thin insert to the beginning of each Bible book, would be a really neat place to illustrate things that speak to us about each book. It could get bulky but it could be neat. Or even doing it for the sections/divisions of the Bible books. Such as Law, Poetry, Gospels, Letters, etc. Could be neat. What do you think?

Colored pencil history

You might be wondering why I’ve not talked about colored pencil on my blog before today. Especially as it is such a widely loved product. The truth is a little deep but I’ll take you there so you can know something random about me.

I was given some colored pencils in Kindergarden as a 6 year old. They were a cheap brand and it made plenty of adult sense to not buy expensive art supplies for a six year old. But, I had a bad experience. It led me to believe colored pencils were not nice and I didn’t like them for years after that.

My colored pencils were cheap, thus lacking in pigment. I had to nearly scrape my paper to get the color to transfer from the pencil lead, onto my paper. And finally, nobody taught me that I could do anything interesting with them.

So, I believed them to be boring and uninspiring. Not to mention a real pain to use. In honesty, it wasn’t until several months ago, that I forced myself to spend from our small pockets, to buy a set of 48 Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. After they arrived, I spent a ridiculous amount of time testing and practicing various colored pencil techniques, in order to force my beliefs about them to change. I am always happy to embrace change. I just wasn’t happy to share my thoughts on them until I had tested the techniques to a point of exhausting them and their capabilities in our Bibles.

My beliefs did change and I will never recommend cheap colored pencils. I seriously love colored pencils and only those with a better quality. Others are similar to the Prismacolor brand but most will agree, Prismacolor are among the best. I do believe you could use cheaper brands for your Bible art but your experience may lead you to results you’re not pleased with and I’d rather not recommend that path to you. 🙂

Colored pencil blending

As I mentioned, I’m doing a super introductory tutorial on colored pencil today. I promise I’ll get in to more, but I have to start at the beginning I feel. The surface we use colored pencil on traditionally, is something that has been a key part of all tutorials we see out on the internet and taught widely.

As is the case with many art supplies, we have to learn how to use them on thin Bible pages and that means starting at the beginning. Sometimes, throwing out all advise and teaching ourselves new things is the only answer. Colored pencil blending is straight forward and many of the traditional techniques can be used on Bible pages but they need a little tweaking and I’ll do my best to share my thoughts on them as I share more tutorials moving forward.

So, that’s my start today. Now that I’ve done that introduction in my video, shall we start a conversation? Will you pop into the comments below and help me (and others here!) by sharing…

  1. Your own tips for specifically using colored pencils in Bibles and colored pencil blending in Bibles.
  2. Questions or requests for further tutorial you hope I can address with colored pencil in Bible art.

I’ll look forward to seeing your tips and using your questions/feedback as a place to know which colored pencil techniques to get into next with you.

listen to her challenge

Lettering download and fonts

If you’re not confident in your own hand-lettering but want to do lettering in your Bible, the way I’ve shown you today is a great way to find your feet with it all. Just ensure you print your text in bold black so it will show through your Bible page for you.

As promised in my video today, below is my download for the “listen to her” image I put together. If you like the lettering fonts but not the wording, you could create your own thing using the same fonts I used.

For the word “listen” I used a font called Futura. The “to her” text is using a font called Marketing Script. Both are free online if your computer doesn’t already have them installed. Just search “free font font name” and it’ll come up lots of places. 🙂

Please freely use my downloads for personal and group use only, to get together with others and get into the Word!

listen to her

Today’s Bible art journaling supplies

As promised, here are the supplies I featured in this weeks video which you can click on to view or purchase. I hope it helps you find anything you may want to try out.

I receive a small percentage of each purchase when anyone clicks on my art supply links, to go get supplies I use like you see below, or on my YouTube videos. This has no effect on you and makes a real difference for me! I am excited for you to get great deals on supplies anywhere, so you can join in on your budget.

When you find deals which I’ve searched for and recommended below, I get supported. Thank you, I so appreciate your support which helps me provide these free tutorials for you! Be sure to also view my Bible Art Supplies page for Bibles, art journals and other art supplies I recommend for Bible art journaling.

Click images to view art supply details or to purchase.

Bibles ideal for Bible art journaling

There are several wide-margin Bibles I’ve seen recommended for art journaling, including large print versions. I’ve created a linked collection here to make your choice easier when looking for a Bible to art journal in. If you click on any of the Bibles, you will often be able to look inside to see the pages for yourself before purchasing!

I really like my ESV Journaling Bible (used today) with faint lines in the 2 inch wide margin and cream paper color. I love my imitation leather, NASB Note-Taker’s Bible, which is free of lines in the wide and bottom margin with white paper. All give extra room for creativity.

You can also join in with a Bible you already have, or even an art journal like the art journals I recommend.

Click images to view art supply details or to purchase.

Your turn to create!

I would love you to try any of the techniques I’ve shared in my process with you today if you’re interested in them. I also want you to feel free to gather inspiration in other places. I’m looking forward to seeing what you Bible art journal for this weeks challenge!

You can find answers to most any question you may have about the Bible Art Journaling Challenge over on my Bible Art page found in the top navigation. 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 page!

If you have not done so yet, be sure to join my newsletter on the right-hand side of this page, so you can be notified when I release new Challenges and other exciting creative things. And, don’t forget to share this with any friends you think might want to know about it.

You are loved. x

UPDATE: I’ve been asked which colors I used from my set of 48 Prismacolor Premier colored pencils for this Bible art. For the word “listen”, I used Aquamarine on the top left and finished with Light Aqua on the bottom right. For the words “to her”, I used True Blue on the top left and finished with Light Cerulean Blue on the bottom right.

 

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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