Lion Cubs Value Painting – Deeper Still Lesson 12
Hello Everyone! Welcome to lesson 12 in Deeper Still! In this Bible Art Journaling Challenge series, we’ve been taking an adventure into the depths of God and in this lesson, we’re officially reaching the end of Deeper Still! It’s a great time to talk about value painting. In Lesson 11, I shared about creating an Inktense underpainting with the foundation of some adorable lion cubs. In this final lesson, we’ll be finishing the lion cubs with value painting.
Value Painting
So what is value painting? I wouldn’t call it a “term”. It’s something to consider creatively. I often find that when people are learning about creativity, they can tend to put down color a bit timidly and as a result, end up with something that looks a bit flat and lacking in dimension. Imagine that there is
a scale with black at one end and white at the other end, with shades of grey in between which are darker and darker as they get closer to the black, or lighter and lighter as they get closer to the white. I’ll actually show you one in the video here shortly. Each of these are different values. The black is a very dark value and the white is the lightest value. Each grey in between are various values, based on how dark or light they are. Confused? Don’t worry, it’ll all make sense in the video.
When we paint/color/create, it is good to try and create with as many values in one creative piece as is possible. Imagine your darkest value is the deepest shadow on your piece and your brightest highlight is your lightest value, with lots of other values in between. You end up with a better contrast of color which leads to a feeling of an image really popping off the page. Value painting my friends, is a super simple but important way to make your creativity really show up.
If you haven’t yet signed up for this series, please do. When you sign up today, you’ll immediately get your welcome email. Then, you’ll get the latest lesson right to your email inbox, every 4 weeks! It’s a year-long, free, creative devotional!
Don’t forget to grab the resources below, to join into this value painting challenge! Let’s get started! This may be the longest video I’ve ever done for a challenge. Feel free to pause and come back as needed to take it all in. I promise you’ll enjoy it.
Bible journaling supplies for this lesson
As promised, here are the supplies I featured, in this lesson. I hope they help you find anything you may want to try out. These supplies are purely optional and you are free to participate with whatever you have, using the devotional and scripture for this lesson. This post may contain affiliate links, to support you. If you make a purchase after clicking an affiliate link, this ministry gets a small commission, with no extra cost to you. You may read my full disclosure, for details. Thank you, I appreciate you partnering to help impact lives!
Scripture
I used my Double Column ESV Journaling Bible, for this lesson. The scripture for this challenge (and the previous lesson!), is Mark 6:30-33…
“30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.“
Rest
I painted these lion cubs here in Mark chapter 6, to remind myself that rest isn’t something we do, it’s a place we come from. It’s a perspective we approach life from and a mindset we make a pattern in everyday life. These little lion cubs, could relax in the sun without any of the cares of this world, because they knew their dad was watching out for them. They knew their job was to focus on growing personally and not on taking the world on, or protecting themselves from danger.
I think it is easy for us to think we have to make everything happen which will make our world go round. In reality, our job is to know our Dad, (Father God), has this thing called life. We can simply hand Him our worries and set aside striving. We can simply be. We can be in His presence and work on us.
Actually, the scripture was clear to me. Jesus did not invite the disciples to come away with Him, He told them, “Come away”. He told them, “Rest a while”. I believe we need to grab ahold of two things on this topic.
- We have permission to rest. It is healthy. It is good for us and it gives us the ability to love the world around us most effectively.
- We are commanded to rest. It’s not just about having permission. We are to rest a while. It it something we should make a practice in our life if we are to benefit ourselves, our family and friends, let alone the rest of the world around us.
I think one of the greatest struggles people face with making rest a priority, is believing it is selfish to rest. I want to boldly propose that if we do not rest, it is selfish. We end up coming to a place where others must look after us, because we did not look after ourselves in a balanced way.
What do we do if we’ve already come to place of needing extended rest? Just repent for living out of balance, forgive ourselves and focus on loving ourselves to a point of being ready to once again pour into those around us with a better balance.
What do we do if we’re not sure what rest looks like for us personally? I think true rest needs to include two things – Being refreshed by God’s presence and lots of fun. In my world, that looks like taking time Bible journaling. It looks like spending time with those I love and laughing lots with them. It looks like studying the word, being still and asking God what He wants to say to me about what I’m learning. It means personal growth and enjoying life. We all have sacrifices to make and work to press into, more in certain seasons. But we must all find a balanced way to involve personal time to grow and be refreshed, so we are able to offer the best version of ourselves to the world around us.
Rest is nothing we should apologize for. Instead, we should apologize for not taking some and find a way forward which allows us to live in balance. If God rested on the 7th day of creation, why would we be above taking some for ourselves? Rest is not selfish. It is a holy act and downright good for the soul. Please do us all a favor this week and ask God and yourself, what you can do to improve the balance of work/rest in your life, so you can impact the world with the best version of yourself. And if you are in a challenging place personally, forgive yourself and move forward. You are worth loving.
It’s your turn to get in the word and create with me! I want to see some value painting. Get bold, try to add a bit more shadow and leave a bit more highlight. You can do it! Value painting takes a little thought but is simple and a fun little skill to really improve what you already love about your creative process.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below! If you’re new here, we have lots of helpful people in our community who pop into the comments and share ideas and thoughts you may want to check out. If you’ve not seen lesson one yet, I encourage you to start at the beginning so we can go on a journey together in this free 12-part devotional series. It’s not too late to join in, (it never is!) and I’d rather you start anywhere, than not at all.
Join me in this Bible Art Journaling Challenge
You can find answers to most any question you may have about participating in this challenge, on the Bible Art Journaling Challenge page and learn more about this devotional series, on the Deeper Still page which holds the lesson archive, supplies list and and how to join in!
Be sure to head over to our Facebook group, to chat about this 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 share! It is a simple way you can partner with me to impact lives. And remember, you can join this challenge any date you wish. The community is always growing and you are welcome to participate whenever you want!
Thanks for joining me. Please take a moment and comment below! I’d love to hear from you!
You are loved. x
*Scripture quoted and artwork completed in 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.
Mary Jo Walker
Feb 5, 2018 @ 1:47 pm
Great lesson and loved the art lesson as well!
I always look forward to more……from beautiful southwest Florida!
Beth Wong
Feb 10, 2018 @ 10:32 pm
A timely reminder thank you Rebekah. I am struggling with arthritis in my hip, needing a replacement as well as other medical issues and just daily life titres me out, so good to have permission to rest.
Debbie Reed
Jul 16, 2019 @ 9:18 pm
These lion cubs are so sweet. Beautifully done!