Watercolor Crayons Tutorial – Deeper Still Lesson 4

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Hey there! Welcome to lesson 4 in Deeper Still! In this Bible Art Journaling Challenge series, we’re taking an adventure into the depths of God and in this lesson, I want to take you to the book of Job, with a little watercolor crayons tutorial.

All that fun. Watercolor in crayon form, another tutorial… and a devotional on… the book of Job. It’s one of those books that upsets some, confuses others, makes yet another crowd struggle to trust God’s heart for us and lastly, can simply discourage those in need of a boost. So why would I “Go there”? Because it’s God’s Word and we’re adventuring into the depths of God in this series. If ever there was a time to dive into the book of Job, it is now. Don’t be scared.

I am pretty sure that many don’t quite have my take on all this and I’m looking forward to delving into it with you! I promise, you will not suffer through this. 😉 Have you ever suffered through anything I’ve ever shared? I should hope not! Having experienced some significant seasons of suffering in my life, I’ve had ample time to address my understanding on the topic of suffering, which is a key focus in Job.

If you’ve ever felt any negative emotions going through Job, or struggled with this topic, we’ll hit it head-on in this lesson and I’m excited to see what God has in store for us! I believe He wants to heal some hearts and heal some mistrust of Him today!

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 as they come out!

Deeper Still lesson 4

Let’s get this lesson started with the video and then pop below for some extras including a free download!

Job 1:6-12

“⁶ Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. ⁷ The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” ⁸ The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” ⁹ Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” ¹² Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.“

Now that we’ve seen the beginning of the story, let’s hop to the end…

Job 42:10-11

“¹⁰ The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. ¹¹ Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold.“

The story of Job

I want to make clear that I DO NOT believe that God brought suffering on Job. And yet, we see this in scripture! So, am I now a heretic? No. Hear me out. Yes, God did bring suffering to Job AND no, He did not. All in one breath.

We see in Job chapter 1, that God actually mentions Job to Satan. We see Satan then tempt God to “put forth His hand” onto Job. He was sure it would cause Job to curse God. We see the Lord then tell Satan, that all Job has is in Satan’s power, but to not put a hand on Job himself. The whole book then details the story as it unfolds.

Satan desperately struck every area of Job’s life which he’d been given permission to touch. We reach the end of the story when God began to restore much to Job.

Despite the challenges Job walked through, trying to grasp onto the truths he knew of God and what he was yet to learn, Job stayed steadfast and did not curse God. He was certainly honest and questioned God with his limited understanding. But he trusted God and stayed tender toward Him through all his suffering.

The writer of Job communicated in the end of the book, about the adversities that God “had brought on him”, as if God put out His own hand against Job. In fact, it is a misunderstanding that only takes place out of context.

It is critical for us to see the beginning of the story, where Satan tempts God to put His hand out against Job and instead He says, “Nah! I know Job better than you do. Do what you like with him, but don’t touch him personally. You won’t be able to make Him curse me.”

The subject of suffering

Some would argue that God is responsible for Job’s suffering just by allowing it. And perhaps He is in some way. But, what I know about God is that He is kind. He is just. He is our deliverer. He is passionate about us as His creation and He is Love. He gives good gifts and suffering is not good.

The Christian circles have been long responsible for the poor theology that suffering is somehow our great responsibility to God and we do it for Him. NO! He died on a cross so that we were not just saved, but also healed. Yes there is free will and as a result, suffering can happen around and in our lives.

But God is not the author of suffering. It is a simple thing that Satan uses as a tool to get us to curse God. To get us to name our Savior as the author of it’s travesties. To confuse us about God’s goodness and thus our willingness to lean into Him with all that we are.

We must war against the wrong perspective of suffering. I believe God allowed Satan to sift Job because from the beginning, all God has wanted was one thing… us choosing God of our own free will. The power of that choice is bigger than anything we may encounter and He is the One we can count on as we lean into Him. God just wants to be adored, just like we do.

God allowed Satan to tempt Job, knowing that Job was capable of choosing truth for himself. Satan tried to tempt Job to curse God, by reasoning that if he caused Job to experience enough suffering, he would believe God was the author of it and curse God.

How we position ourselves

I don’t know about you, but I will NOT buy into the lie that God authors terrible things. Our connectivity with God depends on us grasping this. If we believe that He is out to make us miserable, “but has our best interest in mind”, we’ll waste years of our lives not only struggling to go deeper with Him, but also to live a life of breakthrough that can positively impact the world around us in any significant way.

We get the great free gift of coming to God and exchanging our suffering for His breakthrough. My own healing story is a great example of this. God has given us the keys to be overcomers and to live in breakthrough.

It is vital that we do not recycle our own, old, negative, perceptions of God. Instead let’s use this study as a moment in personal history to step into new understanding of God’s beautiful love for us. Let’s go deeper still with Him and invite Him into areas of our life that seemed scary to trust Him with before today.

God gives SUCH good gifts and it is an incredible honor for us to be entrusted in helping others encounter His goodness, in a world desperate for His love.

I just want to transition for a moment and talk to you about this watercolor crayons tutorial!

Neocolor II watercolor crayons tutorial

I suppose you could use any type of watercolor instead for this watercolor crayons tutorial. However, I LOVE watercolor and my favorite of all time are still Neocolor II from Caran d’Ache. I’ve learned since filming this lesson that they no longer offer 126 colors in a set, just the 84. But honestly… 84 is a ton of beautiful colors! The reason I love Necolor II so much for watercoloring, is because they are SO easy for travel. I first bought a set of 15 colors (which I enjoyed for a long time happily). They come in a metal tin which I drop in a ziplock, then into my purse to create on-the-go.

They are easy to scribble a little bit of color inside the lid and then you’re ready to create! And even at home, you can have a huge set of colors, scribble wherever and get started. They melt with water super easily and I think the crayon shape somehow feels like a craft supply that is unintimidating, when in reality, you’re using artist quality watercolor sneaking around as a play product. Just my style. I love showing how to use stuff that is simple to use and gives impressive results. I hope you’ve enjoyed the watercolor crayons tutorial and will try out the Neocolor II if you haven’t before! I’ve got them linked below for you.

The nice thing about doing page prep before watercolor, is that you don’t have any bleed through, regardless how much liquid you add to the page. If you’re not familiar with page prep, it’s a technique I developed and you can learn more at www.pageprep.com.

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