Winter is on the Way (I think?)

I've been dreaming of winter.  I keep hoping it will show up, but it just gets warmer.  My forsythia is blooming and one of my irises is blooming.  So today I was clinging to the Ecclessiates 3 passage, "To everything there is a season", and reminding myself that God's timing is perfect.
This piece is created with lots of layers of Prismacolor pencils.  I used a white eraser to lift out some of the branches and Micron pen to do the lettering of the scripture.  If you would like a list of the colors I used, leave a comment.  If you are in my class, we will do this piece on Jan. 20.

This is what the two page spread looks like.  I illustrated this passage in the fall as well.  I thought it would be okay to use two illustrations side by side. I think the colors work well together. I repeated the reds and some of the greens.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  I just got back from Texas visiting with my son and his sweet family.  On the long drive back I was thinking about stamping ink for our Bible Journaling.  If you were in our very last class before Christmas, we used a large rubber stamp and added color. (See last blog post.)  We used StazOn ink to prevent bleed trough.  Some Stamped it on the vellum to create an overlay, but it smeared.  By the end of the class it has still not dried enough to add color.  Anyway, I was looking for solutions on line and found this great article on supplies.

http://journalingthebible.com/supplies/

 I thought you might want to take a look.  I agree with most of what she says except for:
I don't like Crayola twistables -  too waxy and nothing compares to Prismacolor Premier Pencils.
I don't like Gelatos - maybe I have not been given proper instructions for using them.

I am going to experiment with the homemade clear gesso to which she provides a link.

I am starting to plan some lessons for later in January when we return to class.  I am working on a winter scene with a red cardinal, red berries, and snow.

I hope some of you are working on creations of your own.

See you soon.

Glory to God in the Highest Luke 2:14

The verse for this week's journal entry is from the Christmas story in the book of Luke.  I used a stamp my daughter gave me from Stampin' Up. (http://www.pinkbuckaroodesigns.blogspot.com)  She is such a wonderful paper and stamp artist. and I know she could come up with something more beautiful and creative than this.

You should stamp Color Box black pigment ink stamp or anything that  won't bleed through . I colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The stamp is 3 1/2"  x 4 1/2",  so I had to place it at the end of the book of Mark where there was a very large space.  One of my students reminded me that I could have done it on vellum and made an overlay.  Wish I had.

Okay, I have to admit that I made a huge mistake!!  I forgot to test the ink before I stamped the page with Staz On ink.  I always test things before I commit to the real page . . . . . except this time.  I just forgot.  GRRRRR.  It bled through to the first page of Luke -- badly.  So I colored the other page too.  I couldn't do anything with the scripture that bled through.  It was my plan not to cover up any Bible verses ever.  Live and learn.

I used cool colors with a touch of yellow.  This might be pretty in all different shades green or shades of red - Christmas colors.  The green color represents eternity or the red, the blood of Christ.

What Do You Believe?

We believe in so many things: news, the Internet, concepts, ideologies, people, traditions, fables, books, etc.  But our beliefs change and morph and disappear throughout our lives. But the one thing that never changes is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,  and He came to this earth in the flesh and lived with us.  He showed us how to live as God wants us to live.  He showed us how to be kind and merciful, generous and loving, hardworking but requiring rest and quiet.  And for all of his perfection He was tortured and hung on a cross to die for our sins so that we might have eternal life with Him in heaven.

This week I drew a Santa Claus in my Bible. Before  I actually added the artwork I did some research on the origins of Santa Claus and of course, the origins of Saint Nicholas. And from all of my readings I could not find anything wrong with the concept of Santa Claus.  St. Nick was born in what is now Turkey but was then part of Greece.  He was a good man who loved God and became a priest in the 3rd century A.D.  He was generous and kind and tried to help those in need.  But other than that there was not much to substantiate the  connection to our version of Santa Claus. But our version is kind and generous and wants to make children happy.

I remember when I was a child my brother told me that Santa was not real and my mother confirmed it.  I was so disappointed, and Christmas was never the same.  But I know that I will never be disappointed in Jesus.  He will always love me, teach me, lead me, and will someday greet me as I enter heaven.

So the journal entry for our class this week is Santa kneeling at the manger.  He is worshipping and believing that Jesus is the Son of God, demonstrating to us where our real beliefs should be.  Is it wrong to allow our children to believe in Santa? I don't think so.  It was magical for a while and it never hindered my belief in God and Jesus.
I colored it with Prismacolor Colored Pencils and outlined with 005 Micron pen.

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The Word Became Flesh, Dec. 2

I am pretty sure that I skipped a week, but I can't remember what it was.  I will post that one later.

This is the first class in December, and I have been thinking and playing with this design for quite a while.  I was inspired by something I found on a blog, and now I can't find it anywhere.  I will keep searching for that in order to give the owner credit.

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."  John 1:14

This is the truth behind the story of the angels and shepherds and the Wise Men and the journey to Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.  Without this verse the rest of the story has no meaning. John 1:14 tells us what really happened 2000 years ago-and what it means to us today. 

God made a choice to leave heaven and come to earth and live in a human body and love us.  He became so human that He was conceived in a human womb and was born and was a baby, and grew up and became a man - a poor man who  had a family- mother, earthly father, brothers, and sisters -  and a job and worked hard.

  His body was just like ours. He had a respiratory system, a digestive system, a skeletal and a muscular system, a cardiovascular system, a nervous system. etc.  That means He came into an imperfect world and suffered diseases, stomach bugs, bad colds, and aches and pains from injuries and overwork.  He carried heavy loads, got splinters in his hands, built callouses on his hands, had bad dreams, He grew tired. 

He had emotions: 

People he loved disappointed him. Matthew 26:4

He loved deeply and that love sometimes caused him sorrow. (John 11:35)

He worried; he felt fear.  Matthew 14:35-36

He was tempted. Hebrews 2:18

And his body suffered pain and died a cruel death. 

And He chose to do this because He loved us, He loves us, He will always love us.  

This passage moves me so much.  I am overwhelmed to think what He has done for me.  This is what Christmas is about. 

So these are the things that I meditated on as I was creating this week's journal.  I practiced many different techniques.  I didn't want to make the process complicated, so I had to simplify it so that everyone in class could be successful.  Here is the process:

Supplies

I used an ESV single column journalling Bible

Americana craft paint - ultramarine blue, true blue, calypso blue, and white
White tempera paint

White Jelly Roll pen

an old lid

an old toothbrush

white transfer paper

painters tape

paper towels

newspapers.

I drew the outline of the rectangles for the images on the border of my journalling Bible.  The size is about 1 3/4" x 6 3/4".  I cleared my work space and laid down newspapers. I used painters tape and taped off the edges. Before taping down the tape take your fingers and go over all the sticky part of the tape.  This will make it pull off easier without tears. When you put the tape down carefully use your finger tip and press the tape town around the edges.  Then I taped paper towels onto the tape all around to prevent splatters everywhere.  I also put on an apron and rolled up my sleeves.  (Splattering is very messy.)  I used three colors of American Craft Paint for the background:

Ultramarine Blue for the bottom, True Blue for the middle, and Calypso Blue for the upper part.  I worked quickly and blended the wet paints together slightly. I use a half circle stroke that swooped up so slightly.  And I make a complete circle at the top of both panels with my last few strokes.  (I did not put on an undercoat of  clear gesso or acrylic medium first.) The paper wrinkled a bit while it was wet.  I used a hair dryer to dry it, and all the wrinkles disappeared.  I even put a second coat on one of them because I didn't like the way it looked when dry.  But don't get too picky because the background is just that - a background.  Other stuff is on top and is the important part.

Now for the splattering part.  I used an old worn out tooth brush.  I put a small pile of white tempera paint on a paper plate and charged up my toothbrush with paint.(Tempera worked so much better for spattering that the acrylic craft paint.) Then I rubbed a lot of it off on scrap of paper.  I practiced splattering several times on a practice sheet to see what I needed to do to get tiny little splatters.  To splatter I held my toothbrush at this angle above my work:

This is just a photo to demonstrate angle.  My Bible was covered and protected with paper towels everywhere.  I used the wooden handle of another brush and raked it over the toothbrush bristles to create the splatters, moving the toothbrush to direct the splatters where they needed to go.  PLEASE practice this a lot.  If you have too much paint you will get big drops of paint.  You don't want that because it makes the words too hard to read.  You will need to reload the brush several times for each panel,but be sure and wipe off most of the paint before you splatter.   I did get a few blobs that I didn't like, but I quickly cleaned them off with a damp Qtip.  I then dried it with a hair dryer - takes about 15 seconds.  

I then made the circular white pieces by using a lid to a spice container I have.  I dipped the edges in the white paint all around and then stamped it twice on a scrap of paper before stamping on my panels.  I over stamped so that I just got partial circles.  Above Mary's and Jesus' head I almost, but not quite stamped a complete circle.  I let some of it go off the sides.  If you stamp it and don't like it, very quickly wipe it off with a damp paper towel.  I didn't want it to be perfect.  Dry this area.

Now it is time to pull off the tape.  Go ooooohhhhh so slowly so that you don't tear Bible page (this is the voice of experience speaking!) 

Now you will need to transfer the design and the words with white transfer paper.  Paint the figures black.  Use a white Jelly Roll pen for the letters and the outline and the star. You can use the Jelly Roll pen to enhance the circular pieces as well.   Erase any transfer paper that is showing.  

Here are some other  experimentations from this same image:

The first one was done with a gray blue color to which I added a little black.   I really like that color.  The last one was with the blue colors and a little bright purple.  On two of them I splattered. Then I cut a circle out of a file folder and laid the open hole over the panel and splattered more.  That was difficult and messy.

Also this whole thing could be created in colored pencil. But you will still have to splatter on the white.

Have fun and ask me questions in the comments or email me at janngogh@gmail.com.