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.