I’ve been working in my Bible this week, adding five more journaling illustrations. As I was looking for new verses to journal, a theme of ‘peace’ developed. As normal, there is a free download printable if you would like to trace and colour your own versions of the illustrations.

I used a combination of watercolour media for my colour: Derwent Inktense pans, Winsor & Newton watercolour pans, Stabilo All pencils, Faber Castel Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils. I started by tracing the elements with a Sakura Pigma Micron pen before drying with a heat tool and covering with a layer of Dina Wakley clear gesso. On my first go, I traced onto the clear gesso with the pen and found it didn’t ‘take’ as well and smudged a little when used with the pencils. I stopped page curl by using the clear gesso on both sides of the page. After that, it was just a matter of colouring the page with a water brush and the watercolour media.

By painting on a thin layer of the clear gesso and rapidly drying it I reduced the amount of wrinkling that might otherwise occur with water-based media onto the thin Bible pages. The Inktense inks didn’t bond as permanently to the gesso as they would have done directly onto paper – worth knowing, as working over them did move them a little more than I’d have expected.

The free downloadable traceable printable is available from my online shop here.