This month’s theme of ‘faith & perseverance’, of course, had a huge number of verses to choose from. These are just five from that extensive list, and the templates are downloadable for free using the link below.
Developing the illustrations
I’ve found AI handy for brainstorming ideas and am increasingly working with Claude. That said, during the brainstorming session, inspiration strikes, and I develop the idea further on my own – I guess that’s what we expect from such exercises!
Catching a stumble in an illustration proved a little tricky, so I’ve gone with a pretty literal interpretation of the verse. What better illustration of stoic standing firm than a King’s Guard on sentry duty? And when it comes to perseverance, there’s a great example in the humble honey bee.
I had various ideas for the verse from Hebrews, including a hiker shucking off equipment, or a racer throwing things off to the side, but I found it difficult to convey a sense of time passing. I also wanted a top-down perspective to fit the vertical format of the Bible margin. Eventually, I settled on the idea of the hot air balloon, and then it was just a matter of finding reference material to get the perspective sorted.
Finally, the last illustration developed from the idea that the virtues of joy, patience and faithfulness are intrinsically intertwined within each of us. The Celtic knot/weave image fitted this perfectly, and the colour choices stemmed from traditional Celtic illuminated text and illustrations.
