This month’s theme of ‘surrender’ weaves its way through Scripture from start to finish. Picking the verses wasn’t difficult, but there is a consistent wording that repeats across the generations of writers which needed different approaches to creating the illustrations. Here are the five Bible journaling verses I’ve selected:
Illustrating surrender
Psalm 31:5
So… how do you illustrate ‘Spirit’? There are the well-known dove, flame, wind and breath, but none of these easily pass from one hand to another, at least illustratively. I chose water, carefully poured from one hand to a pair of hands, carefully cradling the water, not spilling a drop. Into your hands I commit my Spirit. The inspiration partly stemmed from Michelangelo’s painting of Adam on the Sistene Chapel ceiling – I wanted the handover to be the reverse of that, but I couldn’t quite emulate it.
2 Chronicles 30:8
This is a contextual illustration – verse 6: return to the Lord. Verse 8 continues ‘Come to his sanctuary’. And somehow this led to me thinking of a satnav insisting on a u-turn to get back on track to the destination (God, in this case). I’ve not quite got the perspective right, and used the wrong pen to trace the title, making it illegible in the illustration. But the suggestion is there!
Matthew 6:10
As soon as I read this verse, my mind immediately went to Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:42). Linking the two prayers together seemed appropriate and tweaking the traditional mountain side crowd image was how I chose to do it. The greyed out shadow stretching from Jesus’ feet to the viewer is not in fact his silhouette, but that of the cross. Draining the crowd of colour within that shadow was a conscious choice too.
Acts 21:14
Another illustration based on the context of the verse. Paul has been warned that he will be bound with his own belt and states he is ‘ready to be bound’ and prepared to die in Jerusalem for the name of Jesus. His friends ‘gave up’ and said ‘The Lord’s will be done’. I went for a slightly more modern, abstract feel for this illustration to add some variety.
James 4:7
Laying down your king(ship), setting aside your crown, submitting yourselves to God. A mid-game submission in chess sprang to mind and onto the page.
Materials
As normal, I have been working in my NIV Bible for Bible Art Journaling using Faber-Castell Polychromos colouring pencils and black pigment fine liners. I continue to work with both Claude and ChatGPT for brainstorming and image generation.
