Recently, I was donated now unused COVID screens from an office. They are 5mm clear acrylic sheets and are pretty much unscathed from a couple of year’s of use. I returned the favour by making the company a lot of custom engraved acrylic coasters, and started looking round for more things to do with the acrylic. Working with an inspiration pic sent to me, I came up with this project for four different ‘stained glass’ acrylic crosses:
For the first Bible Journaling Session of 2024, we’re having a colour challenge. All of us have our favourite colours that we reach for… Sometimes we can get stuck choosing new palettes and our work becomes a little samey. During our session, we will use different colour palettes to try and break out of our tonal rut. Here are my samples – carry on reading to see the colour palettes I used.
My Bible journaling group is meeting on Monday evening and, as usual, I have created five new templates and associated samples for their inspiration. After 6 years of journaling, my Bible is now filling with illustrations and it’s getting increasingly difficult to find new appropriate verses where the page hasn’t already been used. This week, I persevered and identified space for five verses that are loosely applicable for starting new year 2023:
Five more Bible illustrations for your inspiration, this time from 1 & 2 Kings. These are books I am less familiar with, so finding and reflecting on the verses was very valuable.
There will be a chance to do your own versions of these at a Bible Journaling session at The Studio in the New Year, if you haven’t already done so using the free downloadable PDF featuring the designs (search for Bible Journaling 14 in my shop).
I’ve just returned from the inaugural Bishop’s School of Prayer, hosted at Launde Abbey by Bishop Martyn Snow. I was dubbed ‘artist-in-residence’ and was responsible for creative input, visual prayer workshops and an artist’s overview of the four-day conference. It was an amazing experience, and I hope it happens again (though probably won’t be annual).
As a ‘corporate act of art’, I created a pair of praying hands and invited attendees to add their own prayers and intercessions. After a short will-they-won’t-they period, they came good and prayers were stuck on steadily over the time at the School. For more details on the making, read on below, but in the meantime here are some pics of the finished sculpture, which will be remaining at Launde Abbey.
I had the privilege of hosting three of the church’s young people’s group (in other words ‘yoof’) last night in The Studio. We had two hours to work on a project, so I rummaged in my ‘for altering’ drawer and lifted out some Ikea Malma mirrors that were collecting dust. I also dusted off a technique I learnt years ago and came up with an altered art project.
Continue reading I’m developing my bible journaling techniques – this time, I’ve worked in my NIV Journaling Bible. This has cream pages, with wide unruled margins. The paper is as thin, and has a little more bleed-through that the NLT bible I reviewed at the beginning of the week. That aside, the performance is just as good in all other aspects. I chose the same passage as before to illustrate, but this time have read around the main verse to add to the drawing. Initially it was just black and white, and I hemmed and hawed about adding colour before taking the plunge.
Today, I went on retreat to Launde Abbey – a space to reflect, be out of contact with the outside world and to re-establish communication with God. The theme for the days reflection centred around Martha preparing the meal for Jesus, and the story of Brother Lawrence finding ways to worship God as he washed dishes for his entire monastic life. I took my iPad, so I could respond in creative worship, and as I reflected on things happening in my life at the moment, I drew on this quote from Brother Lawrence:
Lift your heart to Him during your meals and in company, the least little remembrance will always be most pleasing to Him.
And from this quote from Edmund Morgan, a Welsh Anglican bishop:
… to overcome the temptation to love the praise of men more than the glory of God, your life must be a continual sursum corda; you must ever be groping, fighting, leaping Godwards…
‘Lift up your hearts’ – Latin: sursum corda – is the opening dialogue to the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer. Rarely featured in Baptist tradition, it was a perfect illustration of what I took away with me from the retreat.
[created in Procreate and Inkpad Pro apps on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil]
I’ve not posted my sermon sketchnotes for a little while, so here’s a compendium of some more. These are all completed ‘live’ as the sermon progresses, and I don’t see anything but the title before I start. If you’d like to listen to the accompanying sermons, they are available on the Whetstone Baptist Church blog.
[Completed in a pocket Moleskine sketchbook, with Lamy Safari pen with EF nib, and Noodler’s Bulletproof Black Ink.]
Here are some more sketchnotes that I have done during sermons at Whetstone Baptist Church. It’s a great way to take notice of what’s being said, as well as potentially emphasising different points that develop as the visual language of the sketchnote does its own thing. Working in real time is an interesting challenge, and with nothing more than the title at the start, the rest of the page is unplanned. And if you’ve noted the themes are all similar, that’s because these services were in the lead up to a fundraising weekend when we were all challenged to give sacrificially toward the construction of a new church building designed to meet the needs of a growing congregation and a changing community. We are now so close to our goal of just over £3 million – it’s so exciting. If you’d like to help out, a donation button can be found along with details of our building plans on the church website here.
[completed in Moleskine pocket sketchbook with Lamy Safari fine nib pen with Noodler’s Bulletproof black ink] Continue reading
