This evening’s Bible Journaling Session used verses loosely based on the theme of ‘renewed connection’. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but even so, this is a great aim to consider for the year. Alongside coming to the monthly sessions as well, of course…
My normal journaling Bible is pretty much full of my illustrations. I tend not to decorate both sides of the page which starts restricting the number that will fit in. I also prefer to have the illustration on the same side or spread as the actual verse, which further reduces the options. Making five illustrations for each monthly Bible journaling session has further strained the spaces left.
So, the time had come to think about a new Bible. I came across the concept of an interleaved journaling Bible – a blank page between each page of text. This was exciting as it opened the possibility of larger illustrations. The only version I could find was ESV, but there is a super leather-bound version that ended up on my wish list. Then I found a new NIV journaling Bible – it has thicker paper, introduces a few blank pages, and is specifically geared toward art journaling.
Black Friday saw the Bible art journaling NIV translation discounted, so that was purchased. And then, handily, Christmas came round and I was given the ESV leather-bound Bible by my mum.
Yesterday, I took the opportunity to do my first illustration in the ESV interleaved Bible, working with a new full set of Polychromos colouring pencils. My normal process worked nicely: design on computer, trace and colour. ChatGPT helped with colour choices once again.
These five illustrations were used in this week’s Bible Journaling Session on Monday evening at The Studio to reflect on a loose theme of ‘secure in God’. At some point, I will need to find the confidence to do the illustrations myself from scratch, but for now, I still have an image in mind and then search for it online. For this month’s templates, I have also used text-to-image AI to generate some of the graphics – this takes just as much time to tweak the prompt and generate tens of possibilities to get the image I have in mind. Overall design, text and colouring are all done by me.
The templates are available as a free PDF download via my online shop here.
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.
This month’s Bible journaling session used ‘serve’ as its theme, with five new illustration templates made available. It took me ages to find the right inspiration for the images, but it was worth the effort. I have also got hold of some new fonts, courtesy of Creative Fabrica’s daily gifts and freebies, so they snuck into the designs as well. Here are the five illustrations:
I’m a bit behind on posting my Bible journaling templates, sorry about that. First up, last month’s session was based on verses that were ‘by request’. I received four nominated verses and chose the last to complete the set. I also admit to rejigging one of my older templates, so you may recognise it.
My latest series of Bible journaling illustrations are based on the theme of joy. I’ve used gilding on some of them and will be teaching the process at my next session on 12th September 2022 at The Studio.
The template file is downloadable for free from my shop.
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.
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).
Flicking through my Bible where I do my journaling, there are some books that don’t seem to have very many illustrations. I guess they are the lesser read books or those which are lists from which little is quoteworthy. I find Chronicles (1&2) to be in these categories, so have spent a little time finding little nuggets and illustrating them. A free downloadable PDF of the illustrations can be found here if you’d like to trace your own versions.
