It’s a new year (I’m sure you’ve noticed) and what better way to start than some joy and praise in the form of this month’s Bible journaling theme. Five new illustrations for verses from Old and New Testaments, full of excitement, colour and metaphor. Keep scrolling to the link to download the templates if you would like to add any to your own Bible, and for making notes.
For the first session of the new year, we are using a requested theme: ‘sunbeams’. I took a little while to work out what I’d like to do, then did a bit of browsing for inspiration and came up with this layout:
I selected my blue Renesans watercolour paint to lay down a blue wash, dabbing with a paper towel for a background cloud effect. Once the sunbeam panel was in place, I added another layer of paint around the edges to add contrast. A very dilute wash of the same colour worked well on the clouds in the panel.
The sunbeams were coloured using a blend of yellows, oranges, and reds, with small touches of chartreuse, magenta, and purple for added contrast. I worked with Winsor & Newton Aquamarkers on watercolour card, blending the ink using a clean water brush.
For the text, I used the same colours on the background card. Using scored lines (see below), I was able to place the colours precisely – multicoloured on the top three lines of text and the yellows for the ‘sun beams’ line. The original quote separated the ‘sun’ and ‘beams’ rather than using the more common compound word, so that’s what got cut out. I’ll triple check next time…
Both illustration and text were created digitally in Adobe Illustrator. I experimented with several techniques to make the outlines and tabs needed to prevent the pieces from falling out during laser cutting. My initial attempt (as pictured) turned out to have too many and too tough tabs. It was difficult to break apart the pieces to stick down to the page. My next iteration had wider ‘spokes’, fewer pieces and thinner tabs and worked much better (and took less time to glue in).
For the text, there are two panels: a base panel with a scored offset outline of the text (for colouring in) and then a top panel with the text cut out using a stencil font. Once the base is coloured and dry, the top can be stuck to it for a crisp finish.
I used my new xTool F2 Ultra UV laser to cut the watercolour paper. The UV laser doesn’t cut by burning so much as wobbling the molecular structure of the paper apart (so-called cold lasering). This meant I could cut the 300gsm paper with very little char on the edges and with much greater detail than my other laser options.
I attempted to use UV resin to add a glossy emboss to the coloured letters, by filling in the cutout areas. Unfortunately, before I hardened off the resin, it started soaking into the surrounding paper, turning it grey and ruining the contrast and crisp white overlay. I got around this by adding a second cutout layer over the top. I’m not sure what I could do to prevent this, but perhaps using a matte multimedium to seal the paper may work. I thought about using a waterbased dimensional gloss medium, but I reckon it would rewet and move the watercolour paint around (which I didn’t want to happen).
My art journaling sessions run at The Studio on the first Monday evening of each month, starting at 7:30pm. Spaces are limited, so let me know if you’d like to attend and I’ll get you booked in. You don’t need to be artistic, or even have a journal – one can be purchased on the night for just £2. The session remains at just £5 to attend, and all the materials are included. The theme is ‘strips and stripes’, postponed from October, and will feature distress inks, distress oxides, a dress, floorboards and a bit of rubber stamping too.
We’ve not used watercolours in our art journal sessions for some time, so this month felt like the perfect opportunity. I combined fresh washes of colour with toner transfer art journaling techniques, using laser printouts to add layered imagery and texture to the page.. Here’s the sample layout I made for the session:
This month’s theme for five new illustrations to Bible journal is ‘hope’. I decided to start work in my new NIV Art Journalling Bible and there’s a little mini-review about it below. In part due to the planned review, I used five different media for my colouring-in just to see how the paper behaved. Conceptually, the illustrations were quite tricky as I didn’t want to repeat the same basic interpretation across all five verses. AI came to the rescue here, helping me develop some ideas for different emphases.
Regular readers of this ‘ere blog know that I am a quilter. This month at the art journal session, we combined mixed media with a quilting technique (which I have yet to try in fabric). We made a watercolour masterboard and then with a lot of slicing and pasting created a bargello-style background in our journals. With some basic stitched panels as a focal point we ended up with this:
Rooted in the historical tradition of the Bargello Palace in Florence, Italy, the Bargello quilt pattern is characterized by its use of long, narrow strips of fabric meticulously sewn together. This technique creates an illusion of dynamic movement and depth within the quilt.
Back in the day, when there were still many crafting magazines available, free clear stamps were included as a cover gift. Somehow I still have a collection of these, which are all still clear and functional. Finding them in my stash, I came up with this month’s theme for the art journaling session at The Studio: twinchies. For the unfamiliar, twinchies are 2″ square elements for crafting and the giveaway stamps fit perfectly. Using mixed media and appropriate papers, I created this:
I’m finishing my makes guided by the week-long course from Online Card Classes: Extraordinary Embossing Folders. For the final day, we looked at bonus tips for using embossing folders which incorporate previous techniques with different ways of applying media.
Well, this evening’s Bible Journaling Session was due to take its inspiration from some Old Testament verses. Unfortunately, not enough people could attend today and the session has been postponed to Monday, 8th April. For those unfamiliar with Bible Journaling, using the provided templates and examples participants trace and colour into their own wide-margin Bibles, reflecting on the verse as they do so. There’s also a lot of space for chat, catching up and not forgetting a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate. The sessions are monthly, cost £5, and are suitable for artists and non-artists alike. More details are on my workshops page or by getting in touch with me. This month’s choice of illustrations are pictured below, and the templates are available as a free download from my online shop.
This morning’s project was to prep for this evening’s art journal session at The Studio. We’re playing with Brushos, concentrated crystals of watercolour/dye. They give great, largely unpredictable, paint effects and work wonderfully as backgrounds to mixed media work. They are also tiny and get into all sorts of different places, so they come out rarely and take some cleaning up after! A pot once dropped into my distress ink box and took months to get rid of them all… Everything is covered and ready for colour carnage: here’s my example:
The session runs from 7:30pm, costs £5 and needs to be booked in advance. Materials are included and if you need a suitable art journal to work in they are available for just £2 on the night. Just get in contact for more information or to book your place 🙂
It’s another theme challenge at Less is More this week. We’d like to see your clean and simple cards based on ‘spring’. Now, because I know what’s coming up in the next challenge I didn’t want to do a similar image and decided for this theme to play around with some typography. Here’s what I came up with:
