This evening we are playing with all sorts of watersolubles for our Art Journal Session. I’ve raided my stash for media that we don’t use often in the sessions, with pencils, paints, crayons and gelatos on the menu. The session is all about experimentation and the different ways the water interacts with the pigments on the page. We’re adding some stamping and hand-drawn embellishments to adorn the page:
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.
A new one-layer card challenge this week at Less is More. You have to do everything on the card blank. No die cuts, no layers, and minimal embellishments (if at all). It’s quite a tough assignment for those that like plenty of frills on their cards, but it makes for the desired clean and simple card design. This time, the theme is ‘flowers’ and I came up with this:
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:
Over at Less is More, there’s a new theme challenge for your clean and simple cards/makes – ‘butterflies’. Clean and simple means minimal layers, and lots of blank space, drawing attention to the stamping/colouring/sentiment. Here’s my one layer take on the theme, using watercolour pencils and a bit of distress ink over a mask to get the blue band across the middle:
There’s another challenge for clean and simple card making at Less is More. This time we’re asked to make a one layer card – which means just that. No die cuts, very minimal embellishments and no matting of designs either. As an added challenge, any sentiment must be ‘just one word’. Cue lots of masking and overprinting!
If it weren’t for this pesky virus, we would have had the theme ‘just one word’ for our next art journaling and Bible journaling sessions. I’ve done the prep for the Bible journaling, so I thought I would share. A printable template is available for free from my shop.
Here are five more Bible journaling illustrations, complete with a free downloadable outline. I’ve been getting in some practice with watercolour pencils as my next Bible journaling session will be featuring them. Another version of watercolour is using studio safe solvents to move around the wax carrier for the Polychromos pencils, giving much the same effect (though waterproof of course). The solvent is less likely to swell the paper fibres compared to water and is my preferred technique, though the effect is less translucent than watercolour.
