Illustrated Faith Journalling for the Journey
30 Sep 2015
Have you ever heard of Bible Journaling or Illustrated Faith?
In the Illustrated Faith Group in Facebook, there are 20,000 members!
You can also find examples on Instagram using #illustrated faith or #biblejournaling.
Such is the growing popularity of this way of getting closer to God and embedding Scripture in your heart, that it is sometimes very difficult to find stock of Bibles with wide margins!
Not all of you may want to draw on your Bibles, and that’s fine. I started in 2006 with drawing and doing collage in my prayer journal. But today, I paint on my Bible to highlight a verse, while making sure that I can still read the verses.
If you want to try painting on a journal or your Bible, here is the way I do it. It will start you on a journey with God, and you can never imagine where God will take you!
I needed to draw Ezra the Prophet from the Bible. He is in anguish because the Jews are are disobeying God. I couldn't find a man in anguish, so I used a woman.
I usually look for pictures to trace in a magazine. Some people use their iPad- they look for a picture on the web, and put the iPad under the page to trace it.
I usually paint the flesh first, as I want the paint to dry before I shade it. Sometimes I mix in Acrylic Glazing Liquid so the paint becomes translucent so that I can still read the words on my Bible. But thinning the paint with water helps as well.
After painting the flesh, I paint the other colors.
When the paint is dry, I use "Territorial Beige", a darker flesh color to make the shading.
I add shading on the brow, the side of the nose, beneath the headdress. I usually look at the picture to see where to add shading.
I use two brushes- one filled with paint, and a second brush to remove the excess paint.
I brush over the dark paint so that there is no clear line, and the paint fades away.
I painted Ezra's beard gray. Actually I looked in the Bible for an indication of Ezra's age and could find none, so I just made him old. After all, for a man with a lot of responsibility, if he was young, he would have gone gray in no time!
After shading, I used a brown pencil to outline, and also add details- for instance the creases in the eyes, and nose, the folds on Ezra's headdress, hair on the beard, etc.
So here's Ezra the Prophet.
Then I write the words in the margin: "For slaves we are but...He has turned the good will of the Kings of Persia toward us." Ezra 9:9
While painting, I have time to meditate, or listen to preaching on Youtube.
Here is my meditation for that reading:
If there was ever a people who could have claimed to be abandoned by God, the Jews could be that people. But only when you look at their history from the eyes of men and unbelievers, seeing how they have been exiled and exposed to evil men's whims several times.
In the Book of Ezra, which was written by the Prophet in the 5th century B.C, the Jews are returning to Palestine after they have been held captive in Babylon, part of the spoils of war for decades. King Cyrus of Persia issues a proclamation that God appointed him to build Him a temple in Jerusalem! What an unlikely instrument God chose for His purposes!
It just goes to show that we must never give up, never lose hope!
God will find a way for His purposes to be fulfilled - in our country, in our family, in our business, in our neighborhood, in our church. Wherever. He will even use the most unlikely people, unlikely events or timing! He can even use me! I just need to trust and to wait with hope!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Papemelroti's owner and artist Patricia Paterno has been married for 21 years to a man with a good heart. They have one son who is as funny as his dad. She has been working in the family business since she was 11. When she gets home from work, she stays in her craft room and makes collages, scrapbook layouts, ATCs, and thinks of ways to re-use things normal people would throw away. Visit her arts and crafts blog. She wants to be passionate about God's passions so she also made a blog, Hebrews 13:3, about their service in the QC Jail.
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