Bible Art Journaling (An Experiment)- Psalm 91:4a - He shall cover you with His Feathers :-)

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to share with you my second Bible Art Journaling page that I created this past evening....

Originally I was planning on journaling on cardstock pages and putting them into a binder but I changed my mind (just like a women to do so :-)) and decided to use NKJV My Upmost Devotional Bible.  This is a daily devotional Bible that allows you to read the entire Bible in a year and since I will be experimenting on the pages, I can use my main Bible to read God's Word if it is completely covered (as in this experiment) :-).

The passage reading that I focused on for this artwork is Psalm 91:4a “He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge.”

This past year has been a year where my husband and I have truly felt covered by His wings...some of you are aware that my husband was diagnosed with a very rare non-Hodgins lymphoma in November 2014 and has been through numerous tests and chemo treatments since July 2014.  

His cancer has no cure but does have a good response to chemo and my husband is now in the maintenance chemo portion of the treatment (will be in maintenance for two years or more). 

He has blessed us so along this journey and we are so thankful to have the Lord by our side!  We have trusted fully in the Lord with each and every day and take comfort in knowing that He is in charge- To God be the Glory, great things He hath done!!

When I contemplated on Psalm  91:4a, I thought that the wings would be a good image to try to draw.  I "google" for free angel wings art and used some of the art on the internet for inspiration:-)

The steps I took are as follows:

With a brush , I applied a coat of Liquitex® Professional Clear Gesso® and used a Heat Tool to speed up the drying process.  

***NOTE*** One thing I noticed is that the this brand of clear Gesso® definitely has a gritty texture on this thin paper.... not sure if there are other brands of clear gesso that may be smoother but the texture definitely played a part in the rest of the process....

A piece of scrap paper was inserted under the page to protect the sheets below from the indentation of the next few steps. 

I used a regular mechanical pencil to lightly draw the feathers on the page, then applied Silver Metallic Gelatos® to fill in the area (I tried to spread the Gelatos® with my finger but it was difficult with the grit of the paper and to get it into the thin points of the feathers, so I decided to use a watercolor brush with water to dilute the Gelatos® and fill in the feathers).

Once the Gelatos® was dry (again, I used the Heat Tool), I tried to outline the feathers with a Gray Prismacolor Pencil but was not getting the definition I wanted, so I tried a Pigma Micron™ 05 Pen (.45), a Faber-Castell® Pitt Pen S and M Black Marker, a Black Fine Point Sharpie® and had difficulty with all of the pens over the Gelatos® and Gesso® (the surface was so gritty- it was jamming the points on the pens).  

I was able to letter the verse above the wings over the Gesso® using the Pigma Micron™ 05 Pen (.45) followed by the Black Fine Point Sharpie® (I did taed to work on my lettering- lol!)

I was still not satisfied with the wings so I decided to watercolor a bit of Ranger® Tim Holtz® Picket Fence Distress Stain over the wings to lighten the gray color, then added more pencil shading and Lukas-Nerchau® Opaque White watercolor over the feathers.

After this layer, the wings seemed a bit more realistic so I added the Metallic Blue Gelatos® (sorry, I forgot to write down the official names of the colors- this may be Blueberry) to the outside area and used water to spread the color around.

I am still not completely thrilled with how this

a bit closer view of the feathers and lettering- still needs work:-)

turned out but it is a start and the point  of  Bible Art Journaling is to focus on God's Word and express with the art- not to criticize yourself into not journaling because it is not  perfect :-)   I tend to be a type A perfectionist person, so I have to keep reminding myself of this- lol!!

I was pleased to see that the artwork and colors did not bleed through at all but the back of the page is a bit “bumpy”- not really wrinkled but sort of dimpled...

I could do artwork on the  other side of this page but most likely will not at this time.  

Lesson  learned- watercolor and Gelatos® worked great on the clear Gesso® but will need to figure out a writing utensil that will write smoothly on the gritty surface (again, the surface feels like a fine grit sandpaper).

I had fun with this experiment and will share more soon- so thankful that you were able to stop by to visit.  Hugs and God Bless!