Keeping it Simple - by Sarah Anderson

When people first discover bible art journaling, they often ask what materials they need to do it.  I find this a difficult question to answer as I guess you can almost use any art material there is (oil paints would prove tricky I imagine!!).  Another common question is about the minimum amount of resources,  the 'if you were stuck on a desert island what would you take' line of thought, to which I easily reply - my trusty fine black Bic biro, and a pencil!

Don't get me wrong, I adore colour, and art shops are one of my happy places, where I breathe in the smell of paper and paint, and stroke the coloured pencils; and I love that my bible is full of colour where I've played with the materials I love such as rubber stamps, gelli plate prints, watercolour, spray inks, distress inks ....  

But it's also full of simple lettering using my favourite pen.  This leaves a gorgeous crinkly texture to the pages, encourages me to spend time pondering the verse as I embellish the words, and is pleasing to my eye as I adore lettering.

I get lots of inspiration from Instagram, and have learnt the different types of lettering that I like over time, gaining in confidence with each verse!

Lettering is all about practice.  In the long summer holiday after my O levels I spent a lot of time in the library practicing my handwriting as I hated it.  The ascenders and descenders leaned this way and that without consistency.  I now have handwriting I really like (I'm sure being a Reception teacher before computers also helped as I was constantly writing out letters for children to overwrite or copy!) and sometimes I just emphasise my normal handwriting a bit more in the margins of my bible.

I am currently practicing these fancy 'r's.  I discovered this lettering style on Instagram and I enjoy writing a word out in pencil, then drawing around it with my biro (the only reason I'd have a pencil on my desert island!!!).

There really are no rules in bible art journaling.  It's about using the art practices you like and enjoy within the pages of your bible, and finding that through these processes you take in truth from God's amazing word.  There is a lot of joy in learning new practices and techniques and having fun with them in the pages of your bible, and for me, one of those is as simple as lettering with a fine black Bic pen!!

Simple Hand Lettering Idea - by Deborah Gregg

Hi everyone, just sharing a quick and simple technique with you today, for when you may want to journal a long Bible verse or short passage, rather than just pulling out a key phrase.
Sometimes I find it hard to just focus on a few words from a verse, as there's just so much truth in there - I want to journal it all! :-)

As usual I start with the background and lay down some colour to the page in my Faith Art Journal.

For this background I used watercolour paints, I simply picked one colour and then painted in diagonal stripes, using more paint in places for stronger colour, and using more water elsewhere for a softer look, to create this varied, stripy background.

When dried (with a hairdryer!) I then took a ruler and with a pencil, very lightly drew random diagonal lines across the page, from left to right covering the entire page. Some were large at the left and small at the right, and vice versa,

I then very lightly pencilled in my lettering, making sure I used the whole span of each line. I left a teeny tiny gap where letters may overlap with the row above as I didn't want them to actually join up. I then went over the text with a Micron Pen, and lightly erased some of the pencil that was still showing. You will see the lettering is very simple, just ordinary capital letters, with a single line.

I didn't get the spacing perfect, as you can see I ran out of room and had to split the last couple of lines to squeeze it all in. But it doesn't matter - the words are on the page! And I still had room to add a row of doodles!

I love these verses - to me Titus 3 v 4-7 really sum up the whole gospel. I have tried to memorise these verses so many times and still haven't quite got it! But having recorded these in my journal I now have a special place to turn to read it and dwell on it.

I recently used this technique again to record 2 Corinthians 4v6 - an amazing verse with so much truth packed in to think about! I just couldn't separate out one section of this verse to focus on for journaling, so I decided to letter the whole verse!

For this page I actually did the lettering first with a Micron pen, using the whole depth of each space between lines (even for the lower case letters), I love the mixed-up look this gives. I then added the yellow colour afterwards by smudging with Distress Ink using a sponge applicator. Simple, quick and fun.

The lettering is deliberately simple, I just outlined the basic letter shapes with a Micron pen, then went back over the lettering to thicken most of the 'downstrokes'. It really helps to make the lettering stand out.

I've yet to try this style and technique in my Bible margins, might be more of a challenge but maybe I'll have a go soon and let you all know how that goes! And if you feel inspired, just have a go!

I hope this may have helped give you a simple idea for some easy hand lettering that you can play with, practice and enjoy!