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This blog is for sharing a love of paper crafting. You can also check out my Pintrest pages. If you find the ideas here to be helpful, I'd love to hear from you. It is what helps make the time I put into this blog feel worthwhile, and always brightens my day. I love hearing your ideas too!

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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Peace, Be Still!

Today's Bible Journaling piece is about the disciples facing a frightening storm at sea - and how Jesus calmed the waves - read more about that here.  As always, on this blog, my focus is on techniques - and today's techniques were a lot of fun!  I adapted them from something I saw Rebekah Jones do in this video.   In the video, she uses Inktense Pencils & Pitt Artist Pens.  I didn't have those, so used what I had - watercolor pencils & Scroll and Brush markers.  In person, I REALLY like how it turned out - especially the waves.  Here's how I made the page:

Page Prep: For this technique, I used the Dianna Wakely clear gesso from Ranger because it is a very smooth gesso which works well with most art media and I felt it would be quite important for this page.  Using one of Ranger's mini sponge applicators, I applied 3 thin coats of gesso, drying between each layer with my heat tool, and stroking in different directions on each layer to ensure better coverage.  With the techniques I knew I'd be using, I wanted a GOOD layer of gesso!  Then I left it awhile to make sure it was really dry before continuing.  While it was drying, I tried out the various techniques a bit on scrap paper to get a better feel for what I'd be doing.

Water/Waves: I drew out the outline of the waves on some paper - starting with Rebekah's free download, but adjusting them and adding more of my own. I also drew the boat & person in it and cut it out of a post-it note to use as a mask to protect that part of the page while I drew in the waves.  Once I had the waves as I wanted them, I outlined them with a very black marker so I could somewhat see them when I placed the paper behind my Bible page.  Then I took a dark blue watercolor pencil and sketched in the outline of the waves using the paper behind the page as a guide. (remember the post-it note protected the area of the boat & person during the whole process of creating the waves).

From there, I did pretty much what Rebekah showed in her video.  I first used a wet brush to activate the watercolor pencil lines and draw some of the color out (though I didn't have the patience to do as many layers of this as she did - in part because any new layers activated the others - which I could have avoided if I had the inktense pencils).  I made sure this was thoroughly dry before moving on.

Next I used my Scroll & Brush markers the same way she used the Pitt pens - and they worked pretty much the same way.  I laid down a bit of color, and then rubbed it out with my finger to create the look of fading from dark to lighter.  As with her Pitt pens, I only had a few seconds to do this before the ink dried.  But once it dried, it was more permanent than the watercolor pencil, and thus easier to layer.  I used several different colors of blues and aquas, as well as orchid to create a variety of blended colors in the waves.  This technique is so much fun!  AND I found if I got a little color outside of where I wanted it, if I IMMEDIATELY took an eraser to the area, I could remove it!!!  Nice to know. :)

Clouds: I decided storm clouds would add to the feel of the page, but before adding them, I placed a post-it note mask over the verses I wanted to highlight (the mask for the boat was still in place).  I did the clouds very similarly to the way I did the waves (though naturally using different colors!) - using first my watercolor pencils, then water, then Scroll & Brush markers blended with my finger.  I left the upper right corner free as well as an area near the boat, as I knew I wanted to add yellow for light (representing God's peace) to highlight the text, and to reach the boat. (more on that later)

Boat: After the clouds were done, I removed all the masks, then outlined the boat & person with watercolor pencils.  As usual I added water (lifting off some of the color with extra water and a paper towel so the skin wouldn't be too dark).  I added color with the markers & my finger as before. I added a little detail with some very fine (.3mm) Staedtler markers I have ("Triplus Fineliner").

Light: For the light I just used 3 different colors of yellow Scroll & Brush markers - blending some with my finger as I'd been doing for the rest of the page.  The words were hand-drawn with the fine-line Staedtler markers.  I guess I didn't have the background quite as dry as I thought, because it bled a little wider in some places.

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