Shine Your Light: Preclass

Welcome!

I’m glad you decided to join me for this course! It’s a great intro for new Bible journalers and will teach some tips and tricks to old hands too! This course will give you a good idea how the mediums I love most on Bible paper work, and there are also tips included for praying about the verses and coming up with your own imagery as you get more experience.

Before we start…a little housekeeping

I retain the copyright to the content you are learning in class. That means…

1. Do not sell or give away the concepts from my classes – you may not re-teach my instruction contained or created within these lessons.
2. Do not post a video tutorial or step by step photo tutorial of your own redraw of class content.
3. Do not repost any handouts you receive in class.

However…I love to see students making strides and taking this teaching and personalizing it with your own skills.

1. DO make your own designs and develop your own style! I love that!
2. DO gift your creations made with these techniques, of course!

At the bottom of each lesson you’ll see some ways to share your homework and ask questions, so that’ll be handy for you.

Inspiration video

There is no supply video but keep reading to see what’s used in this class; you don’t need ALL the things to participate! If you want to limit your investment, pick up a small set of inexpensive watercolors, a few brushes, and a pack of watercolor pencils. The pencils can be used for the colored pencil lesson, and every lesson includes a watercolor version, so you should be good to go. But read through the list to see what else you might gather that you already have on hand.

This video was one that ran during the event that started this class (you’ll hear more about that in lesson 1)….any time the participants were working on their art, this slideshow played on the screen so people could be inspired. I hope it will inspire YOU too!

Paper

Use any journaling Bible for this course, or alternatively pick up my Bible Journaling Made Simple Workbook that you’ll see in this course (while supplies last, the workbook will be going out of print once it’s gone.) Paper from that book can be trimmed down to be added in a Bible, or you can also purchase a package of 100 sheets of Tomoe River paper for that purpose. You can also get any sketchbook to work in!

Watercolor

For Bible journaling, you can start in your watercolor journey with simple paints found in a craft store – however the more quality in your paints, though, the longer they last. Crafty paints aren’t “lightfast” meaning they’ll fade in the light, but since Bibles aren’t usually left wide open in the sun, it’s less worrisome. However the crafty paints can often perform very differently and use weaker or more chalky color than artist grade colors.

If you’re looking for a nice starter set of watercolors, try the Essentials set from Daniel Smith; 5ml tubes of 6 basic colors…two reds, two yellows, two blues, in warms and cools. In lesson one, we’ll talk a bit about color mixing with that set, but for most of these lessons, you can choose whatever colors you like if you’ve already got watercolors.

Watercolor brushes

You can use fancy brushes, or just a simple one; I found some on Amazon (in a pack of 30 that I purchased for a HUGE class of almost 75 people), but if you’re just trying out watercolor to see if you even like it, any crafty cheap brushes will be fine for the techniques in this class.

For those who are ready to step up to nicer brushes, I recommend the Silver brand brushes in the Black Velvet line – I recommend a size 8 and size 4.

Colored Pencils

The easiest medium for new artists, colored pencils are a tool we’ve used since childhood! While you can use kids colored pencils, please know they don’t put out much color – they often will deliver very faint results compared to artist pencils. Kids materials are also not lightfast so out in daylight they’ll lighten even further. They’re also significantly harder to blend.

My favorite brand of colored pencils is Prismacolor, and while a big set is fun, you can get a smaller one with 24 or 36 too – any of them will last a very long time. Polychromos are a really nice brand too, and in a Bible, both seem to perform about the same.

Treat yourself to a kneaded eraser, nice and soft for your Bible paper. And while we won’t use the technique in this class with colored pencils, you’ll see powdered pigment in lesson 3 with watercolor pencils – and you’ll want to try it on your regular colored pencils too after that! So pick up a tea strainer  or some nail files next time you’re at the grocery store, and have some cotton balls and baby wipes (I use the Kirkland brand at Costco) stashed in your Bible journaling supplies bag.

Note: watercolor pencils can be used as regular colored pencils, so if only getting one set, watercolor pencils are an excellent idea.

Watercolor Pencils

Watercolor pencils are a water-soluble pencil that can be used with water – applied a brush, a sponge, a baby wipe, a spray bottle – anything that will wet it and turn it into watercolor! These can be less intimidating since we’re all used to writing/coloring with pencils, and the panic only sets in when we see what water will do!

My favorite brands of these are, again, artist grade, because they will give you better color AND will melt out better into watercolor pigment. Cheap ones may leave lines and streaks behind.

1. Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor pencils
2. Supracolor Watercolor pencils 
3. Derwent Inktense Pencils – these are technically an ‘ink’ pencil but are highly pigmented; they don’t “lift” as well as watercolor pencils but can be lots of fun.

For brushes, see the watercolor section above.

Pens

My most-used black pens in Bible journaling are Microns; they don’t bleed through (unless you scribble a lot in one spot!), they’re mostly waterproof (see lesson 3 for evidence they will lift sometimes), and if you get a multipack you have different thicknesses, which is nice.

For a white pen, try a Uniball Signo gel pen, though some people have trouble with them; I like them quite a bit. 

And for a thicker white pen, try a set of Posca pens, though if you don’t use rich color like I do, you might not find much use for them.