I just got some watercolors and acrylic paint recently so that I could start painting in my Bible. I felt like I couldn’t quite get the look and colors I wanted with the colored pencils by themselves, especially since often times I’m coloring over words in my study Bible (non-journaling Bible), so I wanted to try painting to see if I liked that better. And the answer is definitely yes!

 The first page I did with my new, $5 set of watercolors was paint this sunrise at the end of the book of Daniel. The last verse is a foreshadowing of how one day we will rise in Christ as believers, so painting a sunrise fit perfectly with this verse. I drew the image on first in pen, then did the watercolor. After it dried, I went back over the lines in pen then stamped the words “You will rise.” This is the first watercolor I have done in over 10 years at least, so watching a brief tutorial beforehand really helped.

 I love the looks of watercolors, how it can be organic and messy but still so beautiful. There’s a lot of forgiveness with watercolors as an art medium, so this allows me some room to make errors and be able to fix them a bit easier than with a different medium. I had an issue with this page at the end of 2 Samuel. I didn’t plan to put color at the top where the verses are, but I smeared watercolor up there by accident. I fixed it by adding some gray watercolor and then going over it in colored pencil, and I actually like how it came out this way better.

 I have also been painting a little bit with acrylic paint (Apple Barrel for $0.50 each at Walmart). I don’t like acrylic as much as watercolors, but it’s fun to get a more solid paint look on the page. 

  

 So far I haven’t had any issues of bleed through with either acrylic or watercolor paints, and I am using an NIV study Bible with traditionally thin Bible pages. Watercolor seems to be my favorite so far, which means I definitely see more watercolor pages in my future as I still discover my style. As my first month of Bible journaling almost comes to a close, I have found verses that I didn’t know were there, I’ve seen old favorites in a new light, and I have felt such freedom to express myself through this form of creative worship. I look forward to my Bible reading time, and I feel as though God is renewing me through this process, which has come at a time when I really needed it.