Bible Journaling Using Gelatos

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit...
Acts 2:4

So, I finally did it. I finally broke down and ordered some Faber-Castell Gelatos. I have no idea what they are, but the idea of combining pretty paints and dessert sounded good to me. Plus, I've seen them pop up time and again on Pinterest.

Here's the skinny on Gelatos:

They come in tubes that remind me A LOT of Lip Smackers. If you've ever wanted to paint a picture using your lip balm, then these are for you. Seriously, though, Gelatos have an effect a lot like watercolor, but without the messy bleed-through.

I kind of love them.

When I sat down at the kitchen table this morning and opened my journaling Bible, I didn't have much of a plan. So, I found a good verse to read about and then went straight to art. I drew a lovely little doodle of a crown and some words with it.

I'll admit I didn't meditate as much as I should have. I was in such a hurry to try my gelatos, I kind of lost track of the real point of Bible journaling, which is to make the word of God personal in a beautiful, colorful way. (At least, that's how I use it.)

So, it's not surprising my first attempt was a fail. As I picked up my gelatos, I realized they are not really useful on tiny details, which this doodle had. They are very pretty for larger images or background color, though.

Attempt #2

I slowed down a bit and did a little research on Pinterest to find some ideas. Then I tried out my gelatos on paper to see how they interacted with each other, with water, with blending, with pencil on top and beneath.

How Gelatos interact with pencil and water and blending.

Then I turned to Acts.

I decided to use my Gelatos to try to capture the fire of the Holy Spirit.

I cut a heart out of paper and quite boldly put the gelato onto the page and just kind of winged it. I scribbled around the edges, using the heart as negative space. *Lesson learned here: take the lids of your gelatos and have them ready if you decide to do this. I had to hold my paper heart in place with one hand while trying to take off lids with the other. A bit tricky.

After I'd scribbled over the heart with my gelatos, I then wet a brush (they come with one in the package) and tried a little blending (with paper behind my page to stop bleed-through). I also tried blending with the squishy and not-so-squishy blending sponges (also included with the gelatos).

Gelatos = No bleeding through the Bible page!

HOW LONG DO GELATOS TAKE TO DRY?

I don't know how long these take to "cure". I don't say "dry" because they're not really wet. They are kind of like squishy crayons. They were "dry" to the touch shortly after use. The only "wet" parts were places where I'd put the gelatos on too thick. Still, I'm leaving my Bible open tonight. Tomorrow I'll close it and then update this post of the Gelatos leave marks on the opposite page. Sound good? :)

Update** Gelatos seem to dry fairly quickly. They're not really "wet" to start with, so if you leave your Bible open for an hour or two, I don't think you'll have too much trouble with smudging or transferring to the opposite page when you close it. However, I let mine stay open for a few hours just to be safe. :)

FINAL EVALUATION OF GELATOS:

• They are like painting with tubes of lip balm, only much brighter
• They blend nicely with or without water (some people say to use a baby wipe to blend)
• They look like watercolor paint when blended
• They do not bleed through thin Bible pages! Hooray!
• Bible words DO show up beneath Gelatos
• They DO work OVER Micron pen, but smudge over pencil
• Pencil DOES write on top of Gelatos!
• Not great for tiny details, more for use as background color or large images
• Do they need time to "dry"? The jury is still out on this.
• Fun and pretty to use!

 *Note: I dated my Bible entry wrong. This doodle was done on February 1, 2017. LOL!

My First Watercolor: With & Without Gesso

Isaiah 43:19a
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

A NEW THING
I've been Bible journaling for a year now. And always, always I've used the same old, safe technique:
first pencil, then Micron pen, then fill with Crayola Twistables or gel pens. It was safe. It was familiar.

Then one day I got it in my head to use paint. I felt bold and brave! I researched online and found out a few things. Like, if you don't want the paint to bleed through those fragile, frail Bible-thin pages, you need to prime your page with gesso.

So, I did! I painted both sides of the page. It was wet, messy and dried VERY wrinkly. I was so discouraged that I left that page alone for almost a YEAR. I didn't touch it, which was unfortunate because it was one of my favorite verses.

You can read about gesso and other Bible J supplies here.

So, fast forward to this morning. I was thinking that I'd started this here Bible journaling page to inspire others, but also MYSELF to try new things! So, I was going to be brave and give paint another shot... not just any paint... but that beautiful, translucent, runny wet WATERCOLOR!

I loaded up my new toolbox and set up shop at the kitchen table.

WITH GESSO
So, I was thinking I'd like to show what watercolor does to super-thin Bible pages. But what verse to try? Then I remembered one of my favorites. I turned to Philippians 4:8-9 and lo! That page felt... funny. And I remembered it was the page I'd coated with gesso all those months ago. I'd had the same plan to use watercolor on that page, but chickened out after it went all wrinkly.

But it wasn't too wrinkly anymore. In fact, it had been flattened quite nicely. So, then I got an idea to show you fine people the difference between watercolor on gesso and watercolor on a page that DIDN'T have any gesso on it.

Here goes.

I started by propping up my Bible with this totally professional set of kitchen tongs. Okay, laugh if you want, but getting your Bible to lay flat when you're all the way down in Philippians is no easy feat!


























I began writing out my Bible verse in pencil. In hindsight, it would have been a bit more "PRO" to print out tidy fonts and trace them, but I'm lazy.

Then I tested out my old cheapy watercolors from who-knows-when. They still worked, although the yellow and brown were almost gone, but who needs those, right? I liked my first attempt (on the white paper), so I folded up some paper, stuffed it behind my gesso-coated Bible page (just to be safe, I mean no point in ruining the whole book of Philippians), and I started painting.

I'd read that less water=less bleed. So, I dabbed my brush on a paper towel. I didn't really have a plan here, and rainbow seemed like a good option, so that's what I did.

After the paint was all dry, I went over the words with black Micron pen. You can see the finished product as well as the back of the page. Not too much bleed-through. I call it a success!

Watercolor on a page primed with gesso.

The back of the gesso-primed page.

NAKED PAGE (NO GESSO)
So, now it was time to try watercolor paint on another page that had NO gesso protection, a blank naked page. Flip ahead to 1 Timothy 4:16. I'd worked on this verse back in November and never actually colored it. Perfect! I could see if the Micron pens bleed when covered in watery paint!

I did another hasty rainbow-ish coat (remind me to think ahead a little next time). And you can see the bleed-through difference on the back.



Watercolor on a page WITHOUT primer.
(Also I painted on top of Micron pen, which held up great! No smears.)



On the left, the back of the gesso-primed page. On the right, the non-primed "naked" page.
You can see the gesso kept the paint from bleeding through (mostly).



All-in-all I would say, "Gesso for the win!" It really does keep the paint from bleeding too badly. However, it is very time-consuming. Lots of painting and drying. Then you have to get those wrinkles out. If there's a way to do that besides lots of time being smashed flat, I don't know how. The naked-page method, however, works okay too. But I might need to put stickers on the other side of that page.

Hey! That just means I get to try another new thing, right? :)

Want MORE Bible J Ideas? Check out my post on how to draw wreaths and laurels.