Watercolor Tutorial | Leaning In – A New Heart

Greetings beloved Illustrated Faith family!

We are beginning the season of Lent.  A time of reflection and focus on how much the Lord loves us.  Often Lent is a time of giving up something.  A time of repentance.  A time to clean the house of our hearts.  A time for new beginnings.

One of the biggest promises over our hearts is found in Ezekiel 36:25-27.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes…

I have walked with the Lord long enough to know I can’t clean my heart without His help.  I can’t lay down idols without His help.  I can’t forgive without His help.  I can’t stop bad habits without His help.  I can’t heal the stoney places that lead me to sinful thoughts or actions.  Often times, I can’t even love well without His help.

Here is the Good News:  He promises to do this for us!

He knows our flesh is loud and demanding.  The scripture in Ezekiel gives us His promise to take places of stone, cleanse them, and turn them into places where His Spirit resides, places of peace and strength in Him.  Places of freedom and grace where we can draw on His power to walk like Christ.  Places that breathe.

We do have a part to play in this transformation.  I think we need to look to Him.   To Lean into Him and confess that we can’t do it on our own.  We need to let Him show us the places of stone in our hearts and be willing to let Him heal and replace those areas by listening to Him, reading His word, and spending time in worship and prayer.   It is in His loving presence the real changes happen.  Our job is to move ourselves into a position of yielding — where He can reach into our hearts and do His good work.

I still have places of stone friends, even after 20 plus years of walking with the Lord.   This Easter, I am ready to let some more places of stone be healed and set free.

Let’s journal truth.

I first sketched out my idea for the page.

Next, I gathered materials – Illustrated Faith Watercolors, Neocolor II crayons, #10 Filbert watercolor brush, water, Illustrated Faith pen, and my Bible.

I decided to draw the outline of the heart loosely first with my Illustrated Faith pen.   You can do this first because the Illustrated Faith pens are waterproof.   Make sure the ink is completely dry before adding any water media over the heart.  I used a heat gun to be extra sure it was sealed and ready to be layered over with watercolors.  I loosely painted in some clear water.

Next, I dropped in some watered down black and a bit of teal.  You can see the method for dropping in here.  I wanted my watercolor to extend out beyond the lines of the heart because, ummmm…. my heart is messy!

Next I scribbled in the heart of flesh.   I drew the outlines first because using any felt tip pen over Neocolor crayons is not a good idea.  The waxy character of the crayons may ruin your pens.  Again, I wanted the heart loose and messy.

I start with the darkest Neocolor and scribble (and I mean scribble) the first few lines of the heart.

Add the next darkest color.

And the magenta (called purple on the crayon).

And last, the light pink.

Next I lightly stroke some clear water in some areas of the heart to activate the Neocolor crayons.

After I dry this,  I pick up some pink watercolor from my Illustrated Faith palette and activate a bit more of the Neocolors.  You might know that I love intense, saturated color.  Combining watercolors with Neocolors is a simple way to really pump up colors on your pages.

Last I clean my brush and pick up some yellow from my watercolor palette and tap a bit of yellow here and there to give the heart some contrast.

I am ready for lettering.  I pulled out my Homespun Alphas and a sticker from the new Illustrated Faith basics collection.  I laid the stickers on a clear piece of packaging to experiment with placement.

After adhering the letters down, I added some of my own handwriting and grabbed ALL the COLORS of my Homespun alphas and a few more stickers.

A close up of the heart of stone.

Here is a close up of the heart Jesus gives us.

Oh, isn’t He just so good!

Time for a tab.  I added Listen to the top because I don’t think it’s possible to really have His heart if you don’t take time to listen to Him, to seek Him, to ask Him to change those places in your heart that are made of stone.

Adhered the tab down and grabbed some more new IF basics goodies — Hexies and puffy hearts!

I underlined the text with colored pencils and added a date stamp.

And the page is complete.

Oh how good our Lord is to not leave us with our hearts of stone!  I pray every day that He continues to change me more into the likeness of Jesus.

If you try one of these “amy” hearts, please tag me on IG (@designsbyamybruce)!  I want to see what you create!

So many hugs family,

amy bruce

ESV Leather Journaling Bible |  Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Watercolor Set | Illustrated Faith by Bella Blvd Precision Pens | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Paint It Cards | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Tape Runner | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Epoxy Stickers Oh My Heavens Mix Mini Hexies | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Basics Cardstock Stickers – Everyday Icons | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Basics Epoxy Stickers – Bananas for You Hexies | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Basics Cardstock Stickers – Go and Tell | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Bright and Brave Cardstock Stickers – Elements | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Homespun Alpha – Once in  Melon, Oh My Heavens, Practice What You Peach, Apple of My Eye, Mrs. Blueberry, Bananas For You, Black Eyed Pea | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd Date Stamp | Bella Blvd Puffy Heart Stickers – Ice Mix| Loew-Cornell 7500C Filbert Brush | Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd You are Loved – Tabbies | Prismacolor Premier Madder Aquamarine PC905 |  Faber Castell – Pale Geranium Lake 9201-121, Rose Carmine 9201-124, Warm Grey IV 9201-273, Phthalo Blue 9201-110 |  Neocolor II – Carmin, Rose, Purple, Vermillion | Ranger Heat Tool