Hi there! Thank you so much for all of your kinda comments and excitement over the last resource post; what’s the difference Wednesday | inks. As I stated before one of the questions I get the most on social media about my bible is WHAT am I using and HOW am I doing it. Whenever I post a photo where I have used paint I get a ton of questions, so I knew this had to be one of the topics we covered in this series!
I am showing you how I use my paints, which paints I use in my bible and most importantly the backside of those thin pages after I use it! If you have any questions please feel free to post in the comments!
I will be linking you up to products where possible, and these links will be affiliate links on Amazon. This means I get a small percentage of each sale and we use that money to keep tutorials like this fresh and useful! Thank you so much for your support!!!
I use a lot of different watercolors in my bible but one of my favorites is the peerless watercolor papers. What I love about these is you don’t have to use a ton of water and the color is so pigmented! In the example above I wanted to show you how if you use a lot of water (at the top) there is going to be a lot more bleed through. If you are lighter on the water (middle) and just focus on picking up the pigment off the paper you are going to have much better luck! These colors are BRILLIANT and so much fun to play with!
Studio Calico color theory paints are very fun and come in great colors! What I do like about them is that they are thin enough that you can still see the words if you decide to cover up the text at all. They really don’t bleed at all, the only down side is they are a very “wet” paint so they do wrinkle the page a bit more, but that will flatten out as the book is closed and flattens out that paper.
Craft paints are some of my favorite because of all the brilliant colors they come in! Today I am using Martha Stewart paints and I got a little carried away but I am okay with that, the neon pink on top of all the pages is just fun! I like to apply these with just an old gift card, dragging it across the page. This will create a nice thin layer perfect for your pages!
As I mentioned before I love watercolors and watercolors in a tube are even MORE fun! For my example I am using the Van Gogh paint which comes in this adorable little tube. You are going to want to think more about the pigment and less about the water here, and for this example I applied the paint directly to the page and then added a tiny bit of water later to just bring the pigment down the page. This one did bleed a tiny bit, but again this is up to your personal style and how much water you use.
Up next is my favorite paint!! I love this liquitex heavy body paint. Since this is a “heavy body” paint it has a lot less water in the paint and all the pigment just sits on top of the page instead of soaking in. For my example here I just applied a bit of the yellow oxide with bits of the light portrait pink mixed in. I love how these colors don’t get muddy when you use them together!! I can’t wait to pick up more of these fun colors!!
Apparently I love anything that comes in fun bright colors because when I passed these in the art supply store they just jumped into my cart! These are called galleria acrylics by Winsor & Newton (Opera Rose and Cadmium Yellow) They are very smooth paint and the colors just pop off your page! For my example I used with a mask and just had fun bringing that color across the page.
You already know my love of the neocolors but let’s just mention them again! I wanted to show you in my first example what can happen if you add too much color (you can see in the second photo on the left) it just gets crazy! But if you are more reserved with your water you will have much more success! The colors on the off white pages are just amazingly BEAUTIFUL!!!! I love these and can’t wait to use them more!
Last and certainly not least is MIST!!! I am slightly addicted and you would be hard pressed to find a page where I didn’t add a touch of mist to it! For this example I wanted a full page of mist and used an ampersand mask with mister huey. You can see that it can get the page a little wet but if you only spray once or twice it won’t soak through. I am so sorry I don’t have a backside photo here, I just got to excited I suppose!!
I hope this answers some of your questions on what types of paints to use! Have fun and get creative!!!
xox -Shanna
another informative and interesting post–thanks so much
Thank you Barb! xox
Well. I think I see paints in my near shopping future. :D
Have fun!!!!
Thanks for this post! Love the bright colors too! What kind of stencil is that? (the triangle one)
I couldn’t find one to link for you guys but I think it’s Studio Calico as well :)
Could you do a tutorial on watercolor pencils . Ways to use them.
Oh yes, great idea!
Great post – did you forget to add the backside of your last page? Do the misters bleed through?
I forgot to take the photo, got to excited! :) Nope they work well, just stick to one or two sprays and don’t go crazy!!!
Love seeing the different mediums….great post!
Thank you for being so helpful
This is wonderful! I too love all the bright cheery colors. Thank you for all the time it took to put this post together. :) Found you through instagram and am so excited! Just love reading all that you have here on this beautiful blog. xoxo
Very, Very helpful.
thank you so much for taking the time and photes to show and tell us.
Great post! Thanks so much. I love seeing this type of work on the IG pages but I am so scared to try them. I think I need to get to paint shopping this weekend. Do you put a piece of paper or newspaper in between the pages while you are working?
Teri, sometimes if I think of it I do, but I am a pretty messy artist apparently LOL!
love this post!!! love bible journaling!! just learning so i so appreciate the basics! thank you so much!
im so excited about this website! thank you for getting it going. i am so thankful. could you set it up so that the affiliate links in amazon open in a new window/tab so that I can keep my place on the illustratedfaith website once i start shopping on amazon? that would be great. thanks again for sharing and teaching, its really priceless and exciting!
Thank you so much Betty! Welcome to the site!!! :)
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme? Superb work!|
Thank you! I sure did! You can find them here :)
Thank you so much for this wonderfully creative way of spreading God’s word. Just wondered what your thoughts are on using a matte medium under paint to make the page non-porous?
Loving the Wednesday posts, thanks so much!! Have you used Inktense water color pencils on a page yet? Wondering what the bleed through is like for them…
Hi there, thank you! I haven’t used that brand but I do use the faber-castell and I find that as long as I don’t use too much water they are golden! Give it a try! :)
AWesome! Thanks for the reply! I really hope you have a workshop in my area someday that I can make it to!
and also – you are my new favorite site! I love the info and the layout!
Thanks for another great post Shanna. I really look forward to Wednesdays!
The Heavy Liquitex come in transparent, translucent, and opaque. What is the diff?
Beth, here is more info on that :)
I love this! But where do i get a bible like yours that is unruled? When i search for it, all the options are ruled margins. Thank you!!
Our are ruled Madds, they are just REALLY faint lines :)
I just bought 3 new tubes of Luiquitex paint and I’m addicted. Thanks for the inspiration. I love how they work on my Bible pages.
Tell me about it!! Isn’t it amazing?! And seriously will last forever!!!
I have seen clear gesso recommended to protect the pages more. Do you ever prep your page ahead of time? I would love to use a cheap acrylic that I already have and just find a way to protect the pages from paint bleeding through. Thanks for all the inspiration and help!
LOVE… This is a sweet and inspirational blog.
Would you share the different paint brushes you use? I haven’t even begun to experiment with water color but would like a better outcome than what I have had with the black- 5 bristle brush I’ve used as a kid :)))) Thank you!