June Bible Art Challenge!

A tree in my backyard inspired this idea for a Bible Study! I was watching it one windy stormy morning and my mind wandered thinking about how steady, constant and unwavering it was. I tend to be the kind of gal that is always seeking the next adventure. Trees don't do that. It seemed content to stay where it was and yet it was higher than all the trees around it. Growth like that happens steadily over time. The leaves would rustle gently in the wind, but it was not bent. I found myself desiring the qualities of this tree. It made me think about having a faith like that. I want a firm planting. To grow in stature and maturity through the practice of remaining strong and steady; unwavering no matter what kind of breezes life might blow at me.

I want to have "Steady Faith".

So let's dig in this month and see what we can find about Steady Faith. I think there's two ways to look at this topic.

First is how can we have "Steady Faith" and secondly is "How does God demonstrate His own Steady Faithfulness to us?"

How does it work?
You will need essentially 3 things: a Bible (with new and old testaments), a journal and some art supplies you enjoy using.

Bible Study/Journaling
Each week there will be a passage of scripture to study over. Read the verses everyday if you can. Ideally, you are spending time reading the same passage more than one time during the week. 3 - 4 times would be great! Ask God to speak to you through these verses and to open your heart and mind to what He wants to say to you. Journal any thoughts or questions that come to mind. You can also look up other supporting scriptures or define certain words to gain deeper understanding.

Art
Use your notes and questions from your journal as a source of inspiration to create ONE art piece for the week. It can be a portion of the scripture written in pretty hand writing, scrap-booked stickers collaged together or an image that comes to mind painted in watercolor. Whatever your artistic style and expression is - it WORKS!

Community Sharing!
On Thursday of the week, I will be posting and sharing on Instagram some of my own personal studies and art that I've started for that week! Let's all share what we're learning and how scripture is inspiring our creativity. You can use the hashtag #ebcjunebibleart  or you can tag me using the Instagram handle @emilybcreates. I would love see and share with others what you all are learning TOO!

Here are the scriptures for each week!
Week 1: June 2 - 8 Psalms 1: 1 - 3
Week 2: June 9 - 15 Colossians 1:9-14
Week 3: June 16 - 22 Isaiah 41:9-10
Week 4: June 23 - 29 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

What's in my Art Box!

About a year ago, I decided to hone in on my art supplies and chose a few select items to put in a box.
This box is my 'studio' on the go.

We don't have much extra room in our home for a dedicated studio space. In the past I have done work in our basement, which I still do from time to time, but the dark space and being away from my family wasn't making it easy or enjoyable for me to create.

Now my work space is mostly done at our small eat in kitchen/dining space, right next to the bananas and citrus fruit. So when it's time for dinner I pack up the box and put it away in my bedroom. It's easy for me to grab or take on the go or to my favorite place to create - the patio!

Let's start with the box! It's a document storage box I got at the Container Store years ago. It measures about 3 inches deep, 16 inches in length and 13 inches wide. It's very sturdy and has a linen fabric covering. I've linked a similar one here and of course you can always find similar items on Amazon!

I have two brands of sketchbooks I like in my box. I prefer stitch bound soft cover books with Mixed Media Paper from Strathmore and a hard cover watercolor paper Moleskine. I like them because the paper quality is great and they LAY FLAT! You can find these at Hobby Lobby too and use those 40% off coupons!

They lay flat!

When I decided to squeeze everything in a box, I had to narrow down one main supply that would be my color source. I have tried TONS of art supplies over the years, but had never done gouache. I tried out some cheaper options and still didn't love them. I decided to splurge on this Holbein Acryla Gouache Lesson Set because I found a STEAL on them (still a splurge) and I am IN LOVE. These things are MY JAM! Color is the most inspiring thing to me and these babies pack a punch! They are my GO TO art supply. I hardly miss anything else!

The original set came with 12 basic colors and I have purchased some individual tubes as well.
I can't even tell you how much I love the HOT PINK and NEON YELLOW I found at Blick Store!

Speaking of color, I grabbed a few paint swatch samples from Home Depot for when I want to play around with color combos. I keep these in my box too.

Since gouache is my main art supply, I obviously need a paint palette and water. I love this butcher tray for mixing colors. Its also nice to hold my paints inside the box. I use a small glass spice jar for water and hand stamped tea towel for wiping and drying my brushes.

As for drawing utensils, I decided to go with good quality brushes, pencils and markers. I really like these Cretacolor graphite pencils. I have the 2B shade, which is a little darker than I prefer, but great none the less. I probably could go with a harder pencil, since most of my pencil lines end up being erased. I use them to pencil in shapes or letters and then I erase them. I love the contrast of black and white with all my colorful art, so good black pens and a white pen for accents was a must. I love Microns because they last forever and they come in different sized tips. I have the black set of 3. It comes with 01, 03 and 05 size pens.The Uniball white Signo pen goes over the dried gouache beautifully. And a good ole BLACK SHARPIE. Can I get an Amen?!

For brushes I wanted to keep it REALLY simple. One big and one small. I have a Grumbacher size 4 Goldenedge synthetic round brush and a size 12 Utrecht round brush. I found the blue brush (old from college). I think its a Windsor and Netwon 10mm Filbert. These are the ONLY brushes I use.

Lastly, I keep a full sized pad of watercolor paper (for individual projects I don't want in my sketchbook), a ruler (from Target), cheap ole pink eraser and good metal pencil sharpener.

 I am the type of gal that loves trying out new supplies and usually jumps from thing to thing when it comes to what I make art with. But I have been using these supplies in my box almost EXCLUSIVELY for over a year now! I absolutely love the simplicity and ease of having GREAT quality supplies close by at all times.

New Season!

Where to begin? Teaching is hard. Being a mom is hard. Doing both sometimes feels impossible. I hate to start out negatively. So let me state the positives. I love teaching. I love art. I have a great school and coworkers. My kids are great and my husband is the ultimate wing man. He supports me in every decision and dream (well almost all of them)! Sometimes you can have all the support and best circumstances and you still end up finding that life is just upside down. That was me this school year. Most days I have felt like I was barely keeping my head above water, trying to juggle it all. At the end of the day, I just had nothing left. I was always left with the guilty feeling of not giving the best of myself to my family. So many other people and other people’s kids were getting it all. That’s teaching though isn’t it! I know that is the sacrifice so many of us teachers make, but something about it just didn’t settle in my soul right this year.

Back in March I found myself losing sleep over the decision of returning as a teacher for another year. The possibility of not returning to my small private Christian school also meant a potential change in schools for my daughter, since she is enrolled where I am working. The idea of sending her to a new school wasn’t settling right with me either and we began to pray and consider other options.

After a lot of tears, middle of the night prayers, scouring through scriptures that were speaking to me and long talks with friends and family, I’ve made the TOUGH decision to resign in my teaching position. This decision has been met with an equally new draining job, as I will not only be staying home with my kids, but also taking on the job of homeschooling Ada!!! I never in a million life times would have guessed this would be the path God would take us on. I have always found a lot of pride and honor in being a working mom, with GREAT respect for those who had the courage to stay home with their little ones. And HOME SCHOOLING… I don’t even have my brain fully wrapped around that adventure yet!

I have wanted to be an art teacher since high school and it took me 10 years of waiting after college, before getting an art teacher position, so I don’t take this decision lightly. It has been met with a lot of tears and roller coaster emotions. I’m moving forward confidently in this decision knowing I’ll never regret spending more time with my kids. I know that this is just a season and that art education in the formal sense will always be there. This is a season where I’ll get to put my family first. I’m excited about the future and new doors that will open for us.

I plan on keeping art in my life. Like so much of it. I want it to bleed into our everyday with homeschooling, to teach more art classes independently and to maintain a regular flow of creating for myself.

I came across a quote on Instagram in the midst of making this decision. I liked it and its given me some encouragement when in the trenches emotionally with this decision...

"When God tells you it's time to sit down and re-evaluate, nothing but goodness can come from being obedient. His plans are always better." I do trust that God's ways are always better, even when they don't seem to make sense. I'm trusting that He knows what's best for me in this season. I'm only called to be obedient. I've been clinging to this verse: Proverbs 16:9 In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

So that’s it. That’s the BIG ONE! If you’re still here reading, kudos to you, you deserve a candy bar, or at least an extra cup of coffee! Thanks for sharing in my celebration and loss. On to a new ADVENTURE!