Bible Journaling - Testing Mediums and Surface Preparations while contemplating Foundations

Bleeding. That is the problem that faced me as I started my first journaling pages in my Inspire Praise Bible. I used fibre tip pens on my page, which bled through to the reverse side of the page, causing ugly ink blotches on that side. I am confident that I will be able to overcome these with a trick or two, but I would prefer to avoid the problem in future. So, I tested a couple of mediums to prepare a Bible page surface with, that would be able to prevent bleeding. I then tried a number of paints, pens and pencils on these test pages to see how they react on the newly prepared backgrounds. I had varying degrees of success and share the tests and results with you in today's blog. As I was busy with this, I contemplated how we often get hurt (bleed) in life, because we fail to get our foundation with God right. I am reminded of the passage in Acts 4:11 which reads, 'For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, "The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone."'
The story gets even more interesting as, at the same time that I am busy with these experiments, I am also reading from the book of Ezra in the other Bible that I am currently reading. In Ezra 3:6-7 they prepare to rebuild the foundation of the temple in Jerusalem. For this task, they hire masons and carpenters. Perhaps it is time for some figurative masonry in our own lives as well, to prevent further bleeding? I invite you to get the foundation of your own life repaired, if it has fallen into disrepair. Invite Jesus back into your life and make Him the cornerstone of your life building. If your masonry skills are not up to scratch, ask the Holy Spirit to lend a hand. He is the master Mason in these matters. But also take note that the Israelites had made sacrifices as they prepared to lay the foundations. The ultimate sacrifice has been paid by Jesus, who offered Himself for our sins and transgressions, when He took these upon Himself on the cross. There is now no further penalty for sin, for those who are in Christ Jesus. But in order to live a life which is completely dedicated to God (holy), it may be necessary that you give up (sacrifice) some of your own vices and ways of doing things? Let us all make the necessary sacrifices in our own lives to honour the great sacrifice made by Jesus.
Now let me show you more about the tests and experiments I conducted for my venture into Bible Journaling.

The problem of bleeding, occurs where the medium (in this case ink) bleeds through to the other side of the paper, as happened in my Bible. This can be prevented by either banning those products that bleed through from your Bible journaling repertoire, or by treating the pages with alternative mediums that will block the bleeding, before you even start the project.

I had four mediums for surface preparation at hand in the house. I decided to test these four products. I tried in vain to get my hands on clear gesso, which is the ideal product to use. Gesso is the stuff that artist's canvasses are treated with, to prepare it for painting. It assists in holding thicker layers of paint to the canvas than would be possible if the canvas was left untreated. It has therefore been developed to accept other mediums on top. This is not necessarily true for the other mediums I tested, though they have all been used in this manner at one stage or another. Not managing to obtain clear gesso, I decided to use my normal white gesso instead. I will not be using this in my Bible, simply because it is opaque, but other than that, it was hands on the best product tested. Therefore, I will continue my search to find clear gesso. The other really good result I obtained, was from the untreated paper. That concerns its ability to accept any medium use on top of it. However, most mediums bled profusely through the untreated paper, making it obvious that it would certainly be in my best interest to treat the pages before working on them.

The first product tested was Dala gesso in white. I painted this over one of my printes poems. I wished to test for transparency along with bleeding. As you can see, some of the text is still visible, but too much has been obscured by this white gesso. This gesso is a very thick paste in consistency. It accepted almost all products and had zero bleed.

The second product in my range, was Dala Acrylic Gel Medium. This is another thick paste. I normally use this product to decoupage with. It dries completely transparent, but not all mediums can be used on top of it, as this test will prove. However, there was absolutely no bleed with this product.

The third product tested was Dala Acrylic Matt Glaze Medium. This is a very runny medium. It responded well to some mediums, while resisting others completely. It had zero bleed.

Lastly, I tested Winsor and Newton Acrylic Gloss Medium. It was also very runny. As for its counterpart above, this medium accepted some products, while resisting others. It also had no bleed.

The first products I tested on the prepared papers were watercolours, Derwent Aquatone, Derwent Coloursoft and Derwent Inktense pencils. I applied the products to the paper dry and then painted it with water. Of course the watercolours were painted on the paper wet.

It was interesting to see that some of these mediums did not really want to stick to the backgrounds and when they did, the colours were much more faded than on some of the other backgrounds.

I then tested Derwent Watercolours, Derwent Tinted Charcoal, Derwent Drawing and Derwent Graphitint pencils on the prepared papers. Again these were all applied dry and then painted with water. I also tested acrylic paint.

The results were much the same as in the previous tests, with slight variations here and there.

Next I tested a range of pens and inks. I tested Giotto Turbo Glitter, Giotto Turbo Dobble, Faber-Castell Gelattos, as well as some cheaper metalic and highlighter pens. I also tested Pigma Graphic Archival Ink pens.

Most of these worked well across all the surfaces. However, it was worth taking note that not all of them were equally paintable when a wet brush was put to them. Others could be washed away altogether.

I then tested Tim Holtz Distress Ink, a highlighter, Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens, Artline permanent marker and a Penguin permanent marker. Here they are tested on untreated paper. All of these were painted with water after being applied to the paper.

The same range on the W&N medium.

This range on the Dala Gloss Medium.

The range on the acrylic gel medium.

The range on the Dala Gesso.

I then tested Metalic Markers, Sharpie Markers, Art Therapy markers, Posca markers, Pentel pen, Schneider non-permanent marker, and an Artline OHP (overhead projector) pen. Again all of the test inks were painted with water. These are the results on the gesso.

The results on the Acrylic Gel Medium.

The results on the Acrylic Matt Glaze Medium.

The results on the Gloss Medium.

The results on the untreated paper.

For the next series of tests, I used Faber-Castell permanent Multi Mark, Artline Permanent OHP, Faber-Castell non-permanent multi mark, Staedtler Permanent Lumocolor, Faber-Castell OH Lux permanent, Penflex permanent OHP, Bic pen, and Staedtler Triplus fineliner. All of the inks were painted with water after being applied to the paper. The first test was on the untreated paper.

Tested on the W&N medium.

Tested on the Dala Glaze medium.

Tested on the acrylic Gel Medium.

Tested ont the gesso.

An overall view of the tests done on the Gesso, pointed out that most mediums adhered well to the gesso. It also became clear that with a few exceptions, most of the mediums was transparent, so that the original text remained visible.

An overview of the Acrylic Gel Medium revealed that some mediums would not adhere to it, or had difficulty adhering to is. The mediums was still transparent.

The results of the Dala Acrylic Glaze Medium showed that some mediums had a hard time adhering to the surface, but most were transparent.

Tests on the W&N Acrylic Gloss Medium showed that some mediums had a hard time adhering to this surface. Most mediums still remained transparent.

It became clear that all mediums responded well to the untreated paper and the colours were most vibrant here. Transparency remained as stated above. This would be my favourite surface to work on, except for one thing - the bleeding factor.

When I turned the untreated paper over, I discovered that most of the mediums had bled through to the other side.

There was no bleeding on the W&N Gloss Medium.

The Dala Glaze Medium allowed for no bleeding.

The Dala Acrylic Gel Medium allowed for some bleeding, but very little.

At first I thought that the Gesso had allowed for bleeding, but then I discovered that I had not treated those particular spots well and therefore the conclusion was that the gesso did not allow bleeding.

I scanned the results for the Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylic Gloss Medium.

The scanned results for the Dala Acrylic Matt Glaze Medium.

The scanned results for the Dala Acrylic Gel Medium.

The scanned results for the Dala Acrylic Gesso.

The scanned results for the untreated paper. The best advice I can leave you with, is to try all of the mediums you intend to use on a separate sheet of paper, before using it in your Bible, to see if it will bleed. If it doesn't, leave the page untreated. Otherwise, get your hands on some clear gesso, as this is the best compromise medium, provided that clear gesso will react similarly to white gesso. I have every confidence that it should, as the black and white gesso are equally good. I will be sure to test it if I can get my hands on it, though.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
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