Bible Journaling - Genesis 29 & 30

In Genesis 29 we find Jacob arriving at his mother's family in Paddan-Aram. Here he immediately meets up with the girl he will fall in love with and marry. We then move through two weddings in one week see the birth of twelve children. By now we are in Genesis 30 and Jacob is already experiencing trouble with the in-laws, who also happen to be his employees. We need to figure out how to illustrate this fast-paced love drama in today's journal entry.

The story spans more than just two pages and we soon find the need to turn the pages to continue the story.

Genesis 29 & 30 look like this in the Inspire Praise Bible.

I treat the pages with Zellen Clear Gesso before I start.

When I come back to these pages, I have already journaled the previous chapter and my pages now look like this.

Jacob finds himself at a sealed well when he enters Paddan-Aram. People are patiently waiting to water their sheep. Then the lovely Rachel arrives on the scene and our macho hero single-handed rolls the heavy stone away from the well. I draw my rendition of this in pencil.

Jacob agrees to work seven years for Laban to obtain his daughter, Rachel's hand in marriage. However, on his wedding night his father-in-law deceives him and he marries Leah, Rachel's sister. We are told that Leah had dull eyes. Nobody seems to know for a fact what that meant, although many theories exist. I decide to draw two veiled women with the focus on the eyes.

Jacob agrees to work another seven years for Rachel, accepting the first seven years as a bride's price for Leah. A week later he marries Rachel, being seven years in debt to her father. In the ensuing period of time, Leah gives birth to four sons. I draw these babies next to each other in pencil.

I then use Derwent Inktense pencils to colour and paint Jacob rolling the boulder away.

I use Inktense pencils to colour and paint the veiled women as well. Not knowing what to make of the 'dull eyes' of Leah, I choose to focus on dull and bright colours. I colour one set of eyes blue and the other I colour brown.

I colour and pain the babies with Inktense pencils.

Once the illustrations are dry, I use fountain pens to outline the drawings and to add detail to the illustrations.

We have reached the end of chapter 29 and take time to check the progress.

In the first lines of chapter 30, we find a new battle arrising between the two sisters. Rachel, not having given birth to any children of her own, tells Jacob to sleep with her servant, Bilhah. Bilhah conceives two sons, who are reckoned as Rachel's. However, Leah does the same thing and hand her servant, Zilpah, over to Jacob. Again two sons are born from this union. I draw the new arrivals in pencil.

I then colour and paint the babies with Inktense pencils.

When dry, I add detail with fountain pens. I also find a way to keep track of which babies fit with which mothers.

We have now reached the end of the first two pages in the journal entry.

Turning the page, these two pages await me. I have already sealed them with Zellen Clear Gesso.

Leah gives birth to two more sons and one daughter, after negotiating with Rachel for the right to sleep with her husband. Finally, Rachel also conceives and gives birth to a son. She calls him Joseph. I draw four more babies.

I colour and paint the babies in Derwent Inktense pencils.

Things turn sour between Laban and Jacob and the two deceivers try to outwit each other. However, God had decided to bless Jacob, and as a result, Laban's best efforts fail. We encounter some rather intriguing details regarding breeding and I opt to draw some illustrations to show some of this.

I use a normal HB grey pencil. This pencil is somewhat soluble, as most grey pencils are, and I paint the grey pencil with water to soften the lines slightly.

I then add dark patches to one of the sheep I had drawn, to indicate the issue that the two contending in-laws were feuding about.

I am not sure what is meant by the branches with the peeled-off bark, but try to indicate this in my illustration. I use a white paint marker to colour the peeled-off areas where the bark had been removed.

I once again use fountain pens to add detail to the illustrations.

I do a similar thing on the opposite page.

The layout looks like this when I am done with chapter 30.

I page back to remind myself of where we had started.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/bsbN_qPo5SU

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:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.