Bible Journaling - Genesis 35

Genesis 35 is a short chapter which is packed with information. W bury no less than three people in its few verses, along with some pagan idols. Most of the chapter is devoted to a commitment renewal from Jacob towards God, but a small section also deals with how his own family starts to crumble, to the point where one of his own sons sleeps with one of his concubines and the mother of his half-brothers. We are once again confronted with the challenge of depicting these events in illustrations. This time we are also required to confine ourselves to a very limited space. I share my approach with you in today's blog.

Genesis 35 looks like this in the Inspire Praise Bible.

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

When I return to these pages, I have already journaled the preceding chapter and my pages now look like this.

At the start of the chapter, Jacob is instructed to move to, and settle in, Bethel. He cleans house first, telling his wives and family members to get rid of all pagan idols. From now on their family will only worship the God Who met Jacob at Bethel. God meets Jacob a second time and confirms his change of name to Israel. He also reaffirms His promises to Jacob and introduces Himself as El-Shaddai/God Almighty. Jacob builds an altar here. In the meantime Deborah, Rebekah's old nurse, had passed away. I draw an altar and a grave stone to depict these events. I use a pencil to start with. I also draw a large tree. Both the pagan idols, as well as Deborah were buried beneath trees and it seems fitting to have a tree on the page to represent both of these two trees.

I use Faber-Castell Artist's Pitt Pens, a Micron Pen and a black fountain pen to colour these illustrations. I also add a heap of soil at the foot of the tree to mark that it is a burial place.

In the last section of the chapter, we see that Rachel gives birth to Benjamin, but passes away in the process. We also learn about Isaac's death at the ripe old age of 180. In the same passage we also learn that Reuben, Jacob's firstborn son, defiles his father's bed, by sleeping with his concubine, Bilhah. I draw a baby to prepresent Benjamin, two gravestones for the two deceased and a heart to indicate the affair between Reuben and Bilhah.

I use a combination of Sharpie Markers, Micron Pen, ProMarker, and Pitt Pens to colour the illustrations.

I add detail with a black fountain pen, a Sharpie Marker and a ProMarker.

That concludes this chapter.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/3TcrHZHDa9c

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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