Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 27 - 25th December 2015

Advent Day 27 - 25th December 2015 - Joy to the World

Well, this piece literally took me about 6 hours to complete! I almost gave up after a couple of hours! As it's the last one though that's OK lol!

I wanted to represent the world rejoicing - it took a bit of doing!
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 26 - 24th December 2015

Advent Day 26 - 24th December 2015 - O Holy Night 

I love this music so much and I think it put on a bit of pressure for me for that reason! I wanted the feel of the piece to be just right! 

I created the moon and clouds first and digitally painted that, then added for depth to it with textures and repainted!
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 25 - 23rd December 2015

Advent day 25 - 23rd December 2015 - See The Star

I loved these words from Luke so went about trying to illustrate them!
Dawning Light, a pathway leading to a person sitting in darkness.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 24 - 22nd December 2015

Advent Day 24 - 22nd December 2015 - O Come All Ye Faithful

Loved this devotional especially - it really made me think! Having been to Bethlehem and seen the spot where Jesus is supposed to have been born - a cave-like hole carved into a rock is a very good description!

Kept it simple again and really enjoyed painting this! I tried a watercolour brush instead of an oil brush and used less words on this piece - it just felt right!
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 23 - 21st December 2015

Advent Day 23 - 21st December 2015 - Born That We May Have Life

Just a simple painting. The baby, with nothing, no pomp and ceremony - "born that we may have life."
TFL!

Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 22 - 20th December 2015

Advent Day 22 - 20th December 2015 - Peace On Earth

Love these words, although it's not a Carol we hear often here nowadays.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 21 - 19th December 2015

Advent Day 21 - 19th December 2015 - Strange Way
Loved the words! Really thought provoking. 
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 20 - 18th December 2015

Advent Day 20 - 18th December 2015 - Breath of Heaven

Well this was a happy accident! After I'd painted the piece, it was much lighter than this and stars all over. I duplicated the painting and changed the blend mode, just to see if a tad more contrast would look good. I lowered the opacity of that layer just a tad and this appeared! Just a sprinkling of stars in bright colours, leading from the star to Mary! So I kept it!
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 19 - 17th December 2015

Advent Day 19 - 17th December 2015 - Angels We Have Heard

I had to smile when I read Bernice saying that she had thought the words were different to the ones she knew, as some of the verses were definitely different for me! I googled but came across the words used in the video, so started doubting myself! Then I googled what I thought I remembered and had more luck! So I've used what I remembered on my piece!
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 18 - 16th December 2015

Advent Day 18 - 16th December 2015 - Immanuel

I loved the story-telling bringing the Nativity alive! Beautiful! I wanted to use the idea from the devotional that Christmas is for all, whether we are sorrowful, struggling, walking calmly through life, or full of happiness and rejoicing. There is a 'great light' that can be seen by all.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 17 - 15th December 2015

Advent Day 17 - 15th December 2015 - Come To Save Us

I had absolutely no idea how to illustrate this one! I started searching through my textures photos for inspiration, and was drawn to some images of light that I knew I had but haven't ever used before! I played with those for a while, blending a few together, and then the piece just came together! Thankfully lol! Digitally painted also - am managing to keep up with that!
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 16 - 14th December 2015

Advent Day 16 - 14th December 2015 - We Rejoice!

Loved these lyrics...so meaningful.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 15 - 13th December 2015

Advent Day 15 - 13th December 2015 - Joy Has Dawned Upon the World

I really wanted to make this light and bright, like the dawn and with a feeling of joy. I tried to encompass ideas from the lyrics, of sounds of wonder filling the air; hands that set the stars in place, the darkness of the earth, and reconciliation through the coming together of the hands. It's a bit different!

The plan to keep things simpler to enable the digital painting to continue hasn't quite worked out, lol, but I'm keeping up so far!

TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 14 - 12th December 2015

Advent Day 14 - 12th December 2015 - The Little Drummer Boy

Have to say, this devotional had me in tears! Reading the lyrics as if they're a story really brought it home and it was so touching..beautiful!

I wanted to create a feeling of humbly using our gifts for Him - to play our best for Him.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 13 - 11th December 2015

Advent Day 13 - 11th December 2015 - For All The World

Loved the music for today's devotional! I felt I needed something a little different but which still showed that feeling of rejoicing and this is what emerged! Hopefully there's a feeling of leaping for joy, free, like the birds! The trees represent the earth below, to give a feeling of height and the person really being full of abandon and happiness!
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 12 - 10th December 2015

Advent Day 12 - 10th December 2015 - Surprised by love

The Music was Winter Snow by Chris Tomlinson. I really wanted to capture the feel of snow falling, the silence, the peace, the gentleness.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 11 - 9th December 2015

Advent Day 11 - 9th December - When Love was Born

I loved the words! It took me a while to find a way I was happy with to represent the love and light and the feel of 'love is born.' Mary is mentioned so I decided to portray her in the piece too. I think this is my new favourite of all my Advent pieces!
TFL! 
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 9 - 7th December 2015

Advent Day 9 - 7th December - I Wonder As I Wander

This was another digital paper of mine, to which I added a load of brushwork, made a composite and then digitally painted.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take me Deeper - Advent Day 8 - 6th December 2015

Advent Day 8 - 6th December - Praise the God of Grace and Glory

This was a digital paper of mine, with some brushwork added, recoloured, and then the figures added. I then digitally painted a composite of all the layers. After that I layered the original composite over the painting and reduced the opacity, just to bring back a little more detail.

TFL!

Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - Advent Day 7 - 5th December 2015

Advent Day 7 - 5th December - Born to Set Thy People Free

Again, this was a digital paper of mine, which I edited and added to and then digitally painted. Had a lot of fun with this one!
TFL!

Bernie x