The Greatest Gift

I created this as part of my training in my PhotoArtistry course. I'm not posting them all on here, as this blog is more for my Faith Art, but this piece is appropriate! (If you'd like to see more of my training pieces, you can find them on Flickr or on my ArtBoja site).

I think my subconscious was looking ahead a tad to Advent and Christmas - Mary, contemplating what is ahead for her and what it will mean for the world.
TFL!
Bernie x

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 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 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 10 - 8th December 2015

Advent Day 10 - 8th December - Come Let Us Adore Him

I used a couple of papers of mine and then added loads of brushwork and the figures. I wanted to give the impression of an ancient landscape but have the figures seem more modern...to make the Carol a call to us all in every age. Then I digitally painted it!
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

The Beginning

So! Back in October 2014, I came across a Study from members of a Facebook group that really called to me to take part. I've been reluctant to commit to anything much for a while now simply because real life keeps getting in the way! But this was really calling to me! So I took the plunge and joined in with the Pause, Ponder & Prepare Study, which you can find out about here.

I managed to keep up with making a page of art a day, mainly thanks to the wonderful digital scrapbooking kits I treated myself to from both Altered Amanda's Studio (have a look here!) and Dawn Inskip (have a look at her stash here!). Most days in November (we created during November so we could use the artwork and devotionals during Advent) I was up at 4am and creating in Photoshop by 5am!! Then during Advent I made a set of tags for our Christmas tree - I actually got my hands messy with real paint and paper tags lol and printed and pasted on Bible verses. They looked so good on our tree and everyone seemed to like them!

I've posted below some of my pages for Pause, Ponder & Prepare. Managing to achieve this and enjoying myself so much inspired me and gave me more confidence for what was to come next! I'll carry on the story on the next post!

My Cover