The Illuminated Manuscript Project: Genesis, Chapters One and Two (NIV)

I have always been interested in illuminated manuscripts, and so I thought I would try my hand at it. Since I have never read the Bible cover to cover and it's a traditional illuminated book, it was my first project.

It's kind of an experiment in what works and what doesn't. For example, the ink I used for lettering on the earlier pages both faded but also discolored the paper, but it is still legible and doesn't seem to have affected the illustrations. As I post further pages, however, you'll notice that sometimes the way I colored the illustrations didn't do them any favors.

I'm just practicing and trying to move forward, so I'll consider this my "comp sketch" in case I want to do a more finished version.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Just like the monks who copied old manuscripts by hand, I tried to inject a bit of light-heartedness into the illustrations. To see any picture enlarged, just click! You can also click on the first picture and scroll through them, which is probably the best way to do this. I'll publish another installment later and be sure to link it here.

In the meantime, please check out my Facebook page, if you haven't already: https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

Review of Colored Pencils and Drawing Supplies from the Artownlar 72-Piece Art Supply Set

 

So far, I have written about unboxing the Artownlar 72-piece art supply set, which features a large assortment of different kinds of pencils – colored, graphite, charcoal, and watercolor pencils – along with the typical accessories pencils need, like a sharpener, erasers, sanding block, and blending stumps, and a self-wetting brush (the handle can be filled with water) for the watercolor pencils. These supplies are neatly packed in a zippered case and accompanied by a generous pad of paper, which I examined in detail in its own post.

Now that I've given everything a good look, it's time to start using these supplies and see how well they do. I like to do an actual project, rather than just scribbling “test marks”, so for this project, I chose to do a portrait of my late Aunt Myrtha, who was an army nurse in World War II. I had this lovely old photo of her to use for reference. As you can see, it's sepia-toned with a little bit of color added, but I decided to make it full color.

My weapons of choice for this piece would be a graphite pencil for sketching, a pencil sharpener, a kneaded eraser, and colored pencils for the color work. For the paper, I chose one of the tan pages of the provided sketchbook, since the reference photo had that golden undertone. As I mentioned in the sketchbook preview, the tan pages had different textures on each side. The smooth side wouldn't do for a medium like colored pencil, which must be built up in layers for best results, so I chose the side with a noticeable texture (you may need to click the picture to enlarge it).

The provided pencil sharpener was small and simple, but it worked fine on the graphite pencil and the colored pencils. 

There is a nice range of graphite pencils, all the way from 5H to 8B, but I wasn't doing a graphite piece, so I used a 5H for the sketch. If you would like to learn more about the different grades of drawing pencils, I made a blog post that explains it. The harder pencils have less of a tendency to smear, and it's important not to get grey or black pigment mixed into a color portrait – especially in the skin tone. We don't want our subjects to look dead! The pencil worked very nicely for the sketch.

For my eraser, I chose the kneaded eraser, which I prefer over hard erasers. It worked as expected, picking up both the graphite and even the colored pencil, which is usually a little harder to erase.

There are 12 regular and 12 metallic colored pencils in the set. Since I was doing a very traditional portrait, I chose not to use the metallics, this time; I'll save them for another project. The 12 regular colors are very basic, bright colors, but as an experienced artist, it wasn't too difficult to make more subtle and specific hues by layering the colors to blend them. The pencils were very easy to use! They were soft enough to get a pretty satisfactory coverage and blending experience. The paper took the layers of color well, and the portrait came out well, I think. 

I was very pleased with the results. Considering how inexpensive this set is, the Artownlar supplies I've used so far have been a good quality for the money.

Thanks for reading my review! Here are some other reviews of art supplies I've done: 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-1-sky.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/07/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-white.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/09/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-3-pale.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2024/04/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-4-jade.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2025/06/miya-himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-5.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2025/07/miya-himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-6.html

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

Step-By-Step Tutorial: Valentine Heart Photo Garland

If you're looking for a cute and special Valentine's Day craft project, this pretty garland made from simple materials like cardboard, glue, decorative paper and stickers or whatever you have on hand to decorate your photos will serve as a sweet decoration or a thoughtful gift. 

1. Make some hearts out of cardboard! You can either use a premade stencil to trace hearts onto the cardboard, or make your own by folding a small piece of paper in half and tracing half a heart, then cutting it while folded. 

When you unfold the paper, you will have a heart you can trace around, and also a heart cutout that you can trace inside, whichever is easier. Trace out your hearts on the cardboard and cut them out. I made these hearts about 3 inches tall. 

2. Pick some photos that you want to include in your garland and make photocopies. I used some old family photos from my mom's scrapbook. It's best to use an odd number of photos so that you will have one right in the middle. Cut out the photocopied picture by centering the heart on the image and then tracing around it to cut out the shape. 

You may need to tilt the photo one way or another to make it fit well on the heart. Don't worry if the photo doesn't cover the heart entirely, since we will be adding collage materials around the edges or wherever they are needed. 

3. Find some pretty paper to cover the back of the heart. I used scrapbooking paper, but you could also use wrapping paper or colored tissue or even some pretty colored photos from a magazine or calendar. I chose paper with a slightly more orangey red, since the color copies had a warm yellowish tone. Also, I decided to alternate the patterns on the backs of mine. 

At this point, you can punch holes out on each side of the hearts. Make sure to do this from the photo side so you don't accidentally punch out an important part, like someone's face! 

4. Once everything is glued together, it's time to have some fun! You can use leftover scraps of the backing paper or photos to cover any areas of the heart shapes that the photos didn't cover. I also used some paint around the edges to unify any places that didn't quite line up. That covered the white edges that were peeking out, and it also let me paint a little bit of tone on the photos to make them look even more antique and hand-colored. Add little stickers and cut-out shapes to emphasize and frame your photos.  

4. After you lay out your photos to decide what position they look best, you can use thin ribbon, like I did, embroidery floss, string, or yarn to tie your hearts together into a garland shape. 

I left extra ribbon on each side to make hanging loops:

This will make a wonderful decorative gift, especially for an older relative! It can easily be mailed in a Valentine card. 

For regular shenanigans, please visit my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart 

Inktober 2024, Part Two

With Inktober 2025 merrily chugging along, I am following up my last post to show you more of what I did for Inktober 2024 (I mean, it's hard to do a retrospective of current events, right?) Without further ado, here is more art from exactly (or so) a year ago: 

Inktober 2024, Day Four, "exotic" - this one is a bit more detailed, so it's where I bogged down slightly; I think I posted my pencil sketch on the correct day, but I posted the finished inks a few days later.

Inktober 2024, Day Five, "binoculars" - this was a pretty simple design that I thought came out very well. Another favorite. I just like the vibe!

Something I didn't mention before, but you may have noticed when you saw the prompt list in my previous post, is that the 2024 prompt list was mostly made of obviously related words, as though someone lazily opened a book on travel for, uh, "inspiration" when deciding on the prompts. I mean, 30 of the 31 prompts are obviously travel-related, and I'm sure you could fit "violin" in there with not much extra effort. I'd contemplated making an actual story out of these...but then I thought I should probably leave that to people who can finish things. 

So anyway, Inktober 2024, Day Six, "trek", is my attempt to derail the narrative, because art lets you do that. My portrait of Counselor Deanna Troi came out very nicely, I think. Of course I posted it late, but these things can't be rushed. One thing I have a slight issue with is that her hair looks oddly two-toned due to my using a Sharpie to fill in the bulk of the dark area rather than drain my beloved Micron pen with non-precision work. Sacrifices must be mad for great art, so this is not great art. Hee! Oh, and since I was late getting this done, I sneakily threw in Day Seven, "passport", tucked into her hand. I'm a rascal! 

Inktober 2024, Day Eight, "hike", and Day Nine, "sun" - at this point, I decided to fling myself into combined prompts. I also got a little experimental with decorative patterns, turning out this semi-psychedelic drawing on a piece of bright-pink cardstock rather than in my dedicated Inktober sketch book. I subsequently placed it, and another doodle, in the local FLAG (free little art gallery) for anyone to take and enjoy. 

And that, my friends, is my output for Inktober 2024, both in drawings and blog posts. I have produced artwork for Inktober 2025, so I'll be covering that at some point. 

For my previous Inktober posts: 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-little-backstory-on-inktober.html 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2020/10/inktober-2020-is-under-way.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2020/11/more-fun-with-inktober.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2021/03/another-shot-of-inktober-so-what-if-its.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/04/inktober-restrospective-2020-part-two.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/08/inktober-2021-starting-off-with-bang.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/09/inktober-2021-did-i-start-unraveling.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2024/10/inktober-2024-prompt-list-and-some.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2025/10/inktober-2025-is-under-wayand-i.html

For more shenanigans, you can follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart 

Inktober 2025 Is Under Way...and I Completely Forgot to Write about What I Did for Inktober 2024

The reason for that was, of course, that in October of 2024, I was writing about things I had done for Inktober 2023, 2022, and Inktober 2021. Hey, folks...art never gets old, although occasionally it does age poorly. 

First things first: again I am providing this year's prompt list a bit late (but in the first week, this time), but those of you who are cool enough to follow my Facebook page will again note that I did provide it last month. (This is basically a plug for my Facebook page. Thank you.) 

Inktober 2024, Day One: This is actually an inside joke, so I need to set it up. Back in 2023 around Halloween, my friend Tre invited me to draw, in my style, his picture of Cthulhu trick-or-treating as a human kid (whom he'd slain for the, uh, "costume"). Tre's cartoony style made it cute. My style is...a little creepier. Anyway, here is the original side-by-side:

and after I added color to mine:

Now, the prompt for Day One of Inktober 2024 was "backpack", and so I created this drawing I call "Ricky's Revenge": 

Inktober 2024 Day Two, "discover"- Because I won't be denied a good 'dad joke', this one is called "Waiter, There's a Fly in My Soup": 

Inktober 2024 Day Three, "boots" - this gave me the opportunity to indulge my inner Richard Scarry/and or Shrek animator. One of my favorite Inktober drawings! 

Don't worry, I did more, but this post is getting longer than my attention span, so I will let you go and hopefully cover the remainder before too many more Inktobers have passed. For prior years, please check out: 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-little-backstory-on-inktober.html 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2020/10/inktober-2020-is-under-way.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2020/11/more-fun-with-inktober.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2021/03/another-shot-of-inktober-so-what-if-its.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/04/inktober-restrospective-2020-part-two.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/08/inktober-2021-starting-off-with-bang.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/09/inktober-2021-did-i-start-unraveling.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2024/10/inktober-2024-prompt-list-and-some.html

Miya HIMI Jelly Gouache Color Review #6: Deep Red and Ponceau

This is the sixth in a series of reviews of the individual colors from the Miya HIMI brand 24-color “jelly” gouache paint set. This review will concentrate on the Miya HIMI Deep Red and Ponceau jelly gouache paint colors and will also include updates on my Star Trek painting and how my swatch chart is coming along.

Miya HIMI Jelly Gouache color Deep Red

Last time, I painted Captain Kirk's yellow uniform jacket, and now it was time to do Captain Picard's tunic. Judging the colors by how they showed through the unopened containers, I thought the color called Ponceau was too light and orangey for Picard's uniform, so I opened Deep Red to see what I could see. As you'd imagine from the name, it's somewhat dark, but it's also a very cool red that I would liken to Alizarin Crimson.

To me, Picard's jacket is a very neutral red, neither extremely warm nor cool. Since lightening a cool red gives a rosy pink, I was definitely going to need Ponceau, as well. Cool colors are nice for shadows, though, so I used the Deep Red for the darker areas on Picard's uniform jacket.

As you can see from the white swatch chart, the granularity of this color is quite high, and the opacity ain't no great shakes.

Miya HIMI Jelly Gouache color Ponceau

Ponceau is a color name that I have never heard before, but this one would go in the Cadmium Red (warm red) slot in your color palette. It's very warm, but not quite as orange-y as I'd feared. It made a good foil to the Deep Red and kept Picard's tunic very balanced, overall.

As with the Deep Red, the granularity was high and opacity was pretty wimpy. That said, I didn't feel like I had to glob it on to get sufficient coverage for the painting. I might be singing a different tune if I weren't working on a medium-value brown background, though.

One more review to go to have this Renaissance/Classical Mythology/Star Trek extravaganza finished. Stay tuned!

For the original post describing the unboxing of the Miya HIMI jelly gouache paint set, go here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/03/unboxing-himi-jelly-gouache-24-color-set.html

For the first review in the series, go here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-1-sky.html

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

Basic Information about Gouache Paint

If you are unfamiliar with gouache (pronounced GWAHSH), it is typically described as an opaque watercolor, although when diluted with water, it can be used transparently, as well. As with traditional watercolor, it doesn't dry waterproof, so be aware that if you paint over it, you could activate the dried layer if you use enough water. This can be great, as it makes the colors blend easily and gives you the ability to soften edges and spread color. It can also be annoying, of course. Be careful not to get drips or spatters of water on the dried paint surface, as this can create spots.

The opacity enables you to use the paint on dark surfaces, though, which can create interesting results. I painted this nighttime scene of my bedroom with white gouache on black bristol board. I especially like the reflection of the edge of the pillow against the night-darkened window glass. That kind of effect would be harder to achieve with a different medium. 

Gouache paint dries matte, like that tempera paint you probably used in grade school. The two paints actually look very similar in their finished state, but tempera dries permanent and gouache is rewettable/reworkable, as we've discussed. The paints have different binders – traditionally, egg yolk for tempera and gum arabic for gouache. There is also a type of gouache called acrylic gouache that dries permanent, like acrylic paint. I prefer workable gouache, since I already work in acrylic and can use that if I want a more permanent finish. 

Gouache has been around for quite a long time, but it was considered more of a designers' medium (that is, more for advertising and design layout sketches than for finished pieces - even my painting above was just a tonal study for a larger piece). However, it's been getting a bit of a renaissance lately, via art YouTube channels, since it is colorful, fun, and easy to use. I have been getting back into it myself and really enjoying it! I bought myself a set of Miya's HIMI jelly gouache and am in the process of posting some reviews of it showing the different colors and a gouache painting in progress. 

For the initial unboxing: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/03/unboxing-himi-jelly-gouache-24-color-set.html 

The reviews start here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-1-sky.html

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

All images are copyrighted property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.