The Illuminated Manuscript Project: Genesis, Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen NIV)

Welcome back to my illuminated manuscript of the NIV Bible, Book of Genesis. As discussed in earlier posts, this is a project that I made for myself to experiment with illuminated manuscript whilst making my way through the Bible, a traditional manuscript for illumination. I try to bring some creativity and fun into the lettering and illustrations. It's all done in a hardbound sketchbook, colored with magic marker and colored pencil, so it's a fun little practice project. Please forgive the images, as it is hard to photograph a book that won't lie flat. 

There's a good bit of Chapter Sixteen left over on this first page. If you haven't seen 15 and 16, yet, here's a link

As always, you can click the first picture to enlarge it and then scroll through the pages from there. 

Here is the first post, if you'd like to start at the beginning (everything else links forward from there). 

Here is the previous post (everything links backward, too. Hooray for completism!)

When I finish the next post, I will link it here:

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

The Illuminated Manuscript Project: Genesis, Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen (NIV)

Welcome back to my illuminated manuscript of the NIV Bible, Book of Genesis. As discussed in earlier posts, this is a project that I made for myself to experiment with illuminated manuscript whilst making my way through the Bible, a traditional manuscript for illumination. I try to bring some creativity and fun into the lettering and illustrations. It's all done in a hardbound sketchbook, colored with magic marker and colored pencil, so it's a fun little practice project. Please forgive the images, as it is hard to photograph a book that won't lie flat. 

Chapter Sixteen

As always, you can click the first picture to enlarge it and then scroll through the pages from there. 

Here is the first post, if you'd like to start at the beginning (everything else links forward from there). 

Here is the previous post (everything links backward, too. Hooray for completism!)

When I finish the next post, I will link it here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-illuminated-manuscript-project_02117089741.html 

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

The Illuminated Manuscript Project: Genesis, Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen (NIV)

Hello, and welcome back to my illuminated manuscript of the NIV Bible, Book of Genesis. As discussed in earlier posts, this is a project that I made for myself to experiment with illuminated manuscript whilst making my way through the Bible, a traditional manuscript for illumination. I try to bring some creativity and fun into the lettering and illustrations. It's all done in a hardbound sketchbook, colored with magic marker, gel pens and colored pencil, so it's a fun little practice project.  

As always, you can click the first picture to enlarge it and then scroll through the pages from there. 

Here is the first post, if you'd like to start at the beginning (everything else links forward from there). 

Here is the previous post (everything links backward, too. Hooray for completism!)

When I finish the next post, I will link it here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-illuminated-manuscript-project.html

For regular posts and artwork, please follow me on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

The Illuminated Manuscript Project: Genesis, Chapters Eleven and Twelve (NIV)

Hello, and welcome back to my illuminated manuscript of the NIV Bible, Book of Genesis. As discussed in earlier posts, this is a project that I made for myself to experiment with illuminated manuscript whilst making my way through the Bible, a traditional manuscript for illumination. I try to bring some creativity and fun into the lettering and illustrations. It's all done in a hardbound sketchbook, colored with magic marker, gel pens and colored pencil, so it's a fun little practice project. 

I have a lot of information this time, so I am going to pepper the illuminated pages throughout to liven things up. 

Last time, I mentioned the bleedthrough from the purple ink. Unfortunately, that is going to continue for a short while longer before I catch it, because of my process. I haven't discussed that yet and it might be of interest, so here is how I do the illuminated manuscript: 

First, I do several pages of lettering and line drawings with my black pen. I don't draw guidelines for the text, just let 'er rip. Most of the time, I'm pretty good about staying straight. I don't want to draw guidelines because I want to be able to burst into illumination whenever the urge hits me, and I feel like working with lines already on the paper would stifle me. 

Second, I go through and start adding color. Since I am working on both sides of the page, I use water-based marker to try to eliminate bleedthrough. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work, and sometimes I don't catch it until it has happened on several pages, hence the purple issues. That was a gel pen, by the way. Obviously, now that I have identified that as an issue, I won't use it any more.  

Last step is adding more subtle color with colored pencils. My favorite brand is Prismacolor (I have two large sets of the prized, older pencils that were under the brand name Berol), but I also use Derwent Coloursoft. I temper the rather harsh tones of the markers, add detail, shading, and color variation to the illustrations, and also add some unifying tones to the page in general with these pencils. 

As always, you can click the first picture to enlarge it and then scroll through the pages from there. 

Here is the first post, if you'd like to start at the beginning (everything else links forward from there). 

Here is the previous post (everything links backward, too. Hooray for completism!)

Here is the next post - enjoy!

For regular posts and artwork, please follow me on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

The Illuminated Manuscript Project: Genesis, Chapters Nine and Ten (NIV)

Hello, and welcome back to my illuminated manuscript of the NIV Bible, Book of Genesis. As discussed in earlier posts, this is a project that I made for myself to experiment with illuminated manuscript whilst making my way through the Bible, a traditional manuscript for illumination. I try to bring some creativity and fun into the lettering and illustrations. It's all done in a hardbound sketchbook, colored with magic marker, gel pens and colored pencil, so it's a fun little practice project. 

Now that I'm using a more stable pen for lettering, the text should be more legible. Sorry about the purple ink bleedthrough from the "10" heading. At least it was just the zero and not the whole thing --small blessings. 

On with the tale! 

Chapter Nine: 

Chapter Ten: 

As always, you can click the first picture to enlarge it and then scroll through the pages from there. 

Here is the first post, if you'd like to start at the beginning (everything else links forward from there). 

Here is the previous post (everything links backward, too. Hooray for completism!)

Here is the next post (hello from the future!)

For regular posts and artwork, please follow me on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

The Illuminated Manuscript Project: Genesis, Chapters Seven and Eight (NIV)

Hello, and welcome back to my illuminated manuscript of the NIV Bible, Book of Genesis. As discussed in earlier posts, this is a project that I made for myself to experiment with illuminated manuscript whilst making my way through the Bible, a traditional manuscript for illumination. I try to bring some creativity and fun into the lettering and illustrations. It's all done in a hardbound sketchbook, colored with magic marker, gel pens and colored pencil, so it's a fun little practice project. 

Being a casual and experimental project, I'm learning as I go what works and what doesn't. There are messy bits, awkward bits, and many places where my materials have simply betrayed me! For example, the black pen I was using for lettering seemed fine at first, but eventually reacted with the paper to leach out into a weird mess, creating bluish blobs on the page and reducing legibility. It took a while for it to do that, so I was already on Chapter 7 before I realized there was an issue and switched pens. I'm sure it's easy to see where that happened, but just to verify, it's on the page with the Noah's Ark illustration. Good news - the lettering will now be much clearer and easier to read, barring any further unforeseen reactions. 

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

As always, you can click the first picture to enlarge it and then scroll through the pages from there. 

Here is the first post, if you'd like to start at the beginning (everything else links forward from there). 

Here is the most recent post (everything links backward, too. Hooray for completism!)

Here is the next post (hello from the future!)

For regular posts and artwork, please follow me on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

The Illuminated Manuscript Project: Genesis, Chapters Five and Six (NIV)

Chapter Five of Genesis is also known as the "begats" section, tracing the family line from Adam to Noah and giving truly wild lifespans to a lot of the line. Chapter Six recounts the great flood, and if you look at the title illumination for "The Flood", you will see that it contains a teeny little flood (as always, just click on the pictures to see them larger). 

Chapter Five:

Chapter Six:

This is the last page of Chapter 6 and a BIG head start on Chapter 7. Stay tuned! 

Here are links to the previous chapters: 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-illuminated-manuscript-project.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-illuminated-manuscript-project_10.html

I'll publish another installment later and be sure to link it here https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-illuminated-manuscript-project_25.html

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