by Joanne Wiklund
Looking to be more creative when it’s not quite time yet to garden? Colored pencil pastels come with less mess than original watercolors. More control when you’re following a design someone else has arranged for you to fill in. Easy to erase out of line slip ups. Coloring is not a waste of time, in my estimation. The challenge of control, hand and mind on completion of the page works. Improves my handwriting. I don’t work one page at a time, however. I pick a page and a color. I start to fill in where I think that color should go. With the inspirational scripture words outlined on the page, I pick a place to start and fill in everything I want that color. But I usually don’t lay that color down and go on to another color. I go on a few pages, pick a new design and use the color I just used.
You might think this a strange way to work. It helps me take time on the whole design. Delaying the desire to immediately finish the page all at once, I am always amazed at the way the color flows from page to page. It gives the whole book a sense of flow, each color not necessarily where I would have put it if I’d hurried to finish a single page at once. I focus on the words of scripture. It calms me if I’m nervous, makes me think about the scripture chosen for that page. Do I know this scripture, the story it’s from, where it first appeared?
Can I repeat this scripture from memory? Could I find it in the Bible? Do I know who wrote it and what he was going through when he received it? The calmness we yearn for in today’s wild world we can find as we color our way through the book. Finding colors to accent each other is another aspect of the coloring. Somewhere in one of the books I’ve completed there is a magnificent Navy Blue horse, a DARK Navy blue stallion, feet in the air, mane waving. Look closely in a bright light, and you’ll find he’s not what he seems. My intent was that this audacious horse be a deep, deep shade of BLACK! OOPS
Often we arrive at a destination that was not our original choice. We learn too late that error is either an excuse or an aberration. Myself? I found it rather appealing the next morning in better light. Besides, the body of water he’s rearing by seems to connect with his color better than if he was black in front of teal water. An hour a day or two each week exercises my hands and fingers, helps me stay awake in late afternoon when I should be writing not napping. Try some inspirational coloring and see if it does awaken your creative senses in a slightly new way. And you may sleep better at night if you don’t nap late afternoon.
Proverbs 143:10 “Teach me to do thy will: for thou art my God: thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.”
Proverbs 145:20 “The Lord preserveth all them that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy.”