The Bible art journaling community has been growing by leaps and bounds and Bible Buying Guide and Bible publishers have noticed. This is the first of a new series of articles about art journaling, and the Bible publishers have made it easier on me by publishing a wide variety of journaling Bibles including the recent ones specifically for art journalers. Two of the most notable are My Creative Bible and the Inspire Bible. I have the pink hardcover edition of the My Creative and the vintage floral Leatherlike edition of the Inspire.
Both bibles are single column with a 2 inch wide side margin, 8.65 point font, slightly cream paper and hundreds of Scripture art illustrations.
The Bibles are almost the same size. The Inspire is a little bit bigger but not quite as much as it looks in this picture. The cover on the Inspire is popping up slightly because of being laid flat so long for the pictures.
They have chosen some of the most popular verses and have different takes on many of the same scriptures. They both also have a few word art drawings like the word Faith.
The pages are thin enough to allow some bleed through of artwork from the other side but not thin enough to be a problem for most mediums (I think). Check back for articles about how well different mediums worked in these Bibles.
Most of the drawings are in the margins but both bibles have some full page illustrations.
Translation and actual artwork seem to be the only major differences between the two. Either of them would be great for experienced journalers who don’t want to start from scratch every time they are feeling creative or people new to art journaling who will have an easier time getting started in a Bible that is already drawn in.
According to their boxes, the My Creative Bible has over 300 illustrations and the Inspire Bible has over 400. Part of the difference is that the Inspire has illustrations without verses at the ends of some of the chapters. Going through the index deciding on possible verses for pictures I noticed the Inspire had more illustrations but I would guess it’s closer to 50 then 100.
The margins are lightly lined where there is not artwork and there at least a few blank pages or parts of pages in both for larger art projects.
Of course, they don’t always pick the same verses as these different versions of Matthew 5 show.
Both Bibles have an illustrated title and a verse on the first page of every book. They both also have an illustrated title page, presentation page, and end pages.
If you’re trying to decide between them I would recommend starting with which translation you are more comfortable with. If that doesn’t decide it for you, then consider art style and whether you would rather have more illustrations to color or more room for your own artwork. Then decide on your favorite cover (The Inspire has 2, the Creative 3 soon to be 4 to choose from). I was provided the print cover Inspire free for review and chose the pink My Creative to purchase, because I’m more familiar with KJV, to see the differences in cover types, and because I liked the rose illustrated page edges. My daughter has an Aqua Inspire on order because she prefers NLT for reading and wanted the butterfly page edges. At the currently reasonable prices, it would be hard to go wrong with any of them.
I love the idea of art journaling and have been dabbling with it for the last 8 months or so. I had hoped to make art journaling posts a regular feature of Bible Buying Guide in January but life got in the way and here I am a couple of months late. The next two posts in this series will be examples of different mediums in these two Bibles. I have crayon, gel pen, colored pencil, and watercolor planned at least and might sneak in a couple more. I will also be trying clear gesso to seal the page for my first time. I would LOVE to have feedback from all you creative journalers out there. What kind of posts would you like most? Is there any medium you would recommend I use or one you’ve been scared to try? Is there anyone whose artwork or tips I just have to see? Is there some kind of journaling article there is already too many of? Let me know in the comments.
Links to other Bible Buying Guide articles about these two bibles (more on the way)
Various Art Mediums in the KJV My Creative Bible