I was provided by the publisher with a copy of the NKJV Journaling Bible to facilitate my review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

I think it’s been about a year since I first learned about the “Bible journaling”/”Scripture journaling” trend.  For those who aren’t familiar, this is basically a cross between art journaling and Bible reading/study.  It’s a creative way of interacting with the Word.  Like all art journaling, the details will differ from person to person. Some people’s journaled Bible pages are downright stunning!  Some incorporate fancy text & doodles in the sidebars.  Some have watercolor artwork over the text.  It really just depends on the individual artist’s style.

I, on the other hand, am not much of an artist.  For that reason, together with some others, I’m not comfortable doing art in my primary Bible.  But I’m comfortable with stepping out and learning and growing in this area with a special Bible designated for this purpose.  I prefer NKJV, though, and there wasn’t a journaling Bible available in NKJV — until now.

The benefit of a specific “journaling Bible” is that it’s designed to be written in.  Journaling Bibles have thicker paper than most Bibles (‘though it’s still not super-thick, because you can only go so thick and not have the book be a foot thick), wide margins, and sometimes extra space between lines.

The NKJV Journaling Bible

Here’s what the cover on this Bible looks like:

It’s hardcover, with this faux leather finish.  Pretty classy-looking.

The end papers have this subtle floral print.  It didn’t photograph well, but hopefully you can get an idea.

The pages are laid out as a single wide column with a wide, lightly-lined margin.

At the end of a book, there’s just “blank” lined space where necessary, and then the new book picks up on the next page.  (There isn’t an intro or anything.)

Here’s a picture with a ruler to give you a better idea of the size of the text and the spacing of the lines:

Art in the NKJV Journaling Bible

The pages are thick enough that I didn’t get any bleed-through when I tested my Flair felt-tipped pens or either of several sets of metallic markers (Crayola & Bic).

However, there was considerable shadowing:

I decided to start right at the beginning, by illustrating the days of Creation.

(This was an awkward time to discover that I don’t have a brown marker in my set!)

As you can see, there was a good deal of shadowing, and even bit of bleed-through in spots where I colored heavily.

But for coloring with felt-tipped pens and markers on Bible pages, that’s pretty good.  Just be aware that you probably can’t do artwork with a medium like this, back to back, unless you use tip-ins or something.  (A tip-in is basically a flap you add with outside paper.)  Colored pencil or something like that would, obviously, present less issue with shadowing and bleed-through.

Giveaway

I have an extra journaling Bible to give away.  The “catch”: it isn’t NKJV; it’s HCSB.  Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below (best viewed on a non-mobile device).

a Rafflecopter giveaway