Images of Grace
Bible Illustrations for Zambia
A partnership of Bethany Lutheran College and WELS Multi-Language Productions
The world God built is a visual one. The giant backdrop of our days — the sky — is a ridiculously brilliant blue. In the summertime, every color in the crayon box can be considered an earth tone. The very shade of your hair changes in the sunlight. God reveals his love to us through our sense of sight. Unfortunately, our Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) missions are not yet well enough equipped to communicate with this visual language.
The WELS has built up an extensive repertoire of wonderfully written commentaries and devotionals; however, these operate under the assumption that they can be consumed and understood by an educated, literate audience. For the people of Zambia (and many other countries), these are not accurate assumptions. This means that a written translation into the native language would not be beneficial for many. Not only do we need resources for introducing God's grace into the lives of many, but also for their continued education. The congregations in Zambia want to learn more about the Bible, but most members cannot read it for themselves.
Pastor Terry Schultz quickly recognized this issue and sprang into action. Terry is the Artistic Development Missionary for WELS World Missions (what an incredible title!), and in the final weeks of spring semester 2022, he assembled a team of artists to create engaging Bible story comics. As one of these artists, I can say the energy in the room that day was bursting with fervor for the gospel! When we had our first official meeting, it was clear that everyone involved was passionate about using their gifts to glorify the One who has given them. The phrase "Here am I, send me!" played on repeat in my mind.
The content of these comics stems directly from the Sunday School curriculum. Each set of comics is planted firmly in Scripture. Biblical passages are used alongside other resources for costume and environmental reference. In this way, artists strike a balance between captivating storytelling and historical accuracy. With a sturdy foundation, the gospel is clearly communicated in the universal language of images.
While each artist uses different media, they all follow a similar process. Each set of illustrations begins with research. Closely reading the Scripture passage, as well as Werner Franzmann's Bible History Commentary, ensures accurate storytelling. Then, based on the content, artists generate thumbnail sketches. Thumbnails are small, rough drawings meant to capture the composition of the image. They are not careful, they are not detailed, they are simply a tool for surveying the options an image presents. Page composition is an important part of visual communication; artists must strike a balance between both functional and pleasing-to-look-at. Each page has around three main images used to tell the story, but these images can be laid out in many different ways. For example, in Ruth, the events are divided into boxes, a convention of comics. In contrast, the story of David and Goliath allows moments to flow into each other.
After the planning stage, different workflows begin to emerge. Many of the artists work completely digitally. Personally, I work on paper. After sorting out my thoughts using thumbnails, I draw everything in pencil on a sheet of A3 size bristol board. This sketch must gain approval before I move on to the next stage: inking. I tend to ink my illustrations with a brush and India ink, however, my process is never set in stone. If the image calls for a harsher tone, like Pilate Condemns Jesus to Death, I will adjust. In that case, I inked with a dip pen for a sharper feel. At this stage, I scan the pages to turn them into coloring sheets. Then I move forward adding my own color. For a majority of the illustrations, I started with watercolor and eventually layered on colored pencil. Again, there are exceptions. No matter the medium, each set is produced in full color and also as a black and white coloring page.
The differences in both artistic and storytelling styles is an incredible strength of this project. However, it has the potential to create quite a bit of confusion. What if each artist depicts Jesus differently? From a viewer's perspective, a character whose appearance changes from comic to comic could be interpreted as an entirely different character. To combat confusion, artists produced character designs for individuals who appeared in more than one Sunday School lesson. I had the honor of designing the appearance of Jesus. While we do not know exactly what Christ looked like, we do know he was from Nazareth. I sketched many middle eastern men as potential Christ likenesses; however, the church in Zambia specifically requested a Caucasian Christ. It is an issue of previous exposure. He had to fit the commonly recognized image of Jesus. As I moved forward in this direction, I was determined to keep Jesus as friendly looking as possible. Most of the character design process is about revealing the internal aspects of a character in their external appearance. His beard, long hair and red sash help viewers recognize him as Christ. But his rounded nose and smiley mustache give him an eternally affectionate quality, as loving as the gospel message.
Thanks to low costs for printing, lamination, and shipping, the illustrations will be distributed to congregations all over Zambia. They will act as visual aids within Sunday School classrooms. The ability to visualize the individuals described in Scripture and the environment around them creates a strong connection. In addition, students will be able to spend time with the images as they color them. This extra time used to look at the illustrations is intended to lead to a deeper understanding or a stronger personal connection to the events depicted. From the beginning, their purpose has been classroom instruction; however, they hold great potential for many ministerial environments.
It has been an incredible blessing to combine my faith with my God-given skills to create these illustrations. I hope that the comics will help many Christians plant and nurture their love for God.
[Here is a link to a four-minute video made at the "Images of Grace" exhibition at the Ylvisaker Fine Arts Center at Bethany Lutheran College.
Here too is a link to the entire hour-long gallery talk on that occasion. ]
Return to original language with "show original" button at top left.
Discussion
I would love to see more realistic Biblical artwork (especially if it was licensable for video), but sometimes I'm happy just to find anything. (A few months ago I was searching for an image of Solomon's Palace and maybe I need more practice with Google, but I was only able to find a single image and I wasn't even sure if I could use it.) Sometimes visuals, even cartoony ones, can be a huge help to convey concepts or help hold interest. I could definitely see work like this being used to catch someones eye on social media and start conversation.
We can certainly encourage our artists to consider more substantive or realistic works, but I also wouldn't discourage the creation of more stylistic artwork.
I would be curious how this is being paid for? Is the Wels World Mission paying the artist or is there a donor group?
WELS Multi-Language Productions pays the artists a flat fee for each completed image on a monthly basis. All artists in this project agree to terms. As far as I can tell, this project has been a trial run. It seems likely that more projects like this will continue to happen for other mission fields.
The overarching idea of portraying Bible stories through art is one of the main items that seems to be lacking in churches today. As you’ve mentioned, there are so many devotional and reflectional journals available in the world today, but much less art. We can’t expect everyone to be literate, but that doesn’t mean we can’t share the Bible with these people. Visual art is such a captivating way to express the Bible’s main ideas for a wide variety of ages and literary knowledge. Before reading this article, I never realized just how important visual art is for learning, either on its own or in conjunction with reading stories. This article certainly opened my eyes to a glimpse of all the different forms and styles of artwork that can be used in order to share the truths of the Bible. Thank you!
After reading your article, there was one major question that started me thinking. I have always been a huge fan of the children’s Bibles and the work they do to incorporate comic-like visuals with the main Sunday school lessons found in the Bible. Seeing this comic-like artwork you and others do for many children, both local and in foreign countries, what was the inspiration behind this style of visual art? Much art is just one single picture portraying the main idea or key moment of the entire story, so what exactly brought about the idea of the comic book style? And maybe I simply didn’t catch the reasoning behind it all, but I love the fact that it is a comic book structure because it allows more details to be incorporated than having just one picture.
Thanks again for all the work you put into this project! It truly is awesome to see how God uses art to connect with people of various ages and teach them His Word!
We chose to move forward using a comic style for several reasons. Part of it is the visual appeal. Comics are often exciting to look at, and the Bible is the most exciting story to share! So it seems only fitting to communicate God's word in a way that people are drawn to and engaged by. Comics also have an established language. There are particular conventions that are extremely effective for chronological storytelling. As you pointed out, fitting multiple pictures into one page is one of those elements. And, like in a movie, a comic allows for many different "camera" angles. Artists can use close-ups for a more personal feeling, zoom way out to give viewers the setting, or place the "camera" low to the ground to ramp up the drama.
Thank you for your kind words and interest!
As a special education major at MLC, the first thing that occurred to me when viewing your article was that not only is this outreach technique useful for those who were not fortunate enough to have an education, but also how amazing could it be to benefit those in the special needs community who struggle with literacy? This is such an amazing program and it has the potential to affect people more than I realized at first. 21% of adults in the U.S. are illiterate while a whole 54% of adults read below a sixth-grade reading level (U.S. Department of Education). Imagine how much independence it would give a person to be able to “read” one of your bible stories by themselves without struggling over the words.
I wondered if Pastor Terry Schultz and the WELS world missions team thought about selling or distributing these comics in the United State purposes like these, which are unique from your original goals but still make strong use of these new materials. It could be a great way for outreach here in our own country as well. And a great resource for teachers.
Thanks again for the amazing work you are doing!
I would love to see the comics used in America as well! These images are extremely versatile, they could be beneficial in so many settings. I am not in any position to control the distribution of these images, but I can encourage you to contact the WELS Multi-Language Productions here: https://wels.net/contact-us/
Also, be sure to peruse the existing resources they offer!
My mom and I recently visited the art exhibit at Bethany Lutheran College to view the artwork for this Zambia project because we had heard it from one of the artists, Abby Nelson, who is a good friend of ours. While walking around the exhibit, I was constantly asking myself questions relating to the creation of the illustration, such as “What tools did the artist use?” and “What was the process of making these images?” I especially liked how these questions of mine were answered in your article. I was interested in reading about the specific process and tools you used which differed slightly from the other artists.
After reading your article, I had a couple of questions about this project. In your article, you explained how these Bible story comics come from the Sunday School curriculum. That is clearly evident in all of these illustrations as we are familiar with these stories that come from Scripture. After reading this section, I was curious how each artist chose which story to illustrate. Did you have a limited amount of options? Did the congregations in Zambia give you specific accounts to illustrate that they wanted to use in their Sunday Schools? Regardless of how you chose each story, it is a great blessing for these people in Zambia to be able to use these to learn more about the Bible.
Thank you for the time and effort you have put into creating these illustrations. Your images and those of the other artists will be a great blessing to the congregations in Zambia as they are working to spread the gospel.
From the beginning, Pastor Terry Schultz has had a list of Bible stories from the Zambian Sunday Schools for us to illustrate. The curriculum is on a rotation. Currently, we are working our way through one year's worth of lessons. In that way, we are limited in choices, but we plan to eventually complete the entire curriculum. At our initial meeting, we began claiming stories to illustrate. You can picture choosing teams for PE class. Each artist chose a few stories to begin with, based on personal preference. Terry encouraged everyone to choose stories they feel passionate about. This helped keep up the momentum and quality of work. As we continue, artists claim new stories to replace the ones they complete. This way there is a steady workflow that fits the pace of each individual.
Thank you for your time and attention! I am so glad you were able to make it to the exhibit at Bethany :)
We discussed the skin tones of both Jesus and the other characters in the Bible. However, not every artist was present at the initial meeting when this discussion took place. Some artists joined the project partway through. As I mentioned, it was specifically requested that Jesus' skin tone be white. This ties into a recognizable figure that extends far beyond our project. However, the rest of the characters may be depicted much more accurately. The cultural and ethnic accuracy from piece to piece varies as different artists are relying on references to varying degrees. When a reference is not used, one has to rely on their own knowledge. And I can admit that in a time crunch, it feels faster to work without researching references, however, I do think the quality and accuracy suffer as a result. Thank you for both your comment and for the work and attention put into this conference!
I admire the work you put into illustrating the stories of the Bible to children accurately, but yet in a fun and exciting way. I also find it veryimpressive that you found a way to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to a completely different audience, the people of Zambia. Many countries throughout the world do not have the ability to understand literacy-based because they do not have the same resources we do. We are very fortunate in the United States. By illustrating biblical stories, it allows more people in many other countries to hear the word of God and learn it. What you have done is truly amazing.
I think that it is so awesome that you were able to find something that you can use your talents for and that you are so passionate about. My question to you is, when did you know that this was your calling to illustrate the bible into stories for other counties?
Thank you for being a part of this amazing movement of spreading the gospel throughout the world!
This job came to me out of the blue, I did not intentionally set out on a path to illustrate Bible stories for other countries. And so I would say I felt excited about the job as soon as it was explained and offered, and I felt compelled to work on the project. I never had a specific, isolated moment in which I felt "called". I would consider this job one of my many callings, rather than my only calling. For example, I am also a student and it is my job to work on my education. I am also a daughter and friend, called to care for people and encourage them. I don't have an exact time that I felt called to any of these vocations, instead, it feels like I look back and see that God has been leading me in a direction for a long time.
Thank you for your kind words!
While I was in grade school my school was able to have our Friday chapel offerings go towards school books for children in Zambia. Which included basic school subjects, and biblical books. I remember I was interested in learning about that mission project we were participating in. My principal gave a more in-depth description of the school in Zambia and why we were sending books there. I was intrigued and wanted to help in any way that I could because children were getting to learn about school subjects but they then were also getting Jesus through the books. Ever since then I have loved hearing about ways we are spreading the Word of God around the world.
I understand and love the idea of sharing the Word of God with others by pictures/visuals. But I did notice My question though would be how do we know if just seeing the pictures actually is giving the people the right message/understanding? Are the books pretty strictly used in settings where there's a teacher to explain and expand the basic illustrated elements of each story? Or if they're used for broader, less personal Evangelism, is the loss of context/information something you've discussed?
Thank you again for the art you are creating to share the Word of God with others and how it can help people learn.
Sounds like you had a great grade school! I wonder what that school in Zambia is up to now? Maybe you could go and visit someday...
Each two-page comic set comes directly from the Sunday School curriculum. The teachers know the stories and the context surrounding them, so they can use these illustrations to visually supplement their primarily verbal lessons. The artists used Werner Franzmann's Bible History Commentary to make sure they were illustrating the key touchpoints for a Sunday School teacher. The images are not meant to replace Scripture, but to make it more accessible.
Thank you for your thoughts and kind words!
Thank you both for this very well-written explanation of this project and your work on the project itself. I think that reaching this very pressing need for the Gospel in a way that speaks to the people of Zambia rather than trying to work through other WELS resources is wonderful. I really appreciate the involvement of the younger generation in this project as it is especially the younger generation we are trying to reach.
You emphasized the “sturdy foundation” on which this project is built, striving for both captivating storytelling and historical accuracy. This is so important and I’m glad you shared it with us so that we can understand the time and research that must go into a project like this. You briefly mentioned your research process in your writing and I’m curious about the research process that takes place before starting a new bible story comic. Was any part of this process collaborative and did you use any other resources besides the Bible commentary you mentioned above?
Thank you again for your wonderful work on this project and for shining the bright light of your faith in this way!
I also appreciate the trust being placed in young Christian artists and it makes me incredibly hopeful for the future.
As far as research went: some was shared and some was personal. This entire project is managed on a Trello board, with one section dedicated to shared resources. This section contains things like references of ancient clothing, character designs, how drapery works, and images to consider imitating. We also all used Franzmann's Commentary. I personally used Pinterest quite a bit to collect reference images. I like to gather poses, comic page layouts, traditional clothing, buildings, all sorts of things :) Different stories require different research. Some include more architectural elements, and some more "props" and that can lead you into some deep rabbit holes of historical websites. Then after collecting, I'll start playing with different elements in my sketchbook. But the research stage is so important. It makes the next steps so much easier.
Thank you for your constant encouragement and wonderful thoughts!
I love these artworks! They beautifully capture each story vividly through color and expression. These depictions work very effectively to show amazing and meaningful Bible stories and their true meanings, while being shown at a level all will understand. As a nanny to a young three-year-old who can not yet read, picture books are vital in entertainment as well as learning and developing her skills to read. Bible stories in particular are great vessels used in many different ways to grow faith and knowledge of the Bible. These artworks can be beneficial to not only younger crowds but just the same for the intended people of Zambia. God’s Word needs to be shared, and the barrier of different languages creates many challenges. With these art pieces, the complexity of translation is eliminated. I admire the willingness to accept this challenge with the words, “Here am I, send me”.
As you illustrated the particular stories you were assigned or chose, was there any specific artistic challenge that stands out as memorable in your process? Some detail or question that pushed you to think or design creatively? I can tell there are thousands of decisions you have to make with each story, but I wondered if you could tell us about one such puzzle.
Thank you for showing a new way we can outreach to crowds who might not be able to understand God’s Word in the same exact way we do!
I found the most difficult part of creating these illustrations to be the page composition. With some stories, it takes quite a bit of careful thought to condense the content into only two pages. But with all of them, it is a challenge to find a page layout that is both effective and nice to look at. I like to try to explore some unconventional page layouts, to keep the pages interesting to look at, and to serve the story. For example, in the first page of "Jesus and the Children", the oval with the annoyed disciples interrupts the rectangular frame, the same way they interrupt the children and mothers.
A composition I struggled with for a while was the second page of "Wedding at Cana". I wanted it to be one big scene, the same way the first page is. My reasoning was that everything in that story took place quite quickly, and so fewer divisions between images would cause the reader to interpret the image as a moment. However, I couldn't seem to find an elegant way for this to happen. And so I ended up dividing the page, but I am still quite happy with the end result.
Thank you for your kindness and curiosity!
I love the idea to use art to tell the story of Jesus in the mission field. I am not good at learning new languages, and I’m sure that many people share in that struggle. God gave us the blessing of art, it is so fitting that we are able to use art to share how God saved us through the use of art. Art, as you said, is a universal language that can jump the language barrier in a single bound.
One question I had - what resource or resources did you find most useful as you studied the text in advance of creating your images? Was a personal resource like a pastoral conversation most useful or did you select an especially helpful reference, like the People's Bible series or another set? I'd be interested to know what helped you grow in confidence about your understanding of each section before/while you tackled illustrating that portion.
Thank you for showing the amazing works of art depicting bible stories, and for explaining how they can be used in the mission field.
I used Werner Franzmann's Bible History Commentaries a ton. These were recommended by Pastor Terry Schultz, and proved to be incredibly useful for this project. They are written specifically for Sunday School teachers, and so they helped me understand what a Sunday School teacher needs. They also helped me choose which key moments from each story to illustrate.
Thank you for your thoughts!
While reading your article, I noticed that you commented that not everyone is literate about how bible stories are portrayed today. It just made me realize that we are fortunate enough to understand, and we should take for granted what is there for us because others, like in Zambia, aren’t able to understand it. I found it interesting that someone realized that the stories weren’t portrayed in ways everyone understood. They figured out a way that all people would be able to understand, and that is by pictures and a genius way to show the story in a comic book way with no words but pictures that speak for themselves. It was exciting reading about the process it took to make Jesus because there are many pictures depicting him and the reasoning behind why you chose what you did.
You were talking about the process it took to make your comic book and the challenges you faced while making it. Coming up with this idea is a huge undertaking, and how it can affect many people's lives. How long did it take you to make these comics? As a nonartist - I don't have much perspective on that question - from the time you start drawing to submission, is that often a matter of days or weeks or months? Also, how intense were the revisions requested by those using/supporting the development of your comics? Did they have tweaks and small adjustments from your first submission or did they ask for broad, significant changes after a draft or first effort?
I would like to thank you for all the work that you are doing and the work that has been done through it. You are reaching many people in other ways which otherwise wouldn’t be possible. Your job is incredible, and I hope you continue on this endeavor and keep growing your comet selection so that you can reach others with the word.
Just to clarify: this project is far bigger than me. I am one of many artists working to make stand-alone comics. It also was not my idea, you can thank Pastor Terry Schultz for this wonderful undertaking!
As far as the process goes... Estimating the time it takes me to make something has never been my strong suit. What I can tell you is that I need at least a day between researching/notetaking and sketching. This lets the information sink in better. After I do a bunch of small sketches, I pull out the nice paper and do the final sketch. This is sent in for approval. Approval can sometimes take a few days, and sometimes there are considerable revisions to be made. We try to sort out all confusion n this sketch stage, when it's easy to change things. Once the sketch is approved, I outline the illustrations with a brush and ink. Then I add color with watercolor and/or colored pencils and submit it for approval again.
Thank you for your thoughts!