“Heroes of the Bible” Posters

Neil’s Bible poster comments:

First time I saw them, I wanted them for my classroom.  Tired of your typical stained-glass depictions, the enjoyed the modern heroic style of these posters, and realized they would say something important to my kids as well.  The poster style looks like the current bold heroic style found in video game art and movie posters. In fact, each poster’s art was digitally created. This technology allows the artist to create shades and textures, and make the skin and hair look real. The artist’s pallet is somewhat dark, which makes certain highlighted features really stand out. Paul’s poster is the best example of this, …as he seems bathed in a heavenly light from above.

For classroom use, they fit nicely in a standard 3 x 2 frame from a discount store.

Each poster has a “hyper real” look down to their eyelashes. Their skin and hands and eyes are vibrant and life-like, not pasty and flat like most Sunday School art depicts them.

Ruth first caught my eye. What a determined look.

First time I saw Peter’s poster, I found myself surprised to see him “young” because I had imagined him OLD.

Jonah and Paul’s posters show them as young and bold, and why not!  Maybe we’re too used to seeing them portrayed as slight men.  Paul walked everywhere, and sewed TENTS for a living. Look more closely at Paul’s poster and you’ll see his hand with a quill and his prison cell as the background.

Joseph is my favorite: Looking to the horizon, sure footed. His robe caught in up in the breeze.

I really liked Daniel a lot, and then started to notice that EACH LION had a different look on it’s face, a different reaction. A whole lesson there!  The artist chose to draw the lions in an old-style so that they look like they are ‘old art’. Daniel’s hands are simply powerful.

David looks so skinny and young, but then you notice the RESOLVE in his clenched fist. The detail on Goliath is something too. As with all these posters, their skin has texture and depth and you can see individual hairs.

Mary is the one most people have the biggest and sometimes most “controversial” reaction to. ME TOO.  Her eyes are almost violet, and her skin is porcelain white but with realistic texture. I.E.  The artist has painted her in a surrealistic style. That’s like a lot of Mary art, and hero-art in video games.

Prior to putting these posters in our catalog, I asked several educator and pastor friends to comment on them. Each had something to say about Mary, but strangely, none entirely negative. They were just TAKEN ABACK, which is the point of art.  One friend wrote, “She’s other-worldly in this poster, unlike the others in the set. This is the Mary of the Magnificat, glowing, pondering, looking into the future with ethereal piercing eyes“.   A pastor wondered out loud if her porcelain-white skin was meant to look statuesque.  When I first showed Mary to my young adult daughters, they thought Mary was “gorgeous” and “intense.”

Of all 12 posters, Mary’s is the most visually arresting, and perhaps, a matter of taste. Joseph, David, and Daniel are the best looking. I love how Paul’s chains, and the dramatic pose and lighting make him look like he’s going to pop off the poster. I also like that see the men as “young” and not old guys.

The scripture quotes at the bottom of each poster are KJV and just enough to tell you something about that hero. The lettering is small and muted so that one would have to read it close up. Each scripture section has the hero’s name and approximate time in which they lived.

Order carefully. We don’t take returns on these posters (unless defective) and here’s why. By the nature of the product, once you unroll them they are difficult to re-roll and easy to crease …like any poster. This is why we recommend you mount or frame them immediately.

Read these articles:  

What should Bible characters look like?  …teaching with Bible art.

Some people have pre-conceived notions of what people in Biblical times should look like. The genetic fact is, skin tone, facial features, even eye-color in the time of Jesus was the product of migrations and conquering armies. Lotta Greek and Roman genes floating around the biblical gene-pool. Read the article for more insights.

How to Teach with Bible Maps

Read: Why I love teaching with maps. How they work in the brain (even for non-readers), lesson examples and teaching techniques for using Bible maps, and Why I picked THESE maps over others on the market.  https://sundaysoftware.com/site/teaching-with-bible-maps/