Sunday, April 17, 2011

process of icon study


As you can see the process is overwhelming! We had quite a debate about the skin tones of the Christ image.
At first we had the idea that His skin would be shining white and golden, as glorious as possible. But after some applications of an ivory base color I began to think, that this would inevitably look like a caucasian Christ and I want to avoid that stereotype.  I went back to the study I had been doing for all the weeks of Lent of traditional Orthodox Icon painting.
The skin tones of Christ and Saints are a base of an olive/ochre  darkish color. On top of that usually deep reddish shadows and some warm yellow and finally descriptive white highlights added to bring out a glow. In these photos above, you can see I am laying/scumbling in a greenish/yellow ochre color. I have been studying my icon books for days now thinking about where to go next with the colors.

Here is a more traditional  Christ the Pantocrator icon image. (not my work) Artist unknown.