Icons & Iconography

[Celadonite]

Currently I'm working on a little icon of St. Gabriel the Archangel. Pic below:



I've laid down the roshkrish for all parts, painted in the background, the halo and inscriptions (traditionally the inscriptions "should" be done last, I tend to do them when I find myself in an un-caffeinated moment with relatively steady hand!)

The halo is zirconium praesodym yellow, which makes a vibrant halo that will practically glow in the dark...it truly looks wonderful against the darker field of the face. I'm currently enamoured with using Luberon Burnt Umber for the roshkrish of faces. The picture shows the first highlight, which will become more modelled as layers of paint are added. For first highlight I've used TinLead Yellow, mixed with a bit of English Red and Alizarin Crimson light. You'll notice several locks of hair where the paint has "broken", being applied more yellow-white...these will be corrected as further paint layers are applied, nothing to worry about.

The outergarment is cobalt green, and I lightly floated a very dilute mix of Moroccan Red Ochre over it. I'm not certain if it truly added anything to the green, but it didn't detract from it, so the experiment was a success.

The wings are Moroccan Red Ochre, with Zirk. Praes. Yellow details. I expect there'll be continued development of the wings, but I haven't certainly decided.

Background is Polish Gold Ochre (one of my favorite colors).

Borders: main sections are Napthol Red, Hematite, and a SkyBlue pigment I bought from EarthPigments. It's a bit more maroonish than the photo shows.

The corner pieces occurred due to an accident. When I was engraving the lines in the gesso, I seriously overshot one of the marks, and had to determine how to salvage the panel. I determined to create a cornerpiece at each corner. They're painted in Moroccan Red, multi-layers which causes them to appear a distinct color from the wings.

There's always ways to create various color effects using the same pigment, according to how you apply it, the quantity of pigment added to the emulsion, and what colors it is adjacent to. Sometimes you can allow a paint mix that contains several pigments to "break" as you're applying it, revealing two to three slightly distinct colors. (Different weights of pigments settle out of a mix over time if you don't keep stirring them, subtly changing the color of the top layer of paint in your palette.) This will sometimes create wonderful effects.)

The white "speckles" on the green garment are pinholes in the gesso. This is to be avoided, but in practice it occurs. There are several reasons it can occur, I beleive in this instance the panel was too cold--I should have slightly warmed it before applying gesso. But, of course, I didn't. Not to worry, learned scholars point out that Botticelli's "Primavera" (done in egg tempera) has gesso riddled with pinholes.

The pinholes will dissapear from the view of any but the most discerning critic over the course of completion as paint layers are added and are not a problem worth losing sleep over.

It is what it am!

[Celadonite]

Note the wooden "bridge" spanning the icon in the pic above.

Bridges are exceedingly useful when painting icons, to steady your hand when painting and to avoid resting your hand on drying paint. Bridges can be bought from most any artist supply house, but they are rather pricey and there's hardly a good reason to buy them when they're so easy to make.

I have several sizes of bridges I've made, for use with varying sizes of icons. The only considerations are that they be built to be stable, that they clear the surface of the icon, and that they are long enough to span the width of the icon. Not rocket science, and by making your own bridges you'll save some decent money that is better spent on pigments (or food!)

[Celadonite]

Several more layers have been added to the green outer robe. Beginning with the cobalt green (photo below), I've added highlights of titanium white, washes of Bohemian Green Earth, more highlight, several floats of malachite, and a highlight of zinc white.

The red inner garment, of which we see only a piece, has had some nondescript decoration of minium to strengthen it and bring it forward a bit. The wings have also had a bit of minium applied to them, for similiar reasons.

[Celadonite]

Having decided I wanted a darker more developed green than I'd arrived at with the malachite washes, I put several very dilute washes of celadonite onto the outer robe. I suspect this is very nearly the finished green, awaiting only some final highlighting.

The hair has had highlighting of tin-lead yellow mixed with minium covered with a dilute wash of Italian dark ochre--this actually has warmed the color a bit. It'll be somewhat golden time it's finished, so I'm working slowly towards that effect.

The highlighting on the face and neck is a mix of tin-lead yellow and minium. The neck is underemphasised so that attention will be drawn more towards the face, which is brighter.

[Celadonite]

Please Note: some pigments such as tin-lead yellow and minium contain lead or other toxic substances and should be handled carefully to avoid ingestion or inhalation. Various authorities recommend the useage of respirators and gloves when handling such materials.

I leave it to the reader to determine for themselves if they desire to employ such pigments and how they prefer to handle them if employed.

I content myself with festooning such jars of pigments with colorful little yard sale stickers, upon which I've drawn skull and crossbones to remind myself during the carefree abandonment of painting that the materials I'm about to take the lid off of are considered hazardous and that I shouldn't toss them into the air in a fit of wild enthusiasm or empty them into my mouth.

Don't eat/drink/smoke while using them, and wash hands thoroughly after you've finished painting.

If kids or pets have access to the studio, keep the pigments out or reach, locked up. (Valen the Vandal can't access my stored toxic pigments, and fortunately she's not managed to eat an icon containing them.)

Pretty standard stuff, just a reminder.

Quite a few people suffer from a morbid anxiety regarding toxic pigments, fearing them much as one might fear a cobra. I've talked with several artists who feel this way.

My experience has been that pigments possess no volition of their own, no emotion, no sentience, bear no malice towards you and like a bottle of laundry bleach won't in any way hurt you if you don't misuse them or accidentally spill them.

Respect and carefulness, that's the ticket.

Not fear.

[Anna Maria]

Thank you for the encouragement, but I would have to tackle my inner luddite first. Being on this forum is already challenging me to use the computer more than I normally would.
Illuminated Manuscript painting is easy compared to Icons. Mostly I paint flowers from the manuscripts, it's all purely decorative but at the same time highly absorbing, relaxing and also exacting. At it's best I express contentment with my life.
Actually, there is a demo of how this is done in the Egg Tempera, Gouache Forum.
I continue to enjoy your work. Anna Maria

[Celadonite]

Today an icon "kit" of St. Joseph--with drawings, color instructions and other written materials--arrived in the mail.

Peter Pearson, author of "A Brush With God" and "Another Brush With God: Further Conversations About Icons" offers many different such kits, at very reasonable prices, at: http://www.nb.net/~pearson/kits.htm

His website is quite interesting, and the large number of icon kits he offers are a treasure trove of material for any aspiring iconographer.

Father Pearson has chosen to work in acrylics, but the information and expertise he presents are quite transferable to work in egg tempera.

[Celadonite]

Above: two 9" x 12" panels with different drawings of St. Joseph from Peter Pearson which I've transferred to the gesso. Transfer was accomplished by darkening the backs of the drawings with pencil lead then centering and taping them on the panels and carefully tracing the artwork. Lines were strengthened by going over them with pencil after.

Next step is engraving the lines, then erasing all traces of pencil marks.

[Anna Maria]

Hi Celadonite, here I am again, following your thread with unwavering interest. The "kits" are a great idea. I checked them out on the website, but alas, they have no pictures attached. By now you are probably into painting one of the Josephs. Anna Maria

[Celadonite]

Originally Posted by Anna Maria

Hi Celadonite, here I am again, following your thread with unwavering interest. The "kits" are a great idea. I checked them out on the website, but alas, they have no pictures attached. By now you are probably into painting one of the Josephs. Anna Maria

The "kits" from Fr. Pearson--which are packages of drawings with colored xerox copies of the finished work included, along with suggestions as to colors to be employed, are of fairly standard iconographical motifs--it just takes time to learn these types. Hopefully one day soon time and inclination will coincide and I'll write a bit about such

I certainly didn't mean to imply, though, that there was but a single source for Byzantine drawings on the internet! I hope you didn't interpret it that way.

Let me remedy that possible misunderstanding forthwith.

Their are several large collections on English language websites of downloadable drawings/patterns upon which one may base their icons.

The largest source of drawings in an English language page which I've found is: http://www.eikonografos.com/album/th...s.php?album=62
There are over 1,000 Byzantine drawings available for download at this site. Also 100's of excellent color reproductions of icons. A superb resource.

Also: Go to: http://www.icon-art.info/topic.php?lng=en&top_id=5
There are dozens and dozens of drawings under "Tracings and Transfers" to be found in the individual topics listed there, Old Testament and New.

Such as: Virgin of Vladimir, which offers 6 transfers/drawings of this well known iconographical motif. Caution, many of the transfers/drawings on this site are mirror-image. But, they are noted as such, and to ready them for use will require only "reversing" them with a painting program to their proper orientation.
http://www.icon-art.info/topic.php?l...=old&mode =pp

Also: http://www.betsyporter.com/patterns.html which has over 50 icon patterns. (Betsy is a most congenial person, and has over the months answered many of my most pressing questions via email. Her website contains more practical information than any other English-language iconography website I've discovered, period, hands-down.)

I found the quality of Fr. Pearson's "kit" to be good, a useful resource, but by no means are they the sole source of patterns for iconography.

As to the matter of using patterns in iconography: "Podlinniki" were pattern-books of traditional icons which were passed down in various historical iconographical schools. Iconographers were encouraged to use these patterns which were established and traditional as the basis for the icons they produced. This assurred an adherence to tradition. Colors, likewise, were standardized according to the holy figure portrayed. Though, in practice, there are infinite variations upon the theme of red/blue/yellow and the painter was somewhat free to interpret this in terms of hue/tone/shade within the required color.

Apparently, only two historical podlinniki books have survived to modern times. One is the Stroganoff edition, the name of the other I currently forget. They have been reprinted, but currently are out of print and are available only at ridiculously huge prices from vampiric used-book sales outlets. (There's something innately wrong with the idea that a used paperback printed in the 1990's could be offered for sale at a price more expensive than a used book printed in the 1500's, In My Opinion.)

[Celadonite]

I've been at work gilding the two St. Joseph icon's halos.

On the left in the picture below is a halo done in 23 karat gold. Pretty straightforward.

On the right is a halo that was first done in aluminum leaf, which proved unsatisfactory to me. I vigorously used a Black Pearl eraser (any eraser would have sufficed) to scrub/erase as much of the alum. leaf off as possible. You'll see remnants of it, with underlying red bole, on the right hemisphere of the halo. I'm leafing over it with gold.




A closeup of the blighted halo:



Everything looks rather nasty and ragged as of yet, but that will resolve. Notice the red "stain" from bole dust raised by sanding the bole. That will be covered nicely by colors and won't at all interfere with the end results.

I like to show the messiness that can occur during the writing of an icon. I won't say that such messiness is inexorably necessary, or even good--only that it's likely or it wouldn't be occurring. The few webpages and books relating to the writing/painting of icons which I've found all detail the various stages in pristine perfection. Smudges, smears, stains, ragged leaf aren't spoken of or shown.

Perhaps such neatness is attainable without revision before the chronicling photographs are taken, but I rather doubt it. Just as there's a certain degree of chaos and mess that occurs within the various stages of the building of a house, so there is within the production of an icon. The nature of the materials involved and the techniques of working with them imply this.

I point this out to encourage any aspiring iconographer, who like me is working without benefit of a teacher. Don't be alarmed when you encounter a mess never mentioned (even in passing) within the learned tomes. Persevere, chaos will be resolved into order.

Regarding the aluminum leaf, a few words.

I'd purchased a couple books of it as it's cheap, and I was hoping it would suffice in many instances in place of the much much MUCH more expensive gold or silver.

What I've found is that aluminum leaf doesn't handle nearly as nicely as does gold leaf. It behaves quite differently. Also, if I should happen to use alum. again, I would add a bit more hide glue into the bole than I do for gold leaf, or perhaps a very little bit of honey, to make the bole stickier. The aluminum leaf resolutely did not want to stick to the bole. I managed to get it to do so, but the finished work was awful: cheap silver paint applied with a poor brush on a bad day couldn't have looked worse.

However, the gold is forgiving and eager to adhere to anything, so is readily covering up the dog's dinner I'd made.

[Celadonite]

On the Delicate Matter of Seasons & Static Electrical Charges as they Relate to the Handling Characteristics of Gold Leaf

'Tis Winter where I dwell. The humidity is quite low. The promulgation of static charges is thus profoundly encouraged. A ten foot walk across the rug and the flicking of a light switch releases a static charge with an audible "Snap" and resounding "Ouch!".

I've observed in my practice that this increased potential for static electricity in the Winter causes gold leaf to be much wilder in it's behaviour than in other seasons of the year. Extra care and fiddling is necessary to successfully remove it from it's book and apply it.

Just a reminiscence and a caution I've not found elsewhere, and so share here.

[Celadonite]

Originally Posted by Celadonite

The "kits" from Fr. Pearson--which are packages of drawings with colored xerox copies of the finished work included, along with suggestions as to colors to be employed, are of fairly standard iconographical motifs--it just takes time to learn these types. Hopefully one day soon time and inclination will coincide and I'll write a bit about such

I hadn't planned today to begin speaking of the many types of icons that there are, put "time and inclination" have unexpectedly coincided, and so I shall begin. It's a huge subject, and what little I'll mention will hardly come close to exhausting the topic.

There are standard configurations, themes, types of icons relating to Christ, the Mother of God, the Saints and Biblical events of the Old and New Testaments. Their are also icons of New Martyrs and Saints which have been approved in recent years.

Within a type, such as the Virgin of Vladimir, there will be an overall and necessary similiarity in every icon written portraying that type. Yet, each icon will inevitably be slightly different within this overwhelming similiarity, due to the difference in the hand and eye of each individual iconogapher, the materials available to write it and the relative skill with which they were employed.



Yet, the discerning viewer will have little difficulty realizing that the crude and inadequate icon of the Virgin of Vladimir that I might write (pic above, the 2nd icon I ever wrote) relates, however imperfectly, to the original icon which was produced in Constantinople in the 1100's and now resides in the Tretyakov Gallery in Russia. Likewise a copy of it written in the 1700's will obviously relate both to the original and to my beginner's attempt. Each is of the exact same type, the Virgin of Vladimir.

Thus we may say that the Virgin of Vladimir (Vladimirskaya) is a recognizable type or iconal motif.

The Anastasis (Resurrection, or "Harrowing of Hell") depicts Christ having smashed the gates of hell and freeing Adam, Eve, and the saints that were bound in darkness therein. It is a type of icon, well known, and any icon portraying it will have certain necessary similiarities--Christ trodding over the smashed gates of hell with Satan bound in chains beneath. Christ reaching out to Adam and Eve who are reaching towards Him, and various old testament prophets/saints waiting nearby. There are many pages relating to the Anastasis online, and many examples of the icon. This is but a single link, perhaps not the best, but quite adequate for anyone who's interested to begin learning of the Anastasis icon. One will also note in the many pictures of it there, the obvious similiarities in each instance of it--there is no chance of mistaking it for any other type of icon, each instance of it is a portrayal of the Anastasis and of no other iconal type: http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/...jt_7/cross.htm

This is but a beginning of an explanation of types of icons, there are hundreds of them. But the principle of each icon within a type remaining faithful to the other examples within the type can be the basis of your learning to recognize by name what you are looking at when you view an icon or in understanding what iconal type is referred to when you read it's name on a webpage or in a book.

[Celadonite]

Roshkrish (basecoat) has been applied to the St. Joseph icon. Icons in egg tempera are worked from dark to light, so the color of the roshkrish is always much darker in the beginning than the finished color will be.

Lines will be reestablished next, and chaos will slowly be resolved into order as painting continues.

[Celadonite]

Several stages of highlights and floats have been applied. I'm experimenting with not blending the edges of the highlights but "terracing" them. Curious to see how this turns out.

I'm having trouble with the various floats over-running their boundaries, flowing from the garments onto the skin areas, so I've decided to complete the robes before working on the skin-tones. This "overflow" is generally not a problem while painting an icon, but in this particular instance it has been.

Perhaps I've not engraved the gesso as deeply as usual, or possibly I'm adding more water to my floats than previously---the latter is likely the culprit as I'm using very opaque pigments such as Chrome Oxide Green mixed into Titanium White and having to dilute them heavily with water to achieve some degree of transparency.

The border has two floats of Moroccan Red Ochre (Kremer) applied and will have more applications. I quite like that pigment, and though I'm not mixing it with other pigments here, I've found it works very well when mixed with Napthol Red or a touch of Alizarin Crimson. Some very glowing colors can be achieved.