Icons & Iconography

[Celadonite]

I've recently learnt of the existence of a special type of icon painting that achieved popularity in Romania, Poland, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries--icons painted on glass. The painting is viewed from "behind"--from the unpainted side of the glass. Thus the technical process of painting must be done in reverse, with the foreground highlights done first and working backwards from how one would typically paint until completion.

The technique, as best I can understand, is called in German "Hinterglasbilder"--reverse painting on glass. Combined with Verre églomisé, gold leaf gilded onto the back of glass, it produces amazingly beautiful pieces.

All this by way of a warning that I propose to personally explore these methods very soon.

Doubtless you will within a few days here be seeing examples of my foray into hinterglas icon painting and suffering through tons of excessive verbiage as I commit enthusiastic-but-well-meaning injustice to the technique!

The linked video is part one of two videos of priests in Romania painting icons in this technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuvKYES1TdY

[Celadonite]

GLASS ICONS--First Experience--2 hours or slightly less from beginning to end.




The setup---everything's reversed, so your drawing should be reversed.

1. Place glass over drawing/pattern. I used shungite black, mixed with straight ET--no water--and traced the lines from the drawing onto the glass. Strengthen lines where paint is thin on the glass. Do pupils of eyes now, too.




Closeup of finished (and slightly smeared) figure. The view we see here, facing out from the frame, is actually the BACK of the painting...all the action's occurred on the other side of the glass. Everything's reversed, working back from simple highlights (which I botched...would NOT try highlighting with white, but instead a tone of the basic skin-color)

2. Lay in red dots on perimeter of halo. Paint halo.

3. paint whites of eyes, lay white over red dots/perimeter of halo, white of star, etc.

3. Painted irises blue. Mixed same blue with red previously used to arrive at color of robe.

4. Painted skintones. Used Ochre Havane (orange ochre) with some titanium white mixed in. This is where one should make several tints of the basic skin tone and lay in the highlights, before applying the mass skin-tone. Very slight variations in tints, with brightest in most highly highlighted areas, working outwards in layers of less strong tints.

5. Put down a very watery polish gold ochre background, then seized with inspiration (or madness?) applied cheap copper foil over still wet ochre float. Not smart, should have let it dry first. I managed to smear the paint. Surprisingly, the picture looks fine in real life for all this distressed paint action:



As soon as I can lay paws on more cheap/old picture frames/glass I definitely intend to pursue this technique further!

[Celadonite]

**********NOTICE***************

There's going to be a hiatus in my contributions to this thread as I reorganize my studio and trim the sails for my journey "behind-the-glass".

If any iconographer or student iconographer comes along and cares to nurture this thread during my abscence, please feel free to do so. It's got a fair beginning, but perhaps you could bring some much needed order into it. Don't stand on ceremony, just jump in and do your thing.


If anyone has questions for me regarding technical stuff, or an icon book to trade or sell, email me.


Thanks to all who've stopped by and participated!

[Celadonite]

Above is a glass icon of St. Joseph I did yesterday. About 4 hours from start to finish. Highlighting will perhaps develop in later examples. For now I'm learning about painting on glass and am quite content with simplicity.

I'm using straight egg emulsion, one part yolk to three parts white wine in the mixing of my pigments. I'm finding that painting on glass requires a bit more pigment than egg tempera technique on gesso. Thin floats and the building up of colors are only somewhat possible using glass, and I'm avoiding them to remain faithful to the naive quality that is an inherent characteristic of this style. It's also a welcomed respite from the more involved technique required in traditional icon painting.

Ordinary heavy tinfoil serves as the metal field of the halo. The glass/frame are cheap, from a dollar store. It works just fine.

[Celadonite]

[catherineand]

Hi, how very strange to come across this thread today of all days.
I haven't posted anything in a very long time, but just had to post something once I saw this.
I tried my hand at iconography afew years ago, self taught ,but got very frustrated because I couldn't find the materials I needed. I tried as much as I could then gave up.
Three years ago my son was in a very bad accident,if they hadn't found him when they did he would have died through loss of blood.
As soon as we got the phone call all i could do was pray he was ok. I prayed for the Virgin Mary to help and I in return would paint an Icon to take to the church on the Island we live on & another Island to a Monestary.
I keep thinking I have to do the icons to take to the Churches, the thing that kept me from doing them was because I didn't know enough.
Today is three years since the accident, it's been awhile since I've opened wetcanvas & the very first thing I saw was this thread.
I hope tomorrow to start, it will be my way as it is still very hard to get materials,plus I can't afford it at the moment.
I just want to thank you, you have given me inspiration.
Regards
Catherine.

[Celadonite]

Originally Posted by catherineand

Hi, how very strange to come across this thread today of all days.
I haven't posted anything in a very long time, but just had to post something once I saw this.
I tried my hand at iconography afew years ago, self taught ,but got very frustrated because I couldn't find the materials I needed. I tried as much as I could then gave up.
Three years ago my son was in a very bad accident,if they hadn't found him when they did he would have died through loss of blood.
As soon as we got the phone call all i could do was pray he was ok. I prayed for the Virgin Mary to help and I in return would paint an Icon to take to the church on the Island we live on & another Island to a Monestary.
I keep thinking I have to do the icons to take to the Churches, the thing that kept me from doing them was because I didn't know enough.
Today is three years since the accident, it's been awhile since I've opened wetcanvas & the very first thing I saw was this thread.
I hope tomorrow to start, it will be my way as it is still very hard to get materials,plus I can't afford it at the moment.
I just want to thank you, you have given me inspiration.
Regards
Catherine.

I thank God that He spared your son and hope your son is doing ok these days.

I very much thank you for this post. It means much to me. I shall personal message you regarding a very inexpensive way to make a beautiful icon.

[catherineand]

Hi. Thank you for taking the time to write to me.
Just thought I'd let you know I will be doing an Icon with oils, more than likely on canvas,or maybe wood, anyway we'll see.
This is one of the Icons I did many years ago. As soon as I finish I'll send it into to you to see. I thank you again.



It's now very faded, so it's not the best, just to give you an idea.

[Celadonite]

Originally Posted by catherineand

Hi. Thank you for taking the time to write to me.
Just thought I'd let you know I will be doing an Icon with oils, more than likely on canvas,or maybe wood, anyway we'll see.
This is one of the Icons I did many years ago. As soon as I finish I'll send it into to you to see. I thank you again.



It's now very faded, so it's not the best, just to give you an idea.

It's absolutely beautiful! Makes me want to learn how to use oils and experiment with them! Thanks!

[Celadonite]

I realized I should post about making very simple inexpensive icons.

Sometimes we don't have the money for materials for egg tempera icons done according to a traditional manner on true gesso.

We can still work.

Below are two simple icons I did some years ago, using only children's crayons, colored pencils, a neon yellow text highliting pen, a couple of Sharpie pens in various colors, gold/silver pens--materials rattling around the bottom of a junk-drawer.

I used recyled cedar fencing, which I hand sanded and rounded the edges of. (Note that the natural color of the wood is a beleivable skin-tone! ) For the hangers I used the tab from a can of cat food, with a 10 cent screw and washer to attach it.

I worked on the bare wood--no gesso or primer necessary--and by using what was lying around for art materials, it cost me only 10 cents to make each of these. No expensive art materials. The one on the left is my personal favorite and hangs on my wall. The fork is there to provide some definition of scale.

[Celadonite]

Working on an icon of St. Patrick.



The Celtic knot border was quite time-consuming and involved.

The border's background was initially a slate green. I didn't like it and using a pencil eraser removed most of it, leaving a ragged border along the edges, hoping it'd look old/distressed. Not sure that it does, and the jury's still out if it'll stay as-is or be overlaid with a neater border. I'm not too concerned as my main focus in this piece is learning about Celtic knots.

After I'd removed the main body of the green border background, I laid down a very dilute slate gray--trying to achieve something approaching the color of a clay pipe.

The gold crosses are a mix of Polish gold ochre and nickel titanium yellow. The mix "breaks" wonderfully, giving an approximation of metal with some areas brighter than others, altering in hue as the paint mix separates and is remixed on the fly.

[Celadonite]

The completed St. Patrick icon.

[Celadonite]

ON SEALING A FINISHED ICON

....some notes regarding traditional Olipha and other non-traditional sealing techniques....

Recently I received an email requesting my advice regarding a problem with olipha, the traditional stand oil/linseed oil mix used to seal icons.

I must say that I've not yet learnt to make or use olipha. From my reading, I've learnt that it's best to be shown the procedure by someone who knows how to do it, as it's tricky stuff. I hope eventually to study under someone who can show me how to make/apply olipha successfully.

from: http://www.gsinai.com/rw/icons/olifa_varnish.php

"Having practiced the technique of olifa oil varnish for more than 20 years, I can attest to the wisdom of this statement. Olifa is a very difficult varnishing process to learn, best done by watching or assisting someone with experience doing."
---Leonid Ouspensky, master iconographer, teacher and writer

My Non-Traditional (but effective) Two-Stage Sealing Process

Because of my lack of experience with olipha, after several years of experimentation I've devised a two-stage sealing process which works nicely.

After the painting has dried for a minimum of three weeks (and I much prefer several months drying time, but have sealed them after 3 weeks with this procedure with absolutely no ill affect) I take an acrylic spray--at the moment I am using "Quick 'n Easy" crystal clear acrylic enamel in a spray can. I have used more costly clear acrylics, but this brand works as well as others more expensive in my experience. (Note: If you spray acrylic on an icon that's not perfectly dry, it will develop a fog over the paint, called "bloom"--I've lost several nice icons in this manner, before I figured out to let them dry fully.)

I pick a day without much of a breeze, no dust in the air to do my spraying. I set the icon atop an old tin can or two to raise it off the table I'm using and spray 3 coats of this clear acrylic, waiting an appropriate time between each coat. (I do suggest working in the shade, so as not to overheat the icon or force the drying time of the spray.)

I've found that the acrylic spray alone is insufficient to protect the icon--I've had icons inadvertently scratched with fingernails of people handling them--so I let the spray dry a day or two, then raise the icon again on tin cans above a table and apply one good coat of MinWax Polycrylic clear gloss. I have found that one coat is sufficient. Two or three coats will produce such a glossy shine that it's nearly impossible to find an angle to view the icon without glare. (In truth, matte Polycrylic would be better, but I have a gallon of gloss and must use it before buying another. One coat doesn't produce blinding glare, but a pleasant shininess which is tolerable and doesn't at all distract from the icon.)

I use a foam brush to apply the poly. Care must be exercised there, as too heavy a brush stroke will express air out of the foam brush, creating bubbles in the poly which can dry that way. A gentle stroke will work perfectly, without airbubbles, and the poly is quite self-leveling, hiding brushstrokes as work progresses.

I found the first stage of spraying on clear acrylic to be necessary because applying the poly directly onto the dried paint would cause some of the colors, such as reds, to lift and smear. The preliminary spray stabilizes the dried pigments so that they easily accept the brushed on polycrylic.

Betsy Porter has a page regarding the application of Olipha: http://www.betsyporter.com/olifa.html She also mentions on this page a technique for sealing an icon using bee's wax.

For removal of Olipha, she suggests using vodka: http://www.betsyporter.com/Displaying-icons.html

[Smusiak]

Amazing, Simply wow.

[Celadonite]

Originally Posted by Smusiak

Amazing, Simply wow.

Thank you for your kind comment