Making an #orthodoxicon: step by step.

Here’s where we are today: I have a pencil drawing (for scale as the board I’m using is more square than I’d like), a sanded gessoed wooden board (plain white, non acrylic gesso) and two jam jars with size, bole (clay) & water 1/

This morning, the bole (clay) has dried. A quick polish and I will start gilding. This is the traditional water gilding method, which takes longer but can be burnished to a mirror-finish (if you like). This could take a few days, given temperature & humidity. 2/

The gold leaf I use is 23.5 carat, laid double (two layers) & burnished. When to burnish? When it sounds right... I know. Experience & knowing your materials, the environment (my house is cold & damp so it takes longer) etc. Today I’m just gilding the border. 3/

Here is the sound: click high? Hard bole - but bright finish. Soft click? Too soft, could break the gold. I’m using a “dog tooth” shaped agate burnisher- it polishes the bole through the leaf. No lunch until this is done or it will just scratch. 4/

Two sides done: you weren’t able to see the full speed burnishing because I forgot about the tripod for my phone next time! Anyway, lunch. Pacing yourself when gilding so you don’t have to rush is important & often forgotten in enthusiasm for the shiny. 5/

End of today, mostly ok. The raised border is called a kivitos (Greek) or kovcheg (slavonic) and means “ark” - within the icon, all is transfigured (not distorted or ‘unreal’, as some have argued). The flat area can be gilded tomorrow, I hope. 6/

Today I’m gilding the flat afraid the board. I have a new tool from @GoldLeafSupply called a “Richard” - it picks up and lays a whole leaf in seconds! Works perfectly 7/

I can pick up the leaf two ways: smaller pieces & curved areas w a “tip” brush,’or using the flat square Richard. Yes, you can see through the gold: the red clay makes it glow. I then add a second layer to cover any faults. 8/

Letting the water be absorbed by the clay sucks the leaf down onto the board. When it’s ready, I can burnish as I did yesterday. Quick coffee breaks but no lunch until it’s all done. 9/

Finished for today, about 12:30 with a bit of faulting here and there. Just in time to get call from school to collect poorly Smol, so just as well. Tomorrow I will tidy up the board, put on a protective paper mask over the gold and start painting. About 20 hours so far. 10/

(20 hours and nearly 20 years of study and practice...)

Today I’ve carefully cleaned the excess gold off the gesso, made a paper ‘mask’ from tracing paper to protect it while I’m painting & used a simple mix of water & pigment to paint on the main lines. Tomorrow I’ll begin working on the monochrome underpainting. 11/

And then it all went a bit wrong: ask most Orthodox about the first week of Lent and they’ll not gravely... it’s a mistake to keep pushing on when clearly, you’re just not meant to be painting. 12/

In the end I told the gold off (there were mysterious scratches in the gesso), relaid it super fast w no problems and then got on with painting... a few times. Today it finally started to look and feel just right, although I’m nowhere near done with face & hair (or garments). 13/

I think it might be better to do a step by step progress on another smaller icon but I could keep going with this one for now - what do you think? 14/

A note on technique: I use only egg tempera for icons. I work in thin, transparent layers. Some teachers are quite dogmatic - start with DARK thick paint etc - but
a) the oldest icons we have don't use that technique
b) post-fact theology is generally prone to distortions so 15/

I work in transparent layers, building up lights and darks in turn, modelling form. It's untrue there are "no shadows" in but we don't add reflective lights in the eyes etc. We also try to avoid over-sentimentalised faces. Like all things in Orthodoxy, there are exceptions 16/

Today I managed a bit of refinement before the errands kicked in. Here are two pictures (phone) to keep you up to date & show how colour balance is my implacable foe. It’s hard enough to capture translucent multi-layered tempera but throw in adjusting hue... with & w/o paper 17/

I hope you can see more clearly how *impossible* it is to catch the tone and layers of the painting from those two - and why people learning or making judgements from poorly reproduced photos is less than ideal :) 18/

Today has finished the face & hair, now starting to build up hands & work on garments more. I’m using the Byzantine warm under painting, cool highlight technique. It is a challenge but with a bit more work will create a tension of colour that really zings. 19/

And again, apols for the shoddy pic - it was sunny for about five minutes

Off to have a daydream about what I can offer to email and @kofi_button subscribers...

Finally back at work - garments are built up in many* layers

*hunners

20/

Clearly the iPad doesn’t like adding photos... 22/

Managed to make progress on robes though. The dynamism in an #Orthodox icon doesn’t come through an active pose or what we think of as “movement” - energy is conveyed by light & layers - camera doesn’t catch the transparency the way our brain/eyes do, so apols for the pics 23/

I think I will call it a day. One of the common temptations is to get bogged down in highlight abstraction. Don’t. Remember there is a form underneath. Some icons have been copied mindlessly & their drapery/figures have become meaningless. 24/

St Isaac the Syrian said “we paint the image of God who became man in the flesh” - some stylistic niceties aside, an icon has to walk the line between sentimental & pointlessly abstract. It’s a podvig (an ascetic labour) not a pious hobby... 25/

Almost there. A few more hours. Hands, robes (again), scroll, face, back to hands etc. At this point I’m mostly balancing tone & refining the outer edges eg hands. It’s hard to describe: you can see how different the images look depending on sunlight/brightness, esp the hair. 26/

Today was a Little Intense but have got halo, borders, assiste (using shell gold) and start of the Cross behind the halo. Lettering tomorrow 27/