Icon Diploma Student

Learning to see with the eye of the heart

Archive for ‘November, 2013’

Holy Noses!

Hello new icon friends!

Thank you for signing up to the blog – you have no idea how much that has strengthened my resolve to pay attention to my lessons and report back to you, hopefully fairly regularly. I will try not to let the posts get too long winded and aim to title all my documents/notes so you can find things later.

This course is far too exciting for me not to share, so it is great that you want to sit alongside – my invisible friends in Aidan’s classroom! Do let me know if you have any questions that I can ask him on your behalf.

I should have mentioned in my last post that our day begins with a lit candle and a prayer of dedication. I will attach the prayer as a pdf.

Prayer before an icon

Prayer 2

It’s Monday 18th November and I am going to get into the rhythm with some brush strokes. Then, I am going to try the ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain‘ tip and turn St John upside down and begin a study of his nose.

nose study one

One of my fellow students, who paints exquisitely, explained that she builds up in very light layers using the finest of lines and very little paint on the brush. She leaves the pure white of the paper as highlights. Once she has established the form, only then does she begin to apply the darker strokes.

There should always be plenty of scrap paper below your palette to test your brush lines after each dip in the paint.

Second attempt at the nose

Second attempt at the nose

Well, looking at the nose upside down certainly helped. It is an improvement on nose 1 a few days ago. However, I have not caught the true shape of the highlights of where the nose bowl widens.  I have also missed the movement of the nose which very gradually curves from his brow on the saint’s right side. All these things become much more evident when you take a step back and look from a bit of a distance.

I am going to try a pencil study next to try and get a grip of the structure. Some days I just don’t have a full hour to set aside for icon practice so what I will do is more ten minute pencil studies of various parts of the face.

Work out the highlights by tracing over the shapes to identify the key pools of light and dark

Work out the highlights by tracing over the shapes to identify the key pools of light and dark

Pencil study of the nose

Pencil study of the nose

That’s enough of my holy noses, it’s time for morning coffee!

Thanks for reading and thank you God that I can share this with you today. All the best with your own icon practice.

Love Ronnie

BOOK SUGGESTION

Aidan recommended a book for us.  It is an American book and if you haven’t already got it, it is a treat for your Christmas wish list. It is a chunky book, paperback and has lots of good quality colour plates. Here are the links:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1588391140/ref=sr_1_1_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383298414&sr=1-1&keywords=byzantium+faith+and+power&condition=new

http://www.amazon.com/Byzantium-Metropolitan-Museum-Art-York/dp/1588391140/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1384766362&sr=8-2&keywords=Byzantium%3A+Faith+and+Power+%281261-1557%29+%28Paperback%29

Book cover image.

Good Intentions

It’s been over a week of good intentions but I have not settled down properly to brush practice until today. Norman has arrived, three months old and so full of beans that whatever I try to do, he wants to do it better. There’s been little in the way of stillness with our new three pet dynamic at loggerheads. I’ve been asking for help from St Frances, but I think he is enjoying the entertainment too much.

On top of this, my first exhibition at Newcastle-under-Lyme library, for ‘Drawing the Street‘ has been quite a hit. ‘Seeing with the eye of the heart’ applies to our wider surroundings too and it is wonderful that people are starting to look at their town with renewed interest. 

For those who are interested in the icon course content, I am going to see if I can upload a pdf of my notes. If they don’t appear on this blog and you would like a copy, please get in touch with me and I will send a pdf over to you.

28 Oct 13 Day 1 29 Oct 13 Day 2 30th Oct Day 3

I have been practising brush strokes, with one or two which came out ok but more practice required on the exit part of the stroke. We are aiming at being able to complete a hundred or so consistently even calligraphic lines, straight, curved and diminishing, all in one go. 

Brush stroke practice

Brush stroke practice

We have four monochrome studies to complete. This is proving much harder to do than I thought. We all made great progress at Moele Brace, no distractions and fellow students supporting one another, but home life however is another matter. 

Norman

I have made a start on St John, which is taken from that compellingly beautiful and moving icon “the Holy Virgin Kataphigi (Refuge) and St John the Theologian” which came from the Poganovo monastery c1395. I am starting early with my practice on this as I would love to have this as one of my finished pieces.  As you will see from my efforts below, I have a long way to go. That’s ok, I am looking forward to watching things unfold from these early hesitant efforts. 

St John in rough pastel sketch

St John in rough pastel sketch

As a warm up, I did a rough pastel sketch. Looking at it a little later I could see St John’s face was too wide, the tilt of his head up a little too far. A helpful exercise though. Please ignore my messy strokes, I did this quickly to try and get a feel for the proportions. 

I then did a rough sketch in red earth light tempera wash to establish the structure. Again, it’s not quite right, but I will keep at it. I hope that in my next post, there will be a little more progress. I have also got to get better with my brush strokes. 

St John, first wash in very dilute egg tempera

St John, first wash in very dilute egg tempera

Thats all for now. Thanks for reading and all the best with your own icon studies. R