Byzantine Iconography Painting Series 1: Painting Basics (1)

Introduction to Painting Byzantine Icons

In Part 1 of Series 1 Painting Basics where going to start our journey of learning to paint icons. In Section 1 you will learn about the workspace and materials needed to paint with egg tempera. Then you will learn how to prepare the egg emulsion and the painting surface and how to mix the colours. This is followed by several exercises for learning brush techniques needed to paint icons.

In Section 2 we will go into the theory of Byzantine iconography and how colour and light function in the icon as well as the question of colour symbolism in icons.

In Section 3 we will start with a basic garment exercise to understand how the photismata are build up rhythmically by first building up the forms from light to dark.

In Section 4 will start discovering the magic of painting with a limited tetrachrome palette, by painting a mauve sleeve, this time working from dark to light.

In Section 5 and 6 you will discover one of the trickiest colours to paint in tetrachrome: Green. You will learn to paint it using two different techniques.

The basic material you will need for these tutorials are:

1. Pigments

   • Yellow Ochre (or Iron Oxide Yellow)

   • Iron Oxide Black

   • Light Mars Red (or Red Ochre)

   • Medium Mars Red

   • Titanium White

2. Egg Emulsion

   • Egg

   • White wine

   • Lavender or Basil essential oil

3. 2 Plastic dropper bottles for egg emulsion and water

4. Paint brushes (rounds with a good tip, flats and riggers)

5. Palette for mixing paint (a sheet of glass or plexiglass is optional)

6. Container of water for cleaning brushes.

7. Paper towel

8. Hot press watercolour paper for painting exercises.