2W6

After the failure in gold gilding i have taken out 2 layers of gold leafs with sandpaper. For the third attempt i have applied the Writers Gold Size glue and imediately after i have applied the gold leafs. For the others attempts i have been waiting for some time. This method of gilding is called Mordant gilding and cannot be burnished. The water gilding is another method that i have to investigate in other experiments.

My icon looks at the moment like below. Some problems have arisen when painting mainly because of the small size of the panel – 20×28 cm. The detail especially for the faces is difficult to be acheived. The base colors have been painted first and later lighter colors are applied building up the forms and shapes.

I am still working on my icon at the moment. I am not satisfied with the gold gilding but in general i am quite satisfied with my first attempt. For the next icon i will work on a bigger panel.

The faces of the Saints are not depicted exactly as the other icons because of the small size of the panel and difficulty in painting the faces of Saints. Ofcourse the iconographer who first painted the Saints was following the descriptions from people who have seen the Saints in dreams or other miraculous visions. I have tried with my soul eyes to depict the Saints on the small icon the best way i could based on some descriptions too.

Saint Raphael is taller than Saint Nicolas and rather fat. He has white face and blue kind eyes but he seems strict sometimes. His beard is triangular and his hair are black and curly.

Saint Nicolas is short and thin with pale face and smaller beard. He has a very kind physiognomy.

Saint Eirini is a child with a rounded face and nice blond hair with plaits. She is seen many times wearing a yellow dress the one she was wearing when she martyred.

2W5

I had the idea of building the real proskinitari on a rock.Since the chapels and churches are built with materials supplied by nature, rocks, bricks – made of clay – etc i wanted my proskinitari to emerge out of a real rock.

 Sketching the idea

In the short video in my site http://www.voutounos.com/ShortVideos.html you can notice at the start of the video the essence of that idea.

A real rock can scream if it can be transformed to something else! 

I was very pleased having my first tutorial with Jonathan for the start of the new unit. It was exciting to hear that Jonathan is working on a project with icons in a garden at a Christian and Buddhist exchange centre in Hong Kong.

My site www.voutounos.com is online too but is still under construction and evolving.

Jonathan suggested to show the gold gilding failure with my icon so i am attaching the following image of the gold gilding phase.

After the gessoed panel was ready for painting made a sketch in sepia-tond pigment and water locating the subject on the panel and establishing the proportions and composition. The sketch faded out on a second attempt to apply a layer of gold.

2W4

The moment i am witing this post i feel dissapointed for the gold gilding of my icon.  After following a procedure mentioned in a dvd tutorial by Mr.Tyrekides, a painter who lives in Crete – Greece the results are not as expected. The gold gilding is a very delicate procedure and requires great experiance. After applying a layer of gold leafs i was not satisfied and i have taken it out. Before that i have prepared the icon with layers of gesso and a thin sheet of fabric at the bottom. I have applied a new layer of gold and i hope i don’t use all of my gold leafs. They are expensive because it is real gold. I hope that till the night i can have an acceptable gold gilding for my icon. 

I was not so active at the chat session this week because i had to go at the college that i work where some students had an exam. I could login in the internet for a short time. We are required to think of ideas about the college meeting in Second Life. I have told my peers that we could use my land too if they wanted to use it for their ideas. I have to initiate a dialoque with my self for this matter but at the moment i am empty of ideas.

2W3

Unfortunately i have missed the last chat session with tutors and peers. During the next two weeks tutorials will be organized after the completion of the first unit. I am waiting my results with patience.

Currently i am rebuilding my website www.voutounos.com that will be published till Tuesday. I have included my blog on the website importing it on my host server. I think my work will be more neat with this webpage and it will help the people who will view my work. I had to do it at the start of the new Unit so it would be a new fresh start. My domain was sitting inactive for some time.

I am almost ready to start painting on my first icon on wood. The icon will be devoted to Saints Raphael, Nicolas and Irini. The icon is now ready to receive the pigments with egg tempera.

The next Icon to draw will be Saint George

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