How to write an icon


First, we choose the wood designated for drawing the icons there are many kinds of wood .
We burnish the wood ( with sandpapers or rubbing ) till it become very smooth , then we wrap in a cotton or flax piece of cloth and glued by the (Red Glue ) or artifical one pvc ,which is extracted from the bones of the rabbits thus they say !!!!! , and after the cloth is dried we apply second layer of glue to forbid cracking , we cut the extras and then we paint it with a foundation material for several times ( the foundation material consists of the Zinc oxide and the red glue or use the ready one water based paste ) .Then ,and after the foundation material is completely dry , we burnish it by means of the smooth sandpaper , then the wood becomes ready for placing the plan , which is considered the **** of the icon and one of the most important factors of success cause any scratch will appear in gold surface . now you have to lay down the corky or the border lines by engraving or stamping
After finishing the plan , we paint the ground of the icon , i.e. the space behind the saint's picture , with blue or ochre colors , or prepare it for gilding , as follows :
We paint the ground of the icon with (Camalica) 6 to 7 some times to12
times till isolating the surface which is to be gild and become smooth , and in order to glue the gold sheets , we use a special kind of glue called (Mixion) , When the suitable required time is over , we begin placing the gold sheets.
There is another way for gilding the icons , which depends on using the water and alcohol or rabit skin gluel instead of the (Mixion) for gluing the gold sheets , then we polish the gold with a special tool made of Ivory , and that is what we call Steelvoto) .
The same phases of wood foundation are to be performed ,but here we need to apply the foundation material for about 30 times more than the first way and much more attention in order to make the surface smoother , also we need to paint the surface with a material called (pole armeni) , which is a material to be mixed with albumen or rabit skin glue , and used to create a soft layer and thus it becomes a part of the surface when we start burnishing and polishing the gold leaf by the special .
Very few of Iconographers use this technique because it requires a great deal of experience , besides , there are other hard techniques for achieving a successful result .
We are specialized in this technique and the gold we use is usually German or
After gilding , comes the painting process , and here we use earth colors mixed with egg yolk .We never use acrylic or any other chemical materials , as it oxidizes and changes by time .
Preparing the sketch
Actually preparing the sketch needs a lot of keen and skill and that oblivious in the case of the professional artist the iconographer and not the painter for the first is the one who had the blessing of his spirituals father to invent new icons but the second are a copycat
Making the sketch had to be on paper just the border line without any shadow the goal of that is to make the first and the primer study to be transfer to the seized bored
And here we have to be so accurate in the specifications of the style specially in hands and faces , this point her you he or she had to decide the style which you work macedonian Certain ,Kmeninos and to be so strict to the measures which they are the rules of Pafofski which determine the measures of the faces in the picture below
Thus you have to be careful to have the Byzantine style and not to be so fast in working
in this stage you have to be instructed by a professional teacher not for a thing to have style and the school for keeping the Byzantine art and not to produce semi icons which disturbs the eye
and which they are not effective in art nor in prayer and here are the big responsibility and the danger of the icon for the believer who stand in its front to pray
thus the iconography is a responsibility of the church its good to say that in Greece and Russia the people consider the iconography as a gift of the holly spirit for inspiration of the holly saint lucke to paint icons of our lord and lady, saint Andrew Ruplieef to paint the icon of trinity after preparing the sketch it has to be transferred to the seized panel and preparing the background but you have to know that its not that all cause you have to learn the strokes and its style and that needs to practiced cause the brushes is just like the pin push more you are going to have thicker stroke and vise versa and whenever you do it light and quick you are going to have shadow made by strokes as here in the pic
after a lot of practice you can draw and paint and here the techniqueis layers not like the oil colors or water stuff (for the oil will crack and you cant built the bios of dark to light in water color-that doesn't mach the trilogy of the spiritual life union,enlightenmet,purification-) and each layer is lighter than the other and smaller than it ,3layers then the finishing with white lines
(thus we gut graduation of color over the main **** )
The shadow is 2 layers over the **** and the finishing is with
Dark brown(too dark one no black)