St Mark's Icon

Since I didn't have time to explain st Mark's icon during my presentation, I'll do it here! 

This icon features a lot of little elements and is really beautifully made. The lighthouse in the back is the Lighthouse of Alexandria, representing the fact that he preached in Egypt. The scroll on his lap contains a bible verse, showing how he was the writer of one of the 4 gospels. The lion sits peacefully beside him. This is due to a miracle that happened once with him and his father. They were travelling by foot when they encountered a lion... St Mark's father told him to run while he sacrificed his life but St Mark refused, choosing instead to pray and ask for God's help. Through prayer the lion remained peaceful and friendly and did not harm them. The lettering at the bottom is coptic for "Mark the Apostle." Altogether, icons portray stories in detail and are a really cool way of getting messages across. This artist, Fadi Mikhail, was one of my inspirations for this project. 

My Attempt

At first I thought I couldn't do this project because I didn't have the right type of paint and didn't know where I could get the cold leaf or how to apply it and so on. I decided to just start anyways because hey, what's the worst that could happen? Thankfully, oil paint worked just fine, although it made the whole process a lot longer because it dries a lot slower than egg tempera paint, meaning I would have to wait a long time before applying a new layer of light. 

In the image, the scroll looks completely red. This was the darkest colour in the scroll so it became the base layer. After waiting a long time, I could then apply lighter colours: (you may have to do a little head-twisting)

As you see, the scroll became a lot lighter. This is really how it works with the whole icon. 

In the picture above, the red still hasn't been done. There I only a base coat of paint. After waiting for that layer to dry, I added the layers of light, giving the clothes a more realistic look. 

As you can see, it really is a longer process than you'd expect. 

For the gold leaf, I did some research and found that I could actually buy it at Michael's! I did so and then tested it out a lot till I could get the process right. In the end, I was reallllllllyyy happy that I didn't just leave the background this orangy colour because the gold actually gave it the feel of an icon. It made it look like the icons I see in church all the time. 

The Process

I'll briefly describe the process of iconography: 

Firstly, a design is drawn with charcoal onto a canvas. 

Then, the canvas is primed with gesso. 

Thirdly, a special adhesive is applied where te gold leaf is going to be. 

The gold leaf is then placed onto the glued areas and the excess is removed. 

After that, the darkest colours are applied with "egg tempera" paint. This is a special type of paint meant for preserving the icon. The base is egg yolk.

 

Consecutive layers of lighter couloirs are applied to the face and skin areas. 

After the skin is completed, the clothes and other items are done in the same way. Finally, you have an icon! 

This pictures for this tutorial were taken from www.ukcopticicons.com. The artist is Fadi Mikhail.