St Mary’s Icon School – Week 3

Much hard work this week creating an icon of Christ’s face using coloured pencils, paper and knitting needles.  Pardon?  Knitting needles?  One of the students did mention that she had seen a whole nativity scene that had been knitted.  How marvellous, but this was not we were about this time.

After an image is transferred onto an icon board it is inscribed, with a point, into the gessoed panel.  As a practice exercise, we transferred images using graphite from our pencils and then inscribed by using a knitting needle to impress the paper, making a groove.  When coloured pencils are worked over the top, the pattern shows through.

Mixing and blending colours is something that takes time to understand and a certain amount of artistic skill and expertise.  There are numerous ways of studying this and following proscribed methods but I have found these to be ineffective teaching models. Probably because I am a rebellious creature but most likely because I have a scientific background and value experimentation and seeing what happens before thinking and modifying an approach.

In this way I have found, over many years of running art classes and workshops that students discover for themselves what works and what does not, what their own technique and application has to offer and often they come up with new ideas and better ones if they are given the freedom to explore and play.  I did mention before we are like a bunch of children having fun – and I stand by it.

We spent the whole evening, about two hours, pretty much on the one exercise as it needed complete commitment and I have asked students to send me their images to post up here.  One of  the bravest so far has submitted her picture.

I will also add that when we stood them all up together to look at them at the end of the class all were amazed at the beauty of the images everyone had created and the qualities within the expressions they had achieved.  Not one of the students had used coloured pencils to draw with before, nor had any drawn portraits and most are not artists- they lie!  They are all artists in my book.

Now the rest of the class please do send your images for this little gallery.

Here are another two student’s Christ, thank you.

Hear is J’s incredible sketch of Christ in pencil.  Remember these students are new to art and drawing techniques. This was done in about an hour and a half in class.  There is much potential in this image and you can see how she has brought light into the neck so beautifully.  She was so inspired she went home, bought more art equipment and did the whole image again, taking her time with equally wonderful results.  Now, that’s a committed student.