This is a photo of the (in progress) St George Icon which I have been working on for a few days. It is still very much in progress but you can see the composition and generally the color scheme. Egg tempera is certainly interesting to work with The colors are quite strong and are very durable and long lasting. However, on the negative side, they are somewhat difficult to use. Every day I want to paint something I have to grind new colors and mix them with egg yolk. Nothing out of the tube here. Then everything must be carefully cleaned at the end of the day.
Preparing the wood panels is also a long tedious process.
But I started this as a way to learn 12th century painting techniques and I have certainly learned a lot. Next time I visit the Icons in the Philadelphia Museum I will be much more appreciative.
Let me know what you think... Comments????
2 comments:
I *knew* there was a reason I'm not an artist (oh, besides obvious lack of talent of course)! All that prep work and especially the cleanup must be quite the grind, indeed. But yeah, it's cool that you are learning about techniques so old--it must make you feel quite connected to history.
I like your St. George icon better than the one you used for an example. Your progress with egg tempera is very impressive.
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