Customer Reviews

The Technique of Icon Painting

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4 star:		(1)
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This is a wonderful resource for someone who would like to know more about how to paint some of the most beautiful Christian icons. There are beautiful photos of many of the most famous icons, along with step-by-step instructions on how to paint them. There is also fascinating information about the meditative value of painting icons. This book was used in our church to teach a middle-school aged Sunday School class about icons, and the kids then created their own. They were so well done that many church members asked for prints of the students' work! The students are looking forward to doing them again this year.

This book is a good introduction to icon painting, but be forewarned that it does not offer advice on how to draw, which is the most important part of icon "writing". The author tells us to copy the icon photos provided in the book, and not to trace them. But he offers no advice on how to compose a "face" (e.g. make sure that there is one eye's distance between the two eyes; make sure that they are placed in the middle of the head, etc.). The person with no art background may buy the book, try to copy one of the icons, and then mess up and become discouraged and give up because they do not know these basics. Overall, I would recommend this book, but also, if you have no art background, buy a small book on drawing (specifically on artistic anatomy).

I highly recommend this book -- it helped me get started painting or "writing" icons many years ago. I was able to make two beautiful icons without a teacher helping me, having only painted one other picture in egg tempera in my life.

I would suggest that the rank beginner not hesitate to trace the drawing if he needs, unless you're planning to sell it or put it in a church. Later on, you can "write" your own icon. The best parts of the book are the step-by-step color pictures of the icons in progress. The weakest sections of the book (writing as a now much more experienced egg tempera painter)are the complicated instructions for mixing and applying the egg tempera -- the directions about strictly varying the amount of egg from layer to layer, and then applying an egg yolk nourishing layer, just aren't necessary. Just mix in enough egg to get an eggshell, not matte, finish. But everything else in the book is helpful, and overall a wonderful introduction to icon painting.

An excellent book for beginning and intermediate iconographers. Well illustrated with step-by-step instructions and illustrations to guide you along the creative process of "writing" an icon. The book gives clear instructions on how to prepare traditional glue-chalk gesso (not acrylic "gesso") and the classic egg tempera technique used by iconographers for centuries (not the modern synthetic acrylic paints). This book focuses mainly on the traditional materials, their preparation and egg tempera painting technique -- not so much on the theology or the meaning of icons, which is exactly what the book title says. As supplementary reading, I would recommend "A History of Icon Painting", a lavishly illustrated book (translated into English by Kate Cook) that documents the history of iconography from the early Christian era through the 20th century.