Painting St Stephen: Garments
St Stephen the Protomartyr and Deacon
The feast of St Stephen seems an appropriate day to share with you the first blog tutorial on painting his icon. Starting off with his garments….
Sketch
After preparing the panel with diluted egg emulsion, I cover the surface with a layer of yellow ochre. This creates a unifying warm tone and also helps cool colours to “pop”.
We point the sketch with a mixture of yellow ochre and black. the lighter the garments, the lighter the sketch.
Background
I’ve chosen a cool bluish background (black + white+ a touch of yellow ochre) that will contrast with the warm hues of the figure. The green-grey border is made of the same colours, but with more yellow ochre and black.
Proplasmos
Although the sticharion is "white", in byzantine iconography everything is colour and even white garments will start from a colour base. Here the sticharion is a very light warm peachy colour made from white, yellow ochre and mars red to contrast with the cool background.
1st Grapsimo
For the 1st grapsimo with take a little proplasmos and a a little mars red and black. We paint the sketch (except for in the lightest areas) and blend into the proplasmos.
2nd Grapsimo
For the 2nd grasping we all a little more red and black to the 1st. We build this up in the darker areas within the 1st grapsimo.
3rd Grapsimo
We add a little more black to the 2nd grapsimo and paint this only in the very darkest areas.
1st Photisma
The 1st photisma is pure titanium white that that is fairly transparent. With this we build up the main forms.
Glaze
We dilute the white to create a glaze with which we unify the forms without losing them.
2nd Photisma
For the 2nd photisma we add more pigment so that it is a thicker consistency and build up the forms within the 1st photisma, only on the lighter/broader side of the garment, so that it projects more towards the viewer.
Proplasmoi
Here I have laid down the proplasmoi for the orarion, the Aer, the Sion and gold collar and epimanikia (cuffs)
Orarion:
I have painting the orarion green (yellow ochre and black) so that is is cooler than the surrounding warm colours
Aer: The Aer is red ( a mix of light and medium mars red) and will contrast with the lighter sticharion.
The gold collar, epimanikia and Sion have a warm brownish proplasmos made up of yellow ochre, mars red and black.
Grapsimata
The graspimata for the green and red are are built up with the addition of black to the proplasmos
For the gold garments, black and red are added to the proplasmos.
Assist
The gold assist used on the gold and green garments is made of yellow ochre, gold ochre (optional) and white.
The pearls are pure titanium white
I have not added photismata to the aer to create a strong contrast between it and the white sticharion.
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