Day four of the icon course.

 Today is all about the face, putting in tone, contour, flesh, warmth, expression.

 Practicing beards.

at this point I discovered in the Robin Cormack book, 'Icons; the British Museum' 2007 an icon from the collection of the Holy Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai. Icon with Christ, Byzantine (Constantinople) 6th Century.

 a moment of reflection and shadows

 I took the face back to darkness, to remodel the light.

 so some of these look a bit samey, but believe me, there are so many layers of tempera 

and hours of painting.

 It is going somewhere now.

 It puts me a little behind the other iconographers but this is ok. 

I'm happy to go at my own pace

 geometric garments, softness of face.

 During lunch I happened upon Wordsworth's house

this is his Spice Cupboard from 1710

and his couch. every artist must have a couch to muse on.

 Back to work, it is coming together now.

 getting lighter

 adding feature and expression.

This is where I left my work on day four.