Finished First Float

In the whole Icon writing process, we have lots of layers including Lines, Highlights, Floats (and later, coats!), so in my mind's eye, I was thinking that highlights would articulate color, and floats would mute it. In actuality, we have the opposite! Highlights provide the depth of shapes and floats warm everything back up again with vibrant color. Here is the finished first float.

Icons showcase light inherently. Floats help illuminate and deepen the original colors of the icon. Both the figures and scene are used to articulate the "created" and inner light. There are no deep shadows in iconography. There is a sense that you are standing in the midst, invited to be a part of the conversation. There is both illumination on and from.

I found a neat excerpt from Henri Nouwen in some recent reading. Thought I'd share-
"Icons are not easy to 'see.' They do not immediately speak to our senses. They do not excite, fascinate, stir our emotions, or stimulate our imagination. At first, they even seem somewhat rigid, lifeless, schematic, and dull. They do not reveal themselves to us at first sight. It is only gradually, after  patient, prayerful presence that they start speaking to us. And as they speak, they speak more to our inner than to our outer senses. They speak to the heart that searches for God."


Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons
Henri Nouwen (Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria, 1987), 14.