After more than 100 iconography courses we taught face-to-face, we began teaching online because of the pandemic. Unexpectedly, our courses became popular, - it turned out, that the format of teaching online has many advantages. First: it provides more time for learning than in a real class situation. Second: real time communication with fellow students and the instructor help to feel real class climate. Third: have all the course materials available after the end of the class.
We teach most fundamental skills and structured understanding of traditional iconography. Our students continue their studies and work independently, professionally gaining new competences, setting right goals even in most contemporary images
Some courses are open for people with no iconography or artistic background, all courses are good for iconographers who trace/copy, while desiring to improve in drawing
Links to video tutorials, reference images, and a pre-recorded lectures. All the videos remain available to the students after the end of the courses
Personal feedback from the instructors with their corrections / comments / recommendations is given within 48 hours (weekends excluded)
We begin teaching icon drawing from the most important subjects: face of Christ, face of the Mother of God, faces of saints. This course provides students with the most essential knowledge of the construction of human face. It's maid for learning the main proportions, the right placement and sizes for all facial features.
Most of faces on medieval icons are asymmetrical, providing a better communication with the beholder. The asymmetry can be different, from little, almost indistinct to extremely evident. At this course we teach how to adjust the ideal scheme from the first course to different ways of creating asymmetry, taken from medieval models. At this course we draw adult faces of different types: with covered heads, with different hairstyles, beardless and bearded. The models were chosen among icons and frescoes of Christ, the Mother of God, angels and saints.
Looking at icons we are amazed, how do they make us feel so different from the ordinary? One of the reasons is in the very way they built their icons: a unique space concept. We made this course "Space in Iconography" to teach the main principles of space organization in iconography and to show how new icons, frescoes, mosaics and other images can comply with the traditional space concept. Each of them is native to the whole and to each other, so they work well as a team.
Course 4 is a complex program teaching how to draw a half-figure of Christ Pantocrator, consisting of 2 blocks. In the first part we draw different types of garments and hands, focusing on one detail at a time. We study the logics and universal principles of construction for clothing and hands in iconography.
The second block is about the use of main artistic principles. We study what influences our perception of the image and learn how to arrange the figure to different formats.
In order to successfully work with egg tempera technique, you need to know all the basic rules of using egg tempera. That’s what the first four lessons will be about.
We are going to experiment with the consistency of the paint, explore the characters of powdered pigments, work with the brush in a variety of ways, study how to apply layers evenly, and how to create a soft color transition.
Currently we are working hard to produce two more new courses, one about Painting with Egg Tempera and another one, called Practical Theology for Iconographers. If you like to be notified about them personally, email us. If you like to stay informed about our news, - subscribe to our regular Newsletter at the bottom of this page. We share our news approximately once in 2 months and never disclose our subscribers emails with anyone.
Since March 2022 we work in Tbilisi (Georgia)