Icon Portraits

So one of the exercises in Spectrum's offering on Nourish this month is all about seeing the divine within and painting an icon like portrait.

My first one didn't work that well. The gold leaf adhesive I use wasn't working and I didn't like the effect of the cardboard.

The second on in process for you. First I added clear gesso and some stablio pencil to highlight areas.

Next I used watercolor pencils and blended with a brush.

Then I added acrylic paint to the face and hair.

Lastly I added gold foil in the background.  I like this one a lot better.

This is one I tried in Panpastels, it really looks different.  I skipped the color pencil stage and it really made it look different.  This process is really fun.  It interesting painting on your own portrait, sometime it looks like you and other times it seems really different. I don't think this one looks like me at all.