Truefresco sketch for sacred mural Classes St.Prophet David.

TrueFresco Workshop 2005

The truefresco workshops conducted by Philip Davydov, and organized by Iconofile company, (www.iconofile.com) took place in October 2005 in Santa Rosa (CA, USA).

The Truefresco Workshop was dedicated to practical and theoretical studies of medieval truefresco method for mural painting and traditional Christian iconography in general. The main goal of the course was to teach students create their own sacred images creatively, in the same time with all the power of tradition. The lectures were dedicated to the history, technology and essential principles of monumental painting and Christian sacred art, harmony between parts of church ensemble.

The Theory was realized as everyday lectures, followed by slide projections. Practical studies were calculated in a special way, so, every student might have a possibility to follow Philip Davydov's truefresco painting process. Philip Davydov, working with his image in front of the class, regularly explained every step of his work and helped individually to each student.

The 5 days of the Workshop were all planned in such a manner, that every student was learning the truefresco method in a live working process, projecting, drawing and painting own fresco from the very beginning till the very end.

St. Prophet Davide image from Old Ladoga St. George church was chosen for the Workshop as a model for it's simplicity and beauty, as one of the most famous and classical images of byzantine iconography. The model was suggested one for everyone, but students were free to choose their own images.

Here we have posted some workshop photographs as a kind of diary, to see a larger size image, click the preview.

Philip Davydov is tracing the image from the Transparent paper Tracing the image on the transparent paper.

Cartoon is a great tool for fresco painting Drawing and fleshtone shadows on the cartoon.

Cartoon helps iconographers to train for the future work Local yellow for the face, ornaments and halo. Shadows on the future blue garment (work with the cartoon).

Ornamentation (work with the cartoon).

Truefresco work needs hand-applied plaster Applying the plaster.

The plaster for truefresco work must be absolutely flat Smoothening the plaster.

To be continued...

The next truefresco workshops, conducted by Philip Davydov with assistance of Olga Shalamova and organized by Iconofile company, (www.iconofile.com) are planned for September 2006 in Seattle WA and Chicago IL (USA).

Visit our special page, dedicated to this next workshop.

Online registration and more detailed information about the Truefresco Workshop see on the web-site of Iconofile company.

Please, feel free to contact Iconofile company via e-mail or call +1-707-459-9990.

In attendance of new photographs we suggest our visitors to see some images of our 1-day trial workshop:

Part I - Preparation:

   

The builder's mesh is a great thing for fresco painting, it can hold the plaster on any surface, even on wood. Two layers of plaster are thick enough, to keep the surface wet for almost all the day.

Part II - Fresco painting:

   

Fresco painting process is a very hard work. You become wall-dependent, because the wall (or wooden board with mesh) with plaster on it tell you, what to paint and when.


Fresch truefresco sketch with large surfaces, covered with local colours.   Fresch truefresco sketch without last white decorations and black shadows.   Truefresco sketch final view.

These images show three stages of fresco painting process.

In the beginning the main (local) colours are applied to large surfaces, to let the lime begin to adhere them. After we have to create exact drawing and elaborate all the shadows with Terra Verde and Red Ochre. These parts must be done first. The "lights" can be done after, because the lime, useds finished, the colours are very bright,but after some days some colours, like Lapis Lazuli, Yellow Ochre and Terra Verde, and all the other, containing lime, will bleach, but Red Ochre and Nero di Vite will get even darker. It is very important to remember this feature of fresco technology and pay very close attention to this point, when we work.

Read more about truefresco process on our Truefresco Technology  page and here - about Christian iconography>> .

See more Christian frescoes in our Mural Gallery and icons in Icon Gallery.

For ordering or buying any of our sacred icons, commissioning fresco murals, questions or proposals, just e-mail us, or call +7 950 00 58 293.

To see more sacred icons, frescoes, mosaics and miniatures, visit another internet gallery of Christian images at http://iconaantica.spb.ru.

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