This is volume one of a series covering all the fundamentals of icon painting as practiced by Ian Knowles, an English iconographer with some noteworthy works such as the Lichfield Cross and the cathedral's icons of the Annunciation.

292 pages covering the basics of painting Byzantine icons in egg tempera. There are many different styles of Byzantine iconography and as many techniques as there are icon painters. However, there are common practices based on fundamental theological understandings, and in this volume you will find all the basics, from the theoretical to the practical, including such things as how to make egg tempera, using the brush, and the whole process of water gilding . There is even a timeline covering the first 1,000 years of icon painting so you can contextualise what you are looking at.

It integrates seamlessly with the Academy Course in Icon Painting, and includes not just links to some of the video recordings from that and other courses, but has some key demonstrations that can be played directly in the page (in the Flipbook version). In this way a vast expanse of teaching materials are made available so that any student has the opportunity to get into the fundamentals of Byzantine iconography.

This first volume focuses on the Face of Christ, from a spiritual and theological perspective, as well as a practical exercise in icon painting. The face is the most definitive element of any icon, as the icon offers above all communion between us and the One we see, and so mastery of how to paint any face in the icon, of which the Face of Christ is the Prototype, is the foundation on which all icons are created.