The new year brings a new effort to finish my Archangel Michael icon. Mostly, my technique has improved, so as an experiment in the medium of orthodox design, there has been progress.
No matter how it works out, though, angels, and particularly Michael, don't come out as being cuddly or even sympathetic in this form. It wasn't until the Italian Renaissance was well underway that angels began to take on the more Romantic ideal we associate them with today. The Master Donatello is credited with combining the pink, rounded, soft putti "angels" taken from ancient classical mythology and combining that entity with Christian ideals.
No matter how it works out, though, angels, and particularly Michael, don't come out as being cuddly or even sympathetic in this form. It wasn't until the Italian Renaissance was well underway that angels began to take on the more Romantic ideal we associate them with today. The Master Donatello is credited with combining the pink, rounded, soft putti "angels" taken from ancient classical mythology and combining that entity with Christian ideals.
Changing the border from yellow ochre to burnt umber has tamed the gamut somewhat. The primary colours still blaze, but the brighter yellow ochre no longer dominates like a cosmic solar flare along the border. The figure is, as far as I am concerned, complete. What remains to be done on this icon is a fair amount of finishing work for the border, halo, and inscription.
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