At first we had the idea that His skin would be shining white and golden, as glorious as possible. But after some applications of an ivory base color I began to think, that this would inevitably look like a caucasian Christ and I want to avoid that stereotype. I went back to the study I had been doing for all the weeks of Lent of traditional Orthodox Icon painting.
The skin tones of Christ and Saints are a base of an olive/ochre darkish color. On top of that usually deep reddish shadows and some warm yellow and finally descriptive white highlights added to bring out a glow. In these photos above, you can see I am laying/scumbling in a greenish/yellow ochre color. I have been studying my icon books for days now thinking about where to go next with the colors.
