thoughts about color

Showing here (left) one of my color sketches when we still thought Christ should be white and gold.

This image (right) was our inspiration.

 Matthias Grunewald's painting of The Christ Resurrected (Isenheim Altarpiece).

                                          As I said yesterday, the problem was that we did not want our image to look like a white suburban caucasian version of  Christ. And, the Byzantine icon imagery is so powerful for me that I want to get some of that mystery and glow.

This is my absolutely favorite icon image, Christ the Pantocrator from St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. It is the oldest known icon of Christ, encaustic on panel.  This is reported to be from the early 6th century and the lifelike qualities and realism of the expression are amazing.