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Pigments

Mullering pigment for paint
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A particularly enjoyable part of the process is preparing pigments by hand, whether from vegetable matter such as charcoal, or from minerals such as azurite. 

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Almost all the pigments used are natural.

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The luminosity of the colours of the icon depends upon a gradual building up of thin layers of pigment bound with egg yolk (the egg tempera method).

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And also...

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Not directly applicable to iconpainting, but something fun to do if you have access to an oak tree: the galls from the oak tree, heated and mixed with iron sulphate and a little gum arabic, make excellent traditional ink. 

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