Acrylic Iconography Workshop for Middle School | Spring

For Sections with Courtney Chancey
The all-new Middle School iconography workshop offering will be structured around painting an icon, just like with the Upper School workshops, but geared toward students in the 9-12-year-old age range.

This Spring we will “write” an icon of St. Lucia of Syracuse using acrylic paint. Each class session we will work on our main icon, but also do lots of other activities to strengthen artistic skills.

We will always begin class with prayer and a short presentation related to the iconography and/or the saint or subject we are writing. Students will learn in every iconography workshop how to mix and apply acrylic paint for iconography and render the saint using highlights and linework.

Additionally, we will cycle through skills in a 3-year cycle, focusing on one per workshop. The skills can be learned in any order, so students who take 3 years of Middle School workshops can start at any point and never repeat exactly the same content, nor come in behind their classmates. The skill-focus will relate to color, tone and value, facial features, Byzantine lettering, and painting lines.

In the Spring of 2026, the focus will be on Line Quality

Required Materials:
Books and supplies are not included in the purchase of the course.

For Sections with Courtney Chancey
Webcam
Second Webcam and Flexible Arm
- Students must purchase a second webcam to point at their workspace so the instructor can observe them as they work. The webcam built into the computer functions as the first webcam.
- There are so many external webcams on the market- I can’t advise as to which one I recommend! A document camera also transmits a very nice picture, though they are probably more expensive. I myself use this document camera and another teacher at St. Raphael uses this document camera. (Of course, feel free to try less expensive external webcams.)

Art Supplies
Art Supplies from Jerry’s Artarama.
- Acrylic Paints- 9 required colors
- Mid Value Cool Beige (if out of stock, also on Amazon. This is a very important color so be sure to get it!)
- Red Earth
- Napthol Crimson
- Burnt Sienna
- Raw Sienna
- Warm White
- Burnt Umber
- Ultramarine blue
- Turner’s Yellow
- 6 Optional Colors (not needed for this particular class, but these are other recommended colors if you want to fill out your collection or have background choices)
- Green Oxide
- Prussian Blue
- Celadon
- Pine Green
- Norwegian Orange
- Carbon Black (the burnt umber can be used as a black to reduce costs)
- Optional: Acrylic Medium. Simply water can be used instead of acrylic medium. However, I make up a “magic mix” of clear glaze, retarder, and flow to have on hand. It keeps the pigments from drying out and makes them flow off the brush better. But it does add an expense. You could also choose to purchase just one- perhaps flow.
- Simply Simmons Original #2 liner (optional)
- Simply Simmons Original #5 round
- Simply Simmons Original #3 round (optional)
- Simply Simmons Original #0 round
- Simply Simmons Brush Sword
- Palette knife
- 8x10 Board for Acrylic
- Strathmore Series 400 Acrylic paper (9X12” 10 sheets)
- Optional: (useful for experimenting with other icon faces and useful for future classes, but you could use normal printer paper for our exercises in class to save money)
- Claybord Panels
- Ruler (or any 12” ruler you may already have is fine)
- Compass
- Graphite paper from Amazon: Carbon Paper for Tracing Graphite Transfer-Paper - PSLER 30 Pcs Black Graphite Paper for Tracing Drawing Patterns on Wood Projects Canvas Fabric Artist Lettering Sketch Drawing A4 8.27 X 11.81 Inch https://a.co/d/4azgwnP
- Note: if you have already bought a Conte pencil, that can be used to transfer the cartoon to the board. The graphite will work better though.
- For your palette, you could choose:
- Recommended: a stay-wet palette such as this one from Amazon, or one from an art store. (expensive but it pays for itself in acrylic paint saved over time. Jerry’s also has a stay-wet palette but is 12X16, so rather large to store in the fridge, which is helps the paint last even longer)
- Any palette suitable for acrylic that you might already have on hand, or:
- disposable papers such as Jerry’s Palette Pad

Household Supplies: Please gather the following supplies before the first class and keep them with your art supplies for the duration of the workshop:
- Pencil with eraser (or separate eraser)
- Paper towels
- Q-tips (make good erasers)
- Jar or glass/cup for water
- Small bottle caps to hold acrylic medium, if you purchased that.
- Normal printer paper (8.5X11)
- Graph paper
- Tape

Courtney Chancey

[email protected]

Courtney Chancey loved pondering icons as she and her husband Denton began their Orthodox Journey several years ago. She loves how each one tells a story that needs no words so people of all ages and backgrounds can learn from them. When her 4 children were a bit older, she began Maria Sider-Rose’s adult iconography apprenticeship program at St. Raphael School and found such peace learning about the practice of writing icons. She has also been recently accepted to the Writing the Light Program with Dr. George Kordis at the Institute of Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir’s Seminary.
Courtney graduated from Oklahoma State University with a B.S. in Psychology and a M.A. in Community Counseling. She then worked for a few years as a Licensed Professional Counselor in OKC with children and families involved with the child welfare system. After having children, she and her husband decided she would be a stay-at-home mom and through this time, Courtney has been involved in her children’s activities as well as parish life after her and her family’s conversion to Orthodoxy.
Courtney has always loved working with and teaching kids throughout her life. She and her family are active parishioners at St. Elijah’s Antiochian Parish in Oklahoma City, OK where her husband is a Reader and she is a Co-Director for their Vacation Bible School, Co-Chair for various booths at their Food Festival, and has been on their Antiochian Women Board.

Michael Roberts

[email protected]

Michael Roberts holds a master’s degree in painting from the New York Academy of art. He has been teaching students of various ages for over 20 years. He currently serves as an elementary librarian in Mechanicsburg, PA where he lives with his wife and two sons. In addition to drawing and painting, he enjoys singing in the choir, playing guitar, biking and kayaking.

Computer: You will need a stable, reliable computer, running with a processor with a speed of 1 GHz or better on one of the following operating systems: Mac OS X with Mac OS 10.7 or later; Windows 8, 7, Vista (with SP1 or later), or XP (with SP3 or later). We do not recommend using an iPad or other tablet for joining classes. An inexpensive laptop or netbook would be much better solutions, as they enable you to plug an Ethernet cable directly into your computer. Please note that Chromebooks are allowed but not preferred, as they do not support certain features of the Zoom video conference software such as breakout sessions and annotation, which may be used by our teachers for class activities.

High-Speed Internet Connection: You will also need access to high-speed Internet, preferably accessible via Ethernet cable right into your computer. Using Wi-Fi may work, but will not guarantee you the optimal use of your bandwidth. The faster your Internet, the better. We recommend using a connection with a download/upload speed of 5/1 Mbps or better. You can test your Internet connection here.

Webcam: You may use an external webcam or one that is built in to the computer. Webcam Recommendations: Good (PC only) | Best (Mac and PC)

Headset: We recommend using a headset rather than a built-in microphone and speakers. Using a headset reduces the level of background noise heard by the entire class. Headset Recommendations: USB | 3.5mm

Zoom: We use a web conferencing software called Zoom for our classes, which enables students and teachers to gather from around the globe face to face in real time. Zoom is free to download and easy to use. To download Zoom:

Visit zoom.us/download.
Click to download the first option listed, Zoom Client for Meetings.
Open and run the installer on your computer.
In August, students will be provided with instructions and a link for joining their particular class.

Scanner: In this class, students frequently submit homework assignments by scanning pages from their workbooks. Students and/or their parents should have easy access to a scanner and the ability to use it.

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