ONLY OPEN TO STUDENTS WHO HAVE ATTENDED A WRITING THE LIGHT FOUNDATION CLASS or by special permission by Dr. Kordis

Live Essential Icon Drawing Classes

Fall Semester Classes will begin on September 17th!

THIS IS A YEAR-LONG CLASS, BUILDING IN SKILLS THROUGHOUT THE ACADEMIC YEAR. 

We suggest students interested in this class first take the Foundations of the Byzantine System class with Maria Panou unless they have had previous experience drawing in the Byzantine system.

There are Summer options which would allow students to enter into this class in the Fall.

Welcoming the beginning level student who has already had a foundation class, this course will follow weekly lessons in a variety of practical lessons to include:

1. Drawing Heads. ( a. Dynamic frontally, 3/4 heads)
2. Hands, Feet
3. Garments
4. The standing figure
5. The seated figure
6. Moving figures
7. Beginning compositions
8. Other

(see more details below on the year-long subjects)

Throughout the lessons, students will strengthen their overall drawing skills, gain familiarity with the Byzantine system, and work towards their own readiness to compose more complex subjects and small compositions.

Students will submit their drawings online by email to Dr. Kordis, with Live Zoom sessions reserved for group corrections and critique — all lessons are to be watched and followed in the student’s own time with specific assignments given.  The Foundation Drawing Class with Maria Panou is different in that her actual lessons are given live — and not the corrections (as with this class), with Kordis’s class being also at a slightly quicker pace geared for students with some basic experience already.  We always provide a recording of all Zoom sessions — it is not a requirement to be present at the Live sessions.

Time: THURSDAYS, 7:30 to 8:30pm (Athens, Greece) time = 12:30 to 1:30pm Eastern Standard (EST) in the US & Canada, every other week – usually the first and third Thursdays of each month.

If students have taken Maria Panou’s Foundation Icon Drawing I & II, it is suggested to move to this class to assure that skills are reinforced and the visual language is progressing in iconography.

FALL 2026 Dates:

SEPTEMBER   17

OCTOBER 1 & 15 & 29

NOVEMBER 12

DECEMBER 3 & 17

JANUARY 8 

FOR PRE-REQUISITE OPTIONS: Please Maria Panou’s BYZANTINE DRAWING FOUNDATIONS I & II 

Once registered, students will receive the Full semester of pre-recorded lessons which contain more additional resources to follow than are assigned to allow more practice options.

Duration: 2 lessons per month (2 hours total).

Cost: €245/semester

Coursework lessons progressing through the year*:

1. Basic principles of the Byzantine painting system. Qualities of line. Letters as composition. Exercises on rhythm.
2. Frontal faces. Structure. Sample exercises
3. 3/4  Faces. Structure. Sample exercises
4. Garments. Structure. Sample exercises
5. Hands, feet, gestures, Items ( Books, chairs etc.) Landscapes. Structure.
6. Measurements of Human figure. Structure. Sample exercises. Busts of saints.
7. Full standing figures. Structure. Sample exercises
8. Seated Figures. Structure. Sample exercises
9. Figures in motion. Structure. Sample exercises
10. Techniques of drawing. (shading). Sample exercises
11. Drawing a theme with various shading
12. Drawing a small Composition with shading
13. Other lessons as needed

• Note: Once the Spring Semester 2026 begins, the academic year course will be mainly working on small compositions.

Questions?  Please email keri@writingthelight.com.