Tip 1: Eyes
The first place to look in an icon is at the eyes. As you sit down with a particular icon, ask yourself questions:
- Where is the icon’s gaze drawing me?
- What’s the focus of the eyes in the icon?
- Are the eyes looking straight out at you? What do they ask you to consider?
- Are they looking beyond you? Might there be something outside of you or in your past that you need to consider through the eyes of the figure in the icon?
- What is the expression within them?
- What emotion does the gaze raise in you?
In some icons, you’re invited simply to share a gaze with the icon just as two lovers would: Each looks at the other. Gazing and being gazed at in return can be an experience of being loved.
