Egg Tempera

Egg tempera is known for its linear qualities and capacity to produce jewel-like paintings.

After, its peak during the Renaissance, egg tempera fell out of favor with the rise of the more versatile oil paints. However, a few modern painters have embraced the medium, adopting the labor-intensive practice of creating both the paints and the panels.

Egg tempera is a classic painting technique, tracing back to antiquity. Egg tempera is composed of ground pigment, water, and egg yolk. With the egg yolk the dimensionality is achieved.

                                                   What is Egg Tempera?

Egg tempera is composed of egg yolk, powdered pigment, and distilled water. The egg yolk serves as the binder that holds the pigment together. The addition of water turns the paint into a usable paste-like form.

Although egg tempera can be purchased commercially, most egg tempera artists prefer the purity of creating their own paints. It is a relatively easy process. However, homemade egg tempera can only be used for a single painting session.

Steps to create your own egg tempera paints:

A.    Roll the separated egg yolk on a paper towel.

B.    Break the yolk sac with a pin.

C.   Mix the contents of the yolk sac with ½ -1 tsp. of water and stir.

D.   Add water to the dry pigment to create a creamy paste. Add a drop of denatured alcohol to disperse the pigment

E.    The pigment is now a paste

F.     Add an equal amount of egg yolk to the pigment paste.

It is important to use only the egg yolk, minus the sac and egg white. Albumen, the protein found in egg white, prevents the paint from adhering well to the panel surface.

The goal when mixing egg tempera is to add just the right amount of egg yolk. When the right amount is used, the paint will dry to a slightly glossy finish. Too much egg yolk will make the paint appear greasy, and too little will make the paint appear chalky.

                                               Egg Tempera Supplies:

·      Dry pigments

·      Drafting tape

·      Measuring spoons

·      Soft-hair brushes

·      Wáter

·      Mixing cups

·      Gesseoed panels

·      egg

·      palette knife

·      sponge

·      fine sandpaper

·      India ink

·      a gesso mixture

·      a pencil

·      a couple of clean jars for water

·      a roll of paper towels 

                                               Preparing the Support

Before painting, a wooden support is prepared. The support must be absorbent so that the egg tempera can properly adhere to the surface.

The artist first creates a rabbit skin glue. Rabbit skin or hide gelatin is mixed with water, allowed to sit overnight, then slowly heated. The heated glue is then applied thinly to the front, back and sides of the panel and allowed to dry for 24 hours.

The next step is to apply a heated gesso mixture. To make the gesso mixture, precipitated chalk, whiting, and titanium white are mixed together with the rabbit skin glue water, which serves as an aqueous binder.

An artist can take a shortcut by using a product such as Fredrix Dry Gesso Mix,” in which the ingredients are already pre-mixed, and the artist only needs to add water.

The mixture is gently heated until the gesso has a cream-like texture. Four to six coats are applied and then the panel is allowed to dry for another 24 hours. Once dry, the panel can be sanded.

                                              Transferring the Image

Many artists draw directly on their panels, while others transfer their images onto panels using graphite paper or tracing paper. The first step is to draw a light sketch.

                                                     Adding Values

Five different values from light to dark are created by adding one drop of India ink into a mixing cup, adding two drops in another cup, and so forth, each time adding more drops into a new receptacle until five drops are added. The darkest ink mixtures are reserved for the darkest values in the underlying pencil drawing

                                              Applying the Paint

The first applications of paint on the inked surface are applied thinly and loosely. Egg tempera dries very quickly, so the painting must be worked section by section. To create the underpainting, the darker areas are first blocked in. The lighter the color, the more opaque it will appear.

Blending with egg tempera is not achieved in the same manner as oil or acrylic painting. The paint values must be “blended” by overlays of linear strokes. To create a sense of depth, warm colors can be glazed over cool colors and cool colors can be glazed over warm colors.

Steps for painting petals:

A.    Draw with a 8H pencil on gesso. 

B.    Ink over the drawing in corresponding values. 

C.   Apply thin glazes of ultramarine blue and vermillion, plus black in dark areas. 

D.   Applying different gradations of cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, and white.

E.    Add darker lines of violet and vermillion to form curve of the petal, and white to highlight the base and sides of the petal.

Painting with Egg Tempera

With egg tempera painting, small strokes of thinned color are applied almost in the manner that one handles a colored pencil. When thinning the tempered paint with more wáter. It is important to wipe the excess pigment on the brush. Egg tempera is never applied heavily, as that would cause the paint to crack and flake off.

Glazing & Opacity

Glazing is one of the techniques used when painting with egg tempera. To create a glaze, thin, broad strokes of color are placed on top of another color. The resulting effect is similar to that of watercolors and creates a jewel-like appearance.

Through various techniques, egg tempera can achieve opacity, translucency, and opalescence. To create translucency, a dark glaze is applied over a lighter color or value. Opalescence is produced by placing a lighter color over a darker one. 

Masking

In this painting, a tracing paper mask was used to protect the foreground flower arrangement in the vase, as well as the tablecloth. The darker colors in the background were laid in thinly and broadly with a hake brush. Later, smaller strokes of white with yellow ochre were applied to bring up the lighter color and value.

 Lights and Darks

Egg tempera dries quickly, making it difficult to blend edges. The different values of color must be mixed and applied near or on top of one another to create transitions in hue or value. The edges of different values can be “blended” by glazing or using linear strokes of color over an edge. Fine details can be added with a liner brush or brush sizes (0 -1). The fine lines can help delineate an object and also create areas of light values.

Finishing an Egg Tempera Painting

Egg tempera paintings take approximately six months to one year to dry completely. Egg tempera paintings are usually not varnished. Varnish would drastically alter the appearance of the tempera painting. Some tempera painters frame their paintings by placing them under glass.