EGG TEMPERA

These looked interesting and helpful to me famerman. Sounds like a really big project but a fun one.

http://www.eggtempera.com/

http://eggtempera.free.fr/

http://eggtempera.free.fr/gallery.htm




James Eddie
1916-2002

egg tempera
GREAT, Joanne. I did a couple of paintings, on some kind of board with egg tempera in 1955 (Mexico City). No idea how I did it. I recall that it went easily. These links are kindling my interest. Thanks. Farmerman, please keep us informed on the progress of this project.

http://www.artshow.com/resources/painting.html
http://www.whitney.org/jacoblawrence/tell/make_paints.html
http://www.danielsmith.com/leaflet-egg-tempera.html

I havent worked with tempera in years but, seems to be a few places to look around for information..hope it helps

Great quinn1 I love the first one in particular.

egg
And thanks to you too Quinn. Boy, Farmerman sure came to the right place for help.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE INPUT. MY CAPS LOCK PROBLEM WILL BE FIXED TODAY SO I WILL NO LONGER POST LIKE SOME KIND OF ZEALOT.

I HAVE A LARGE SERIES OF PAINTINGS THAT IM GETTING UNDERWAY. THESE ARE TRIPTYCHS OF A SERIES OF LARGE BRANCHES OF BUTTONWOOD TREES. IVE DONE A BUNCH OF STUDIES INACRYLICS AND I JUST DONT LIKE THE FLAT LOOK OF ACRYLICS . OILS HAVE NEVER BEEN MY MEDIUM BECAUSE THERES TOO MUCH RESISTANCE TO MY WAY OF PAINTING.

AROUND HERE EGG TEMPERA IS ALMOST A CLICHE WITH ALL THE ANDREW WYETH WORK. IM ENVISIONING A DIFFERENT RESULT. IF IT DOESNT WORK, ILL REVERT BACK TO MY WATERCOLORS.

egg
Not a zealot? Damn! I thought I had you all figured out.
BTW, what do you think of gouache?

Gouache is really a commercial art product as one can get flat areas of color that are very even for such things as packaging art. It's really hard on brushes -- I remember ruining a Windsor Newton #7 brush because gouache is so thick with pigment it's abrasive! I was selling an artist who painting beautifully in oils and acrylics but would use gouache as a watercolor which would produce this grainy, unattractive bleeding of colors and destroy the image. I could never diplomatically let him know that there is a reason fine art teachers discourage using it as a medium. Gouache would be a medium I would consider for studies to be later done in oils or acrylics. There simply isn't a cobalt blue as intense as the gouache color and in the deep reds. It's also not a good drybrush medium like tempera which is why Wyeth preferred egg tempera. The egg consistency and oilyness makes it great for drybrush. Actually, farmerman, there was a rash of drybrush artists in California more or less in the style of Wyeth in the late 60's and early 70's. Too many of them looked like tourist art and one was tempted to turn the work over to check for a stamp.

FM This is what I found from my brief foray into egg tempera....

You need to set aside a day to prepare the ground on your panels for tempera and follow instructions (minute differences in quantities) to the letter to avoid cracking.

You may as well prepare many panels at once since you
will be boiling the mixtures in various quanitites and it is a labour
intensive process. The garage is a good place for this work......

You will need at least 12 layers of whiting, rabbit skin glue, calcium
carbonate and distilled water in different quantites.

I tried 6 x 8" panels about 1 " thick of a sort of layered chipboard which I
first sized with rabbit skin glue on both sides. If I had to do it again, I would buy the best quality (recommended) wood I could afford since I love quality, but you have to avoid warping, so the correct wood is paramount.

NOTHING beats the awesome brilliance of the colours of egg tempera.......

HEY THE CAPITALS ARE GREAT!!!!!!! GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!

I'd have to research it because I haven't used egg tempera for years but it's never been a medium to layer on too thickly. I think that there is an additive (lemon or baking soda?) that retards the drying and keeps it from cracking.

Incidentally, JL, I have an old painting of the Grand Canyon I did in high school on my living room wall! It's when I was heavy into illustration art, just previous to my foray into astronautical illustration. I did have it down pretty good as an opaque medium but, again, could never could get the same technique by using oil brushes where the gouache wouldn't screw up the brush. As a Windsor Newton Series 7, No. 7 brush is not between $65.00 to $90.00, that's a consideration. I need to purchase a new one as mine was stolen and Dick Blix seems to be the lowerst price (my local Art Warehouse has them locked up and they are $89.00).

egg
Shepaints, you've almost scared me away from egg tempera. Are there prepared supports on the market. I'm far too lazy for such labor intensive work. When I used egg tempera at the San Carlos painting academy in Mexico City in 1955 (in preparation for the study of fresco painting, I suspect; I didn't stick around long enough to find out), the teachers provide the class with boards which were prepared (but they never told us how). I gave my works away so I don't know how well they endured.

egg
And you, Lightwizard, have definitely scared me away from gouache. I just bought set of them after seeing a work with charcoal and gouache that impressed me. I'll probably use them that way rather than as a principal medium. Thanks.
p.s., I still prefer acrylics and can't detect the "chalky" effect that you or someone else complained of.

It's great for creating a color background for charcoal but use an inexpensive soft, wide brush. They just require getting used to as they react differently than acrylic and work best on paper substrates. They do come out very matte in finish which is why commercial artist like them -- they do not pick up any reflection when being photographed. This could be the chalkiness you're talking about. For most fine artists, acrylic replaced so many mediums and can be altered with different clear and clay-like mediums. I know I couldn't get the texture out of them that I could get with oils when I was painting abstracts with heavy impastos applied with painting knives.

JL.....I looked all over and couldnt find prepared supports for
egg tempera. I spent an entire day in the garage (steaming hot 90 degree + summer) with my boiling mixtures, preparing 12 carefully purchased boards ....

To quote a long time abuzzer and a2ker I admire.... When I finally completed 12 layers on 12 panels, the friggin' panels developed hair line cracks!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In fairness, I didn't follow the recipe to the letter....

By the way, I know someone used LEATHER as a support....and another whose entire exhibition - 6 month's work of paintings in egg tempera was contained in an area of about 4' x 4' due to it's painstaking process........more akin to drawing than than painting.......Look at the ancient religious icons.....

Another draw back for me was the initial cost of buying all the powder pigments. IF YOU CAN MASTER THE TECHNIQUE......the colours are without equal, brilliant...the art is up to you......

egg
Thanks Shepaints.

My day with egg temperas
Well, it was a grey day, one that translates well to a medium like egg tempera. Still, I had to drive 40 miles to Lancaster to buy some colors and some (not so) authentic midieval grounds.
I found that there are numbers of spray and gesso-like grounds that dont require me to become HAns Holbein in the barn
I fired up the pellet stove and began working on my masonite panels.(Ivisited the Brandywine museum the previous day and saw that Andrew W and other artists, who use egg tempera, seem to prefer the masonite boards.
I have a large belt sanding machine that will tooth-up a wide board. with a 220 grit. I then hand sanded at a 400 grit using a wide board.
I prepared about 6 masonite panels (Im doing triptychs)
I made a mixture of "canned" ground and set the boards with gesso. I did about 4 coats with sanding in between. Then, technology, . I sprayed on a ground using a single action spray gun. (I used to do striping and flames on motorcycles)
I did a final sanding at a 600 grit and theyre beautiful.

now Ive got to prepare the colors. I got a bunch of veterinary medicine vials from Jeffers ag supply . I will mix up a limited pallette and , ohhh, probably by Memorial Day, I should be ready to start.

JL, I agree with Lightwizard about gouache. Its a fancy name for kids poster paint. Ive never used it except for signs when I used to be the window sign maker for a supermarket chain. That was whenIi was a kid. If you use gouache to get a thin wash, it puddles and causes grainy deposits. I never used good brushes with it.. I only used cheap sash painting brushes and squirreltail stripers. Guache will disappoint you , unless yo want to achieve that grainy primary color look.
Acrylics , Ive never liked them because of their flat "phony" light absorption properties.

Ill be starting this weekend. (Ive been mostly on down time this week so I didnt have any work pressures) Ive started and finished a whole bunch of water color studies and am getting closer to the scenes I want to do as the final works.
well, its snowing like crazy here and weve gotten more than the 5" that was predicted, so Itll take an hour or two so the pellet stove warms up the area

I did have a lot of trouble with the light absorption of gouache -- again the reason why it's easily photographed. The painting I mentioned which is the only example I have left of my experimentation with the medium (it was L.A. Art Center's illustration class favorite) and I can still see that it's qualities are strictly for the purpose of and effect of no medium at all. I was into straight, almost photographic realism back then and I did a whole series of Grand Canyon pieces, also in oils. The painting I did of the canyon at night in a thunder storm has more luminosity and life to it while the gouache looks like something out of Arizona Highways (shame on me, I probably liked a photo in that mag and decided to use it as an exercise). Most greeting card art is gouache as well as a lot of packaging art. I would use it strickly for studies for larger paintings -- it does relinquish some really brilliant color and especially the primaries.

farmerman -- careful and don't set your tootsies on fire with that stove (I remember a pot belly stove in my cousin's cabin in Crestline, CA where I decided to warm up my shoes on the pot belly stove and ended up cooking them a la Chaplain in "The Gold Rush."

egg
Gentlemen, thanks for your experience. Regarding gouache, I'm sold. But I still find that, overall, acrylics remain my medium of choice. They give me the convenience, forgiving-ness, and malleability that a lazy person like me desires. It can be used like buttery oils or watered down for wc-like washes. I have seen too many wonderful acrylic paintings, especially those of Tamayo, to worry about the quality of results it offers. A book, "Acrylics, Bold and New, by Nickolas Roukes, (1986, ISBN 0-8230-0058-3) shows in wonderful reproductions the range of effects they can produce. And, of course, the range of mediums available through Golden is amazing. Besides, I can't imagine a world confined to oils, watercolors and crayons. I must confess, however, that I am fascinated by the subtlety to be gotten by oils. My wife, however, would never put up with the smell. Don't ever tell her I said so.
And, of course, one can always paint oil over acrylic (never the reverse).