"Portrait of a Horse" in egg tempera by Nat Wildish

Selling art seems, at first glance, to be a fairly easy thing to accomplish.  But there are loads of things to learn.  This last couple of weeks I’ve been concentrating on understanding how to make prints.

I’ll have two sources of artwork for prints: my egg tempera paintings and digital artwork that I paint on the computer.  The egg tempera paintings can either be scanned or photographed in order to create prints; I’ve chosen to photograph them.  The digital paintings need to be created, right from the start, at the correct size and resolution in order to print properly.  It doesn’t work to paint them on a ’small canvas’ document and then expect them to print larger.  And scaling the document below 75% or above 120% digitally doesn’t generally give good results.

This means that right up front, before I create the artwork, I need to decide what size prints to produce.  I’ve spent the last week reading four really good books on the process of printing, considering all the options, and how to process the digital files to be sure of color consistency and sharpness of the print.

I’ve been able to find out how to color-manage the whole process, from the camera, the monitor, right through to the printer, and how to either work with a print service provider, or to print them myself with a printer at home. I’ve found out what papers and inks to use, what calibration and profiling equipment is best, how to process Camera Raw digital files, and how to use Photoshop to implement the whole process.

Access to the online library Safari Books Online, created in 2001 by O’Reilly Media, Inc. and The Pearson Technology Group, has enabled me to thoroughly and quickly research the subject.  This service is fantastic.  For a monthly subscription of $42, it allows unlimited reading of all of their books and training videos, or for $22 they allow ten books per month.  They offer a great deal at several different subscription rates, click here for more details about the subscriptions.

There’s no obligation to continue the subscription beyond one month, and it can be canceled at any time, so long as it’s cancelled before the start of the next monthly billing cycle.  They have loads of really great informative books; buying each individual book would incur a very large expense.  There’s a good introduction to the service in a review written a year ago on developerlife.com – reviews.  This helped me to get a better understanding of how the service worked, and then I looked into the details on the Safari Books Online site itself before subscribing.

"Maldives Palm" in egg tempera by Nat Wildish

I usually take notes when I read textbooks or informative books.  This allows me to quickly access the information I find most helpful in a book, in a layout easy for me to quickly scan visually.  It means that, in the future, I don’t have to sift through the entire contents of a book to find the details that I want to use.  And while I’m taking notes, it allows me to process and understand what I’m reading at much greater depth.  I find it a very efficient and effective way to work. Doing things this way, I rarely need to keep a book once I’ve read it.

I love the idea of being able to access this information online without having to waste the resources it would take to have that book in print, delivered or bought from a store and then to not need it after reading it for a few days.  It’s a much more environmentally friendly way to go about things, and one that my way of working naturally accommodates.

The Safari Books Online has been vital in enabling me to access really good books on a subject that is otherwise extremely difficult to get a good grasp of.  And until I read all four books that I chose to read on the subject of printing, I really didn’t feel equipped to move forward with the process.  The Safari Books Online service also provides what they call ‘Rough Cuts’, in which authors provide the text of a book while they’re writing it.  One of the books I read, which was absolutely brilliant, was a Rough Cut for a book that isn’t due to be printed until July of this year, 2009.

These are the four books I would recommend on the process of taking a digital file from creation to print:

1. Inkjet Tips and Techniques An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers by Andrew Darlow
2. Mastering Digital Color: A Photographer’s and Artist’s Guide to Controlling Color by David Saffir
3. Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications by Claudia McCue (this is a ‘Rough Cut’, due to be published in July 2009)
4. CMYK 2.0: A Cooperative Workflow for Photographers, Designers, and Printers by Rick McCleary

Safari Books Online cover many topics and are constantly expanding their library.  Searching their library is a really good way to find excellent books on different subjects.  And at the bottom of each book description they also include Amazon.com customer reviews, which is a really excellent way to gauge the relevance of a book to your needs.

Next, I’m going to read a book specifically on Digital Painting, “Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy: Digital Painting” by Bert Monroy; then I’ll read a couple of books about digital SLR cameras, and about the one we have in particular, so that I can competently take photos of the artwork.

After that, well… I’ll see if there’s anything else relevant to my art goals.

"Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest" egg tempera painting by Nat Wildish

I hope to have most of the research of this type finished within the next month.  And then I can really get to work on the art, which is, after all, the most enticing part.  I hope that sharing some of my process in researching and in particular the books I found on printing can be of help to you.  If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions I’d be very happy to hear them.

My best friend, and extremely talented artist, Shannon Ryan, has a painting, Lizard at 11:10, selected to be displayed for sale in this year’s Watercolor Society of Oregon’s Annual Aqueous Media Exhibition.

Watercolor Painting of "Lizard at 11:10" by Shannon Ryan

If you’re anywhere near the vicinity of the RiverSea Gallery in Astoria, Oregon, you might catch it before it’s sold.  The exhibition ends on April 29th.  If you’re too far away, then you can also buy a print or a card by clicking on the image above and still be able to enjoy this incredible painting.

Here is another amazing painting by Shannon:

Gouache Painting of "Spirit Wolf At Play" by Shannon Ryan

Shannon describes what motivates her to paint in her post on Chipper’s Alley, entitled “This Jewel Called Earth.”  She says:

Painting wildlife and the beautiful things of this earth has come naturally to me because I want to express my love and appreciation for all the animals and flowers that roam and grow on this planet.

Sometimes when we think we can’t do anything, we still  do have choices. Perhaps the greatest and best choice is to cherish and love this amazing, sparkling, breathtaking place we call our home in the Milky Way, and to care for it as if it were our most dearly-loved family member. Everything else just has to follow naturally…

Watercolor Painting of "Squash Blossom Ballet" by Shannon Ryan

I really admire her aim and her artwork, it’s beautiful.  She has originals, prints and even cards available on her site, Shannon Ryan Art.  If you’d like to brighten your day with some stunning and cheerful nature and wildlife images, I recommend taking a look at her gallery.

This is the final post in this series on how to paint with egg tempera, and here we’ll be looking at the painting progression of another three paintings in egg tempera.

Egg Tempera Painting of “Norton Down Church Window”

Below is a slide show movie showing the window being painted, click here to see it if it doesn’t appear in your rss feed or reader.

Below are a progression of still shots to show the top half of this painting in more detail.  To see larger, click on the image.

#1 in progress series of egg tempera painting "Norton Down Church Window"

First I put on the dark grey shades.

#2 in progress series of egg tempera painting "Norton Down Church Window"

Then I added lighter greys and started working on the rusty coloring.

#3 in progress series of egg tempera painting "Norton Down Church Window"

Then greens were added to the wall and the window.  As I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, I try to paint all the objects on the painting that require a given color all in the same session.  This promotes speed, but it also means that I minimise how often I have to create the same shade and consistency of color during another session.

#4 in progress series of egg tempera painting "Norton Down Church Window"

Lighter colors and highlights are added.

#5 in progress series of egg tempera painting "Norton Down Church Window"

And here’s the finished painting, well, the top half of it.

Egg Tempera Painting of “Jura Butterfly”

An example of a different subject is this painting of a butterfly shown in the slide movie below, click here to see it if it doesn’t appear in your rss feed or reader.

You can see how the different colors in the greenery are added layer by layer until the desired effect is arrived at.

Egg Tempera Painting of “Aguille du Midi, Chamonix”

Here’s  a completely different subject: the Aguille du Midi, Chamonix, the mountains that rub shoulders with Mont Blanc in France.

Stage 1 of painting "Aguille du Midi, Chamonix"

Below is a slide movie showing the progress of painting these mountains. This slide show is a little different in that it shows close-ups of the first third of the painting from beginning to completion in the first three slides, then the second three slides show the middle portion of the painting from beginning to completion. The last slide shows the completed painting in full, click here to see it if it doesn’t appear in your rss feed or reader.

If you’d like to see the complete finished painting in larger format, click on the image below.

Finished painting "Aguille du Midi, Chamonix"

Painting with egg tempera can be time-consuming because it does need to be applied thinly and it dries almost immediately after it’s applied. But it is possible to go fairly fast, if you move your paintbrush in quick repeated strokes to spread the paint to a wider area before it dries.

Another factor which influences the time required to produce a painting is how many layers are applied. A beautiful painting can be created with surprisingly few layers of egg tempera paint, so it’s a question of what effect is wanted. If time is taken to paint many layers, the payoff is that it’s like building a crystalline gem that reflects brilliant colors.

It’s a very rewarding, hardy and long-lasting medium – just think, every surviving panel painting by Michelangelo was painted in egg tempera. If you’re thinking of having a go at painting with egg tempera, I hope you have loads of fun and that these posts have been useful.

If you have any questions or comments, I’d be pleased to receive them.

Parts I and II showed how to prepare egg tempera paint and how to paint with it.  Here we’ll demonstrate the progress of two more paintings and show in detail how to paint sky and water with egg tempera.

Painting the “Purple Flowers”

The following slide movie shows the progress of painting “Purple Flowers”, ending with the finished painting.  This gives a good sense of how to approach the layering of colors and paint when using egg tempera.

In the slides above you can see how the layering of color on the flower stalks gives them depth and substance and how the petals are gradually built up from dark to light, with the darker color showing through the upper layers of paint, to give them a translucent look.

Painting sky can be a bit tricky, but I find it helpful to visualize it the following way. The sky without clouds is (or should be) a really deep blue. When there’s moisture or dust in the air (and possibly other things too!), these particles scatter light in all directions, throwing light back at the observer. This light coming back from the dust (and other) particles makes the sky look lighter blue.

Egg tempera kind of works in a similar way.  To create depth of color, we place down a few layers of deep, dark blue on the painting first. We can think of it as painting that deep blue that we know is behind all those dust particles in the air.

#1 in series demo of "Purple Flowers" egg tempera painting

Then, paint alternate layers of slightly opaque blue and darker blue, by adding a little white gouache to the blue paint to make the lighter blues. This is as though we’re adding our own particles in the air of the painting when we introduce the opaque paint. (Click on images to see in more detail.)

#2 in series demo of "Purple Flowers" egg tempera painting

Repeatedly add dark and light, and sometimes very light, blue layers of egg tempera paint.

#3 in series demo of "Purple Flowers" egg tempera painting

eventually it gives the same appearance of hazy depth on the painting as we perceive when we look at the sky.

The same process works well for painting the far hills to have that hazy look.

#4 in series demo of "Purple Flowers" egg tempera painting

This is really one of the stellar characteristics of egg tempera paint, it allows for the light to travel through the layers of paint in such a way that it can really create the illusion of depth in a painting.

#5 in series demo of "Purple Flowers" egg tempera painting

This last image shows the final version of the upper half of the “Purple Flowers” painting.

Painting the “Geneva Lighthouse”

Below is another slide show movie demonstrating the progress of the painting “Geneva Lighthouse”.  Here the same principles were applied to the sky.

In addition you can see how the Geneva lake water was painted.  First the darker hues, and then gradually the layers of colors of the water were added until the lighter colors of reflections from the water were finally added.  In some places some darker highlights were softly added to the upper layers to show dark patches on the water.

Stay tuned for the final post in this series on DweezelJazz Art blog, “How To Paint With Egg Tempera, Part IV”, to see the progress demos of an additional three egg tempera paintings.

In Part I we covered how to prepare the egg tempera paint base, drawing of artwork and how to prepare the artwork surface for painting with egg tempera.  Now we’ll go into detail about painting with egg tempera.

My Art Work Space

Adding Pigments to the Egg Tempera Base

Traditionally artists have ground their own solid pigments, making them into a smooth powder, which they then mix into the egg tempera paint base, the mixture of egg yolk with a small amount of water.  The egg provides the oily base, while the pigment colors the artwork.

Grinding pigments can be a highly toxic process and requires safety precautions to prevent inhalation of the powder and from absorbing it through the skin.  It can also be a fairly time-consuming activity and requires some organization and storage space; often the pigments need to be stored in a liquid in jars.

I decided to go for a ready-prepared, light-fast, relatively non-toxic approach.  I use Winsor & Newton Artists’ watercolors.

Winsor & Newton Artists' Watercolors

I keep them in plastic bags to prevent them from drying out.

The egg yolk temporarily contributes a yellow color to the paint and this can make it a little difficult to estimate what the color will turn out to look like on the painting once the egg yolk yellowness has vanished after some days.  So I made a color chart just using the watercolor paint with water, and I use this for reference when choosing which color to use for painting.

My Reference Color Chart

Using this watercolor paint reference chart removes most of the guesswork. I find this works a charm for estimating the final color outcome.  Although, you do need to expect additional depth and brightness of color on the painting because it’s combined with the egg tempera paint base and not just water.

I usually prep one egg yolk for the day, very occasionally two. First I put a dab of Winsor & Newton watercolor into the bottom of one of the pallet wells.  Then I use a small spoon to fill much of the rest of the palette well with the egg tempera base from the jar.  I use an old paintbrush to mix the watercolor pigment with the egg tempera.

Painting Palette, glass of distilled water, egg tempera paint base and paintbrushes.

At the side I have a very small (shot) glass with distilled water in it. I use distilled water for the entire painting process.

Distilled water

If the room humidity is low then, at intervals through the day, it’s often necessary to add a little more water to the egg yolk and pigment mixtures in the pallete wells.

I paint with watercolor Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable brushes.  Are you getting the impression I rather like Winsor & Newton?  I got a lovely watercolor box set on sale a few years ago and that set me onto them.

As the day progresses, more and more colors are added to the palette and colors are mixed with others.

Painting with egg tempera this way is efficient and also very economical. Excuse me for the blurry photo.

Painting Palette

Applying Egg Tempera Paint

Usually I start with the darker colors that will appear in the painting and layer colors, sometimes interweaving dark and light colors to give the appearance of texture.

The thin crystalline layers of egg with pigment in them create a beautiful transparent effect, so that colors that are in layers below can be seen through the upper layers of paint, so long as the pigments used are not too opaque to see through or there are not too many opaque layers above.

Light travels down through the layers, bouncing off them and coming back up to the eye from all the different layers.  This creates a myriad of stunningly bright, vivid facets to the image and is very appealing.

Here’s a short slideshow of the stages involved in painting “Annecy Restaurant”.

Using Layers of Egg Tempera Paint To Create Textures and Colors

Typically I paint all the parts of the painting that need the same color at the same time so that I can be efficient with the paint. I build up the paint, layer by layer, mixing layers of different colors if I want to have a textured effect.

Below you can see this in detail. The following five photos show how the wall becomes progressively more textured by adding layer on layer.

#1 in sequence showing painting of wall in "Annecy Restaurant" Egg Tempera painting

#2 in sequence showing painting of wall in "Annecy Restaurant" Egg Tempera painting

#3 in sequence showing painting of wall in "Annecy Restaurant" Egg Tempera painting

#4 in sequence showing painting of wall in "Annecy Restaurant" Egg Tempera painting

This last photo is how the wall looked for the finished painting.  The variations in the surface are not cracks and they provide a very realistic texture for a wall.  As you can see, the darker colors that were placed in the layers below are visible through the upper layers.

There are even contours visible on this painting, which adds nicely to its effect. If you click on the images, they’ll appear larger. There you can see that it’s possible to vary the paint height, for example the yellow lights, by painting more layers over particular areas. You can add as many layers of paint as you like and, as long as each layer is thinly applied, it won’t crack.

Well, I had intended to put at least another slide movie of another painting in this post.  It seems it’ll have to wait til the next blog post in this series on DweezelJazz Art blog: “How To Paint With Egg Tempera, Part III“.

There are a number of ways to paint with egg tempera.  This article will show you what I do.  For an introduction to what egg tempera painting is and a brief history, see also previous post: An Introduction To Egg Tempera Painting.

Sketching The Drawing

Pencil drawing on paper

I make a drawing in pencil on hot pressed Fabriano Artistico extra white 100% cotton watercolor paper. The cold pressed paper isn’t as smooth as the hot pressed; the smoother paper provides a better surface for the egg tempera paint.

Then, with diluted Winsor & Newton Calligraphy ink (using distilled water to dilute the ink), I redraw the image and erase the pencil lines.  This allows being able to see the drawing later on, without it being visible on the final painting.

Inked artwork glued with archival wheat paste to tempered glass.

Providing A Solid Support For The Painting

It’s necessary for an egg tempera painting to be on a rigid surface so that the paint doesn’t crack.  Egg tempera paint uses egg as its base, and egg dries in crystalline form. It cracks if it’s painted on too thick, or if the surface its on bends. Using archival wheat paste, I glue the paper onto tempered glass, as you can see in the photo above.  Tempered glass  is totally non-toxic, doesn’t warp and looks very pretty.

I have put glass that has paper glued to it with archival wheat paste in the bath tub to soak to try to get the paper off.  After leaving it for several hours I found that I still had to scrape vigorously in order to get the paper off.  I decided to see what would happen if I soaked it, took the glass and paper out without scraping, and then let it dry.  The paper dried just as if I’d never soaked it, and it was still completely stuck to the glass.

Archival wheat paste is a very impressive way to firmly, if not almost irreversibly, adhere paper to glass!  It has the added advantage of being non-toxic, non-acidic and will not damage the artwork or paper in any way, and it doesn’t deteriorate over time.

Preparation of the Base for the Egg Tempera Paint

At this point it’s time to make the base of the egg tempera paint: egg yolk mixed with a very small amount of water.

Preparation of egg tempera paint base

1. Crack the egg (preferably use ‘bio’ or ‘organic’ eggs) and remove the white, keeping only the egg yolk.

Separating the yolk from the white

2. Place the yolk on a tissue, I use a couple of sheets of toilet paper.

Separated egg yolk

3. Pierce the thin (but sometimes rather resilient) transparent sac around the yolk.

4. Squeeze the yolk gently and pour the orange-yellow liquid into a small jar.

Pouring egg yolk into a jar

Steps 3 and 4 ensure that only the yolk itself is included in the paint mixture, providing a very smooth base for the paint.

5. Add approximately half a teaspoon of water (preferably distilled water), it varies according to the size of the egg.

Add water to the yolk

6. Stir.

What you’re after is a mixture of egg yolk and water that looks a light creamy color.  And that has the thickness and viscosity so that when you lift the teaspoon out from the mixture you get one or two drops leaving the spoon.

Egg tempera base of egg yolk and a small amount of distilled water

It’s always better to add small amounts of water and to keep adding until you reach the correct consistency.  It becomes very easy with practice and this whole process only takes a few minutes once you’re used to it.

This is all there is to producing the base for painting with egg tempera.

Prepping the Artwork Surface

Now the paper, with the ink sketch on it, is ready to be prepped for painting with egg tempera.  This is done by painting three layers of the egg tempera base evenly over the entire surface of the paper.  This must be done with thin layers, applying a little with the brush and spreading it evenly, just like when painting with egg tempera, so that it doesn’t crack when it dries.  Essentially this is painting with egg tempera, just without any coloring pigment in it.

Artwork surface prepped for painting with egg tempera

You can click on this image to see it larger.  This paper has been prepped with three layers of egg tempera.  I also had started painting on it, but this is the only photo I had of  prepped artwork. You can see the distinct yellow coloring of the egg tempera base on the page – this vanishes after some days in normal light.

At first an egg tempera painting can appear a little dull because of this egg yolk coloration, but once it fades, the image left is nothing less than stunningly bright and colorful.  This is one of the huge bonuses of painting with egg tempera, and in addition, if light-fast color pigments are used in the egg tempera base, then these colors don’t fade or become yellow over time like oil paints do.

I’ve prepared a number of slide shows to demonstrate how I paint with egg tempera.  To see these, stay tuned for the next post on DweezelJazz Art blog: “How To Paint With Egg Tempera, Part II“.