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“.