TEMPERA

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Tempera also known as Egg Tempera, is a permanent , fast drying painting medium consisting of coloured pigments mixed with water-soluble binder medium (usually a glutinous material such as egg yolk)

Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium.

Tempera paintings are very long lasting and examples from 1st century A.D still exists.

Egg Tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 it was superseded by the invention of oil painting during the renaissance.

Technique :

Tempera is traditionally created by hand grinding dry powdered pigments into a binding agent medium,such as egg,glue,honey,water, milk(in the form of casein)and variety of plant gums.

Tempera painting starts with placing a small amount of powdered pigment onto a palette,dish or bowling adding about an equal volume of binder and mixing. Some pigments require slightly more binder,some require less. A few drops of distilled water are added, Then the binder (egg emulsion) is added in small increments to the desired transparency. The more egg emulsion the more transparent the paint.

EGG TEMPERA:

The most common form of classical tempera painting is egg tempera. for this form most often only the contents of egg Yolk is used.

The white of the egg and the membrane of the yolk are discarded. The Protein in egg white prevents the paint from adhering well to the Panel surface. Egg yolk is never used by itself with the pigment. It dries almost immediately and crackles when it is dry. some agent is always added in variable proportions

some recipes are

1:1 - vinegar : egg yolk by volume

1:2 - yolk: white wine

some schools of Tempera use various mixtures of egg yolk and water.

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

When used to paint icons on church walls liquid Myrrh is sometimes added to the mixture to give paint a pleasing odor. Particularly as worshippers may find the egg tempera somewhat Pungent for quite some time after completion.

The paint mixture has to be constantly adjusted to maintain a balance between a greasy and watery consistency by adjusting the amount of water and yolk. as tempera dries the artist will add more water to preserve t he consistency and to balance the thickening of the yolk in contact with the air.Once prepared the paint cannot be stored. Egg tempera is water resistant but not waterproof.

Different preparations use the egg white or whole egg for different effects. Other additives scubas oil and wax emulsions can modify the medium.

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PIGMENTS :

Some of the pigments used by Medieval painters , such as Cinnabar( Contains mercury), Orpiment ( contains arsenic) ,or lead white ( contains lead) are highly toxic. most of the artist today use synthetic paints which are less toxic and have similar properties as older pigments. Even so many modern pigments are still dangerous unless certain precautions are taken ,these include keeping these pigments wet in storage to avoid breathing their dust.

Apart from the traditional process of mixing pigment with egg yolk new methods include Egg Tempera sold in tubby manufacturers such as Sennelier and Daler-Rowney.

APPLICATION :

Tempera paint dries very rapidly. It is normally applies in thin , semi opaque or transparent layers. when dries it produce a matte finish. Because it cannot be applied in thick layers as oil paints can, Tempera painting rarely have the deep colour saturation as oil painting does. In this respect the colours of unfinished tempera painting resembles the Pastel , although the colour deepens with Varnish. On the other hand Tempera colours do not change with time , whereas oil paint darkens, yellow and become transparent with age.

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GROUND :

Tempera adheres to an absorbent ground that has lower oil content than the Tempera binder used. ( Traditional rule is Fat over lean and never the other way round). The ground traditionally used is inflexible Italian Gesso ,and the substrate is rigid as well. Historically wood panels were used as the substrate and recently Masonite and modern composite boards are used. Heavy paper is also used.

Before painting a wooden support is prepared, such as Poplar ,Birch plywood or untempered masonite. The support must be absorbent so that tempera adheres to the surface. To achieve this , the artist first creates a rabbit skin glue ,which preserves and protects the supports. Rabbit skin or hide gelatine is mixed with water , allowed to sit overnight,then slowly heated with a double boiler. Once it reaches broth like consistency ,the heated glue is then applied to the panel thinly to the front,back and sides and allowed to dry for 24 hours.

The next step is to apply heated gesso mixture. To make the gesso mixture , precipitated chalk ,whiting and titanium white is mixed together with the rabbit skin glue water which serves as an aqueous binder. The mixture is heated with the double boiler until gesso has cream like texture. The artist than applies warm gesso in front back and sides of the panel waiting until each coat has slight sheen before applying the next coat. Generally four to six coats are applied and than panel allowed to dry for 24 hours. Once dry ,Panel can be sanded until it has an ivory finish.

Tempera was a earlier a Mural Medium in the ancient dynasties of Egypt,Babylonia, China and was used to decorate early Christian Catacombs. It was employed in variety of supports like stone Stelae ,Mammy cases,Papyrus rolls of ancient Egypt to wood panels of Byzantine,vellum leaves of Medieval Manuscripts.

Examples :

Madonna and child by Duccio ( Tempera and gold on wood)

The birth of Venus by Botticelli (Tempera On Canvas)

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DRAWING:

Many artists draw directly on the Panels, while other taster their images using Graphite paper or tracing paper. Using a graphite pencil the image is traced onto the tracing paper which lies on top of the original image. Once completed , the paper is flipped over and the outlines is once again traced in Graphite on the reverse side of the paper. The tracing paper is placed on top of the support and traced for a final time , transferring the graphite on the back of the paper to the painting surface. This process ensures exact pencil rendering of the image to be painted.

Adding Values :to add values to the pencil outlines and shading , graded tones of India ink and water are applied to the underdrawing. Five different values from light to dark are created by adding one drop of india ink into a mixing cup, adding two drops to another cup , and so forth adding more drops into a new receptacle until five drops are added. Into each cup 1/2 teaspoon of water is added . The ink and water mixture is stirred with a synthetic brush.

Using they s mixture the values are added in the drawing , This is the classic means of laying out values egg tempera painting. Once the ink drawing is finished Painting begins.

PAINTING :

The first application of paint on the inked surface are applied thinly and loosely. It is generally a good idea to work background to foreground. 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.

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. Opalescence is achieved by application of light value over the darker one

To create depth warm colours can be glazed over cool colours and cool colours can be glazed over warm colours.

With egg Tempera small strokes of thinned colour are applied almost in a manner that one handles a coloured pencil. These small strokes are woven onto the picture plane through cross hatching, glazing, and with tiny touches of more opaque paint. When thinning the tempered paint with more water it is important to wipe the excess pigment on the brush onto a paper towel or cloth.

The tempera should be applied as dryly as possible to avoid the creation of dots of pigments. Dry -brush applications are especially needed in the mid stages of painting. Egg Tempera is never applied heavily, as that would cause the paint to crack and flake off.

GLAZING :

Technique used when painting with egg tempera. To create a Glaze , thin, broad strokes of colour are placed on top of another colour. The resulting effect is similar to that of water colour and creates a jewel like appearance.

Through various techniques egg tempera can achieve opacity,translucency and opalescence.. When the same value and hue of a colour are cross hatched with thin lines of the same colour on top of itself the result is Opacity ( Cobalt blue layers are placed upon a lower layer of cobalt blue). To create translucency , a dark glaze is applied over lighter colour or value ( a layer of cobalt blue over yellow ochre) . Opalescence is produced by placing a lighter colour over a darker one (white strokes of paint placed over ultramarine blue). This creates a pearl like effect in which thin strokes of light colour help to emphasise light.

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