Egg Tempera

I originally wrote this for the Niagara Calligraphy Guild Newsletter

Egg Tempera is a painting medium and method, but painters sometimes have to put
calligraphy and calligraphic ornaments in their pictures. If the painter uses
exclusively acrylic paints, he can easily create fine lines for calligraphic work,
even white lines against black, by watering down his paint. Even acrylics in tubes
the consistency of tooth paste can be made to flow in a nib pen, while still thick
enough to give an opaque line. Egg tempera gives the oil painter a way of making
incredibly fine details, such as required for intricate lettering.
The most direct way to use egg tempera is to add water to egg yolk, about 1 part
water and one part yolk, or more water as it pleases you. You then mix this with
your pigment. The purists insist that you buy pure powdered pigments, mix them
with water to form a thick paste, and then grind them on a piece of glass with a
glass muller to break down aggregate particles. You then can use this paste with
your egg yolk and water medium. Otherwise, you can use gouache, since it is very
high in pigment, or watercolours from tubes. The professional egg tempera painters
I consulted discourage (without adequate explanation) the use of watercolours.
Some forums I consulted suggest that the gum arabic in water colours does not go
well with the egg. I rather doubt this, since ancient painting manuals, such as
Cennini, mention that painters would add the juice of figs and other vegetable
materials to egg and these would actually improve the quality.
Egg tempera has a reputation for going bad very quickly, but you can counter this
by adding a few drops of vinegar (or oil of clove, but I have no idea where to get
this) to your medium.
Now, my next suggestion, which I have tried, will seem heterodox to the purists
(my comments were not posted in a forum, which leads me to this opinion). I
consulted with someone who runs a store in household paints. When you buy a can
of paint, the store draws from vats of dye and adds these to the paint. What, I
asked, is the composition of the dye. The dye for housepaint consists of pure
pigment and glycerine. The dye can be added to either oil paint or water based
latex paint. Such is the nature of glycerine. I purchased some of these dyes at 1.00
per squirt, which I stored in baby-food bottles. I did a few paintings which pleased
me somewhat, although it seemed that the glycerine would come to the top of the
painting and take a while to disappear. I then put some of these dyes in a muffin
tray and added water. When the water evaporated, some of the glycerine was taken
with the water, and I was left with a very thick paste in each tray. Now this paste
was and is excellent.

An additional note on these hardware store colours. The law requires that non-toxic
chemicals must be used in such paint. On the other hand, if you grind your own
pigments, you might be working with dust of cadmium and lead. You have to be
very careful. Also, at least some brands of paint dye use only permanent colours.
Also, in some cases you can even be sure what the colours really are - you can buy
tubes of dye at least for raw sienna, burnt sienna, yellow ochre and others.
Using egg tempera can be more like drawing than painting (if you want). Every
line you lay down with your brush sets almost instantly, allowing you to crosshatch as if you were drawing with a pencil. The most important consideration to
the painter and calligrapher, is that egg tempera can be used in conjunction with
oils, in three ways. First, you can do a clear concise painting in egg tempera and
then paint over it in oil in order to take advantage of the smooth mixing of oil
paints. Second, you can paint with egg tempera on top of dried oil. Third, you can
paint with egg tempera into wet oil. The amazing thing is that the egg tempera,
although it contains water, does not have any problem sticking to oil. This is
because egg tempera is an emulsion, where a gum allows small drops of water to
be held in suspension in water. Egg tempera on oil retains its crisp lines, making it
ideal for working careful details into an oil painting. This was how the Dutch
masters (Vermeer and others) were able to make small details in their oil paintings.
I made the remarkable discovery that I could use egg/oil emulsion (when I used the
right consistency of oil) in a nib pen, to make very concise details, dots and
lines on top of an oil painting (!). While you are working with it, the lines stay
crisp because of the effect of water on ail, but with the evaporation of the water, the
tempera emulsion bonds perfectly with the oil underneath.

EGG/OIL EMULSIONS
Actually, I have worked with an egg-tempera/oil emulsion together with oils. The
recipe I have is from Brigid Marlin, who has a web-site describing "mische
technique" (mixed oil/egg-tempera technique). It is as follows.
EGG/OIL RECIPE # 1
Into a clean jar, crack a fresh egg. (I strain the egg through a small sieve, in order
to strain out some of the solids). Add an equal amount of painting medium (half
linseed oil, half damar varnish) then add water to the amount of both of these
combined. Store in the refrigerator. It will keep for a year. Always shake well
before using." Since egg white contains more water and less oil than egg-yolk, it
can admit more additional oil. It may be my imagination, but this medium seems to
get better with age, it drys more quickly now after six months. Another tip, don't
dip your brush into your egg medium, but use a medicine dropper specifically for
this purpose. *** (written much later) I have been using a damar varnish for the
damar component, and I suspect that the solvent prevented the egg tempera from
hardening properly.

EGG/OIL RECIPE # 2
I have had success adding a small amount of linseed oil (a capful thinned with
turpentine) to an egg yolk, mixing thoroughly, and then adding the water. I got the
complete recipe from the website of Kama Pigments in Quebec.
Despite all of her virtues, egg tempera dries very fast, doesnt allow much mixing
of color and demands only rigid supports. This modified formula allows flexibility
by gaining some of the qualities of oil paint.
Use 1 part Egg yolk, 1 part Linseed oil, 1 part Water, 1 part White Vinegar (or oil
of cloves 10 drops). DIRECTIONS: Separate the yolk from the white and drain in
a little bowl. Drop by drop, mix the linseed oil vigorously into the yolk to obtain a
good emulsification and add the water when done.
HOW TO USE IT: Pre-mix the amount of dry pigments necessary for your session
with the binder and paint. This emulsion may be used over rigid or flexible
supports with proper application of gesso. For multiple layers, use water as you
solvent and, as you progress in coats, gradually reduce the amount of water used in
order to respect the fat over lean rule. This emulsion may also be used to paint
wet in wet in an fresh oil painting.
RECIPE # 3
I don't know where I got this recipe. Use a whole egg (filter and press through
cheescloth). Add an equal part of oil mixed with turpentine. Add an equal part of
water. Add maybe a capful of vinegar (10 drops or so) for preservation. As of the
time of writing, I have been using this recipe for about six months, the same batch
of mix which I keep in the refrigerator between use, sometimes adding another egg
and more oil. It seems to be the best recipe.
Update on Egg-Oil Emulsion
I have now used the same batch of egg-oil emulsion for three years, and I keep it in
the fridge. The emulsion now has the texture and appearance of deviled egg, like
a paste made with a boiled egg-yolk, pale yellow and opaque, but I scoop a tiny bit
out, mix it with a few drops of water, stir it, and it is fine.

THE SURFACE
Egg tempera is ideally used on a rigid panel prepared with traditional gesso (rabbit
skin glue, marble dust or talc or slaked plaster, and white coloration). Egg tempera
does not seem to stick well on acrylic gesso, although you may counteract this
(possibly) by painting your gessoed surface with egg tempera and then letting it set
for a long, long time. Egg tempera and egg/oil emulsions work just fine on paper,

but there may be problems later, since when egg tempera is completely dry and set,
it is brittle. However, if you glue your masterpiece to a rigid surface before a year
passes, I don't know why you should expect problems. An amazing property of
egg/oil emulsions is that even if you paint on thin paper, the oil does not seem to
penetrate and stain the paper - the protein gum in the egg somehow prevents this.
What I have been doing recently is doing an ink drawing on paper, then gluing the
paper to masonite. A tip on gluing: when the paper is laid on top of the glue,
bubbles may form underneath it. Use a pin and poke holes in the paper to allow air
to escape. When the paper is dry, I paint the paper with a think layer of gesso (a
rabbit-skin-glue and marble dust mixture I bought premixed), so that the ink
drawing barely shows through (only enough to serve as a guide for painting). I will
be borrowing techniques as I learn them from the art of mughal miniature painting,
see Nisar Mian and look for information on miniatures.
Gesso experiments
The easiest way to be perfectly traditional is to be Fredrix Gesso Mix. This is
rabbitskin glue, marble dust, and titanium white all mixed together in a power
form. Just add water and follow the instructions. Rabbit skin glue is the same stuff
basically as gelatin, only stronger. However, by itself it remains somewhat soluble.
When you start to paint on the gesso surface, you may actually stir up the gesso a
little if you do not use a light touch. Some painters actually deliberately use this to
create an impasto effect. After you have your first dry layer of paint, the egg has
sealed the gesso, and egg when it hardens is permanent.
I also added a very small amount of linseed oil to the Fredrix Gesso Mix. I have
not used these panels yet, but they dried very nicely. They seem to be harder than
the mix without the oil.
I found a recipe somewhere that says you can make a gesso with ordinary white
glue, water, and talc. Talc is easily available cheaply in the form of baby powder. I
made some gesso with this recipe and it worked perfectly, except unless rabbit skin
glue, the surface was not stirred up by the first layer of paint.
I have tried different ingredients for the chalk component. I bought whiting at the
hardware store, which is crushed calcium carbonate (either chalk, limestone, or
marble - they are the same stuff, maybe with a different crystalline structure).
Although it seems powdery in the bag, it was too gritty for a good gesso (some
particles were too big). I had some success using levigation. This is mixing the
whiting powder with water, stirring the water, and letting it settle for about a
minute. The heavy particles sink to the bottom, while smaller and lighter particles
float. You pour off the liquid carefully, and this liquid is made of smaller particles.
They will settle as well, and this is what you can use. You can do this repeatedly to
extract a finer and finer powder.

Another substance that might be useful is hydrated lime. First you should make a
putty, for which you leave the lime in water for several weeks (some craftsmen
with lime plaster have tubs of plaster centuries old). The lime plaster does not set
fast as plaster of paris, but over months it will set and in fact changes to marble (or
calcium carbonate). I have yet to make a gesso out of this, but the putty is now in a
tub and has a very pleasing smooth texture.
UPDATE ON GESSO and RABBIT SKIN GLUE
I have a batch of rabbit skin glue that I made maybe two years ago. I keep it in the
fridge to minimize spoilage, and I added a few big drops of oil of cloves also to
minimize spoilage. An interesting side effect of the oil of cloves is that the glue
remains in a liquid state in the jar in the fridge. It still dries very well when used. I
now use Rabbit Skin Glue to prepare paper for painting. If I coat paper with Rabbit
Skin Glue (with or without other ingredients of gesso, namely whiting and
pigment), I can paint on the paper with any mediawatercolor, acrylic, eggtempera, and oil. This enables me to do something I have wanted to do for a long
timeI can make a drawing on paper, then paint a layer of rabbit-skin glue over it,
then paint over the drawing in oil, or whatever else. Finally, I can mount the paper
on foamcore or anything else (or I can do this first), and the best way I have found
is with rubber cement (contact cement). The secret for using this is to coat both
surfaces thoroughly, then wait until they appear dry. Of course, work in very good
ventilation, because the fumes are noxious. Then place the paper carefully on the
other surface, and it is mounted. Rubber cement does not cause paper to wrinkle or
warp.

MISCHE TECHNIQUE

The above painting is an example of the mische technique that I learned from the
website of Brigid Marlin, although I did not follow every detail of her technique.
The size of the painting on your monitor is approximately the actual size. First, I
"drew" the picture in a medium of oil paste (one could use oil paint with a little
beeswax). This sort of thing is analogous to fingerpainting, and you can redo your
sketches as long as the medium remains pliable. Second, when it was dried I glazed
it with red paint diluted in oil. When this was dry, I put in the highlights in white
egg tempera. I repeated the process with yellow, then white highlights again, and
blue, with a few highlights.

Links:
www.eggtempera.com this site is definitive in matters of egg tempera
www.brigidmarlin.com this site demonstrates mische technique
http://www.currys.com/ this is Curry's art supplies with stores in several South Ontario
cities. Currys no longer carries powdered pigments, at least for ordering. You can get
Frederick's Gesso mix, rabbit skin glue, and marble , none of which are mentioned on the site
www.kamapigments.coma company in Montreal, run by artists, they have a good
variety of pigments at good prices. They also ship to the United States, last time I checked.