Today we worked on building up the shadows and depth of our painting with egg tempera
PROCESS
1. As we have left the painting overnight we had to 'seal' the painting with 2 parts egg tempera and 1 part water first and let it dry before starting work again, note that the paint that was done yesterday could still be brushed off if too harsh so be quick and gentle with the painting.
2. The rest of the day is to vary the tones of the pigments we have, at one point I was using very little water on my pigment and the paint became too thick, this is not to be recommended! You also do not want to see brush strokes, egg tempera is about building up the tones subtly.
3. Remember to dilute the paint thinly with water and apply layers ( dry between each layer) to build it up and it really makes the shadows vary very subtly.
4. Also I wasn't creating enough contrast between the colours, you really have to look at the painting carefully to think about where the light is and emphasis it with the white. I varied the whiteness in the lighter area and it really showed. I learnt too that some minor details can make a big difference - for example the lights and shadows under her eyes made such a difference to her expression compare to yesterday.
RECIPE - TEMPERA GRASSO
This is a method used by Botticelli,
1 part egg yolk and 1 part oil to mix with the pigments
OTHER TIPS
- Egg tempera is generally good for still life and not landscape, as landscape has more variation, textures and more fluid
