Aquarelle class of 2 June: making egg-tempera with Bev

A previous painting of Bev - on the paper she recommends (when there's no board with prepared surface available) : Arches 300grs Hot Pressed (grain satiné)

Making our own egg tempera...

After the aquarelle session of 26 May where we created our own transparent watercolour paint with gum Arabique and pigments, we went even further out of our comfort zone: We made our own egg-tempera. An enthusiastic and knowledgeable Bev, who had previously taken a class in the States, liked it, and practiced well, took care of the ingredients and explained & showed how it works:

* Seperate the yolk from the egg-white.
* Put the yolk on a piece of kitchenpaper, roll it around until is has no white anymore.
* Hold it above a jar and pierce it (membrane must not end up in paint, stays in kitchenpaper)
* Mix yolk well, with the same amount of 50/50 water/vinegar.
* Paint with mixture of pigment & egg (bit thicker than aq)
* Clean brushes with water, dry before getting new paint

The paint dries up with beautiful soft shine - to avoid unpainted parts that are matte, start with painting the whole surface with just a colour-less layer of egg tempera...
The yellow will fade, so the 'warm' effect of the yellow gets less
The paint takes approx 2 weeks to cure - then it is waterproof
With that in mind, think of cleaning your brushes well!

One of the nice effects is that you can scratch the paint, with the back of your brush for example. The effect is like masking fluid...

Experiment by Cathie - with glass effect

Amazing lily with scratching - by Patience

Experiment by Liz - with frog

Marble with scratching by Marina

 Fantastic bright-coloured icon by Avril

We all think that Cathie will soon be able to do wonders with this medium

If this is all to confusing, just look it up on google or youtube, there is a lot of info all over the place about this technique!

Edith had already done some research and tried out painting with egg white! The effects can be checked out on this picture (click to enlarge):

Bev also finished her Castello painting (aquarelle, not tempera)

Costanza painted this fragile flower. Supernice!