A customer has written a question and I thought I would share the answer with everyone, in case it might be of help to you 🙂
Question:
Hi, I’m a bit confused. When I tried painting with the Sennelier Egg Tempera as it comes out of the tube, I found that it would lift and mix when I attempted to put second and third glazing layers. I am using an acrylic gesso ground.
I thought perhaps I was missing something and supposed to treat the tube contents as a pigment paste, so I mix it with an equal amount of egg yolk as one would do with one’s own ground pigment paste. The result seems to be much better. I can glaze different colours over each other without getting mix through – even when thinned with water. The result, on acrylic gesso ground, is however, what feels like a waxy surface. It can be scratched off, even after 10 days drying, though you do have to work at it.
So my question is: Am I supposed to be using it straight from the tube as opaque layers, or mixing it with egg yolk as described above. If with yolk, does it remain in this waxy state, or will it dry out further?
Would be grateful for some pointers.
Ralph
Reply:
Hi Ralph
None of the artists here in the office use egg tempera. But I did a bit of on-line research to check things out for you. This was a superb source of info: www.eggtempera.com The Society of Tempera Painters.
It sounds to me like the surface is not absorbent enough. If it is scratching off and each layer is lifting off then I think you will need to use genuine gesso on a wood panel. The acrylic gesso boards seem very absorbent to me when I paint on them in oils, the oil just sucks right in and it goes matte. But egg tempera needs it to be even more absorbent.
Genuine gesso is made from chalk and hide glue (rabbit skin glue). We sell whiting and rabbit skin glue (rsg) for making gesso.
Egg tempera is a labour of love using paint you need to mix fresh each day and I guess that labour even includes making the surface primer.
This is an earlier post about rabbit skin glue.
The Sennelier ready-made egg tempera is considered very good by the serious artists I was reading about. And some do mix it with egg.
It contains a small amount of linseed oil to make it keep better.
The tempera artist Julie Green says the Sennelier can be applied a bit thicker than home-made: Tempera Painting Handout: Julie Green. Her website is nice to look around.
I hope this helps 🙂
Sennelier egg tempera can be used straight from the tube. For best results you need a rigid surface without acrylic, with traditional sizing. I tend to use watercolour painting boards, but not those that have been prepared for acrylic or oil painting.
A traditional technique is to use a small sable brush and make small strokes that add up to create an effect. Egg tempera is not suitable for washes or large areas of colour. It might help to look at the technique of artist like Andrew Wyeth on the internet. I hope this is helpful.
Thanks Helen.
Wow – it may be a coincidence, or my brain’s going, but the above is exactly what I have been trying out. Guess I must have written it… (?!) Anyway I have finally (yes I know it took a long time!) prepared a series of real chalk gesso boards on which I’m now going to try this Sennelier Egg Tempera out.
In the mean time, I’ve also gone and bought all the paraphenalia to grind and mix my own proper egg tempera – so I will try both and get back to you guys.
Ralph
Hi Ralph.
It does sound like it was your question.
Do let us know how you get on with the real gesso boards.
The point of this question is how to ‘keep painting’ with this specific product. Sennelier egg tempera has quite different properties than home made egg tempera. It handles more like gouache, than the sticky, draggable damar containing recipes I’ve used in other occasions.
And yes, the Sennelier product does not ‘set’ – it will redissolve under water or more layers, unless the finest, leanest hatching style is perfected – a difficult technique for most of us.
So, one needs to find – if one is persisting with this particular product – a method of ‘fixing’ layers, creating isolation layers that one may continue painting.
The options seem to me to orientate around
a) Alkyd based fixatives and varnishes
b) shellac
c) casein varnish (yep such a product exists)
d) a layer of linseed oil with perhaps a small amount of damar or canada balsalm. The linseed will ingress into the pigment layers and bind them as it sets.
The question in all cases is the archival properties and and optical qualities, as each approach is going to change the refractive index of the paint.
In all cases spraying would be the best approach. Happy experimenting !
Read The Practice of Tempera Painting: Materials and
Methods Paperback –
by Daniel V. Thompson
All you need to know to star egg tempera.Get aqueous
pigments from Kama for one.
His gesso formula perfect. Egg Tempera only works on
Gesso Italian for plaster.
And draw with dip pen/ brush and water proof indian ink –
get tonal values 1st.
I use Sennelier mediun just with aqueous pigment as you
would use egg tempera without oil in it. Sennelier
never gives info on use of their products – would think like
Golden or Gamblin have 800 number for questions
and have videos and customer back up.Egg tempera is easy
fast with an amazing feel.
Use really good Sable brushes
I used cennelier paint out of tube.
I am convinced that it needs some type
of binding mix.
I will keep experimenting.
In the meanwhile , let’s hope that
someone has answer .
Paint is useless to me as is in the tube.
because it won’t bind to the surface.
I dried it for a month as an experiment.
It comes off.
Hi Marta
Did you try preparing the surface you are painting on in a traditional way, i.e. without acrylic gesso or primers?
It sounds like this is the reason why the tempera can scratch off.
It also flows a lot better when thinned out with additional egg yolk and distilled water.
Let us know if you make any further progression!
Many thanks
Lisa
Dear all.
I have been using Sennelier egg tempera
binder for some years with excellent
results, sometimes with techniques similar
to oil painting. In fact it is a “Tempera
grassa” because there is a good quantity
of linseed oil in the binder. I use to paint
both on canvas and on gesso panel. I
isolate the various layers of color with
waxed shellac and in this way the
underlying color is fixed and made
insoluble in water. The final painting, after
a few months, takes place with Dammar
paint after having isolated the painting
with shellac.
Good painting to all
Thank you Paolo, for sharing your technique. It sounds like a good method.