Talk:Egg tempera

The big indigestible 'howto' chunk of this page SHOULD REALLY BE MOVED ELSEWHERE, In my opinion. --dcf 12:50, 2004 Jun 21 (UTC)

An egg yolk has a membrane which contains the liquid yolk. You don't want to use the membrane to make paint. It's like using the skin off the exposed surface of house paint which has been setting open too long.

In preparing egg tempera, isolate the yolk and dry the membrane slightly by rolling it on a paper towel. Pick up the yolk GENTLY by the membrane, dangle it over a receptacle and puncture the membrane with [for instance] a toothpick to drain off the liquid inside. You will want to use distilled water. Chemical additives in the water can make the paint change color over time.

Your initial mixture of powdered pigment, yolk and distilled water will dry out and cease to flow well after you've been working awhile. This will happen whether or not you keep the mix covered--yolk just gets thick upon standing. You will have to keep adding water as you work, because the pigment-yolk paste dries out, and the paint won't flow. The result is a gluey, plaster-like buildup on your work, and it's very ugly. Too much yolk in the mixture makes the paint look greasy and clumpy; too much water makes it run. You can't hurt it by adding more of everything one substance at a time until you get what you want. Most pigment powders settle out; you have to keep stirring your paint. Keep coffee stirrers on hand for that, or a palette knife.

I use a child's tea-party set for holding the yolks and the water. I also fill 2 large syringes, one with yolk and one with distilled water, as this makes it easy to control the amount of each you add to the pigment and has the added advantage of keeping the yolk from thickening with exposure to air.

JEB Malcolm

DO REMEMBER THIS:

[1]  BUY NON TOXIC PIGMENTS AND

[2]  COVER YOUR NOSE AND MOUTH WITH A DAMP RAG WHEN YOU'RE HANDLING POWDERED PIGMENT, WHETHER IT'S TOXIC OR NOT. Even if the powdered pigment your're using isn't toxic, it is       finely ground and gritty, and it will damage your lungs if       if you breathe too much of it. Don't allow anyone into your studio when you're working with it, and wipe all your surfaces down with a damp rag when you're through. Vermillion--the real stuff--is made from cinnabar, which is mercury ore, and cadmium red, orange and yellow contain--well--cadmium, which is poisonous. You have to be careful. Research the pigments you use. Artificial pigments, such as the quinocronones, work very well and won't kill you or give you cancer. You don't have to use the same pigments Michaelangelo did. He used them because he didn't have a choice. If you just have to use a toxic pigment to be happy, for your family's sake, be smart and buy a respirator.

Misleading
You may be able to do painting with the described ingredients, but its's not even close to the classical tempera recipe which uses an emulsion of oil and water, emulgated by whole egg, not yolk alone, with the possible additions of mastic or dammar. --Pjacobi 23:08, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * Why not fix the article then? Disputed tags tend only to be used when there is an actual arguement on the talk page. Perhaps you could add a section on classical tempera recipe - who used it, how do we know etc. Theresa Knott (The snott rake) 23:25, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * One should be aware that there are many variations on how to "temper" pigments to make paint. Egg yolk tempera is one of the simplest formulas. There are also whole-egg temperas, egg white (glair), egg-and-oil emulsions, egg and varnish (such as dammar or mastic), distemper (hide glue), and so on. Despite the disputation above, the classic egg tempera mixture is, indeed, chicken egg yolk mixed with pigment and water. Refer to www.eggtempera.com and links within that site for clear directions on painting in egg tempera. --Dharper 12:32, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I beg our pardon, Pjacobi, you are mistaken and Dharper is correct. I am a professional working artist and art historian. Egg tempera is indeed nothing more than egg, water, and pigment. The oil emulsion you refer to is a much-disputed element of some medieval paintings, and although it can produce paint, there is little evidence it was much used before the Victorians hypothesized it as a possible "secret ancient medium". Chemical analyses of works ranging from Roman-Egyptian mummy portraits to high renaissance panels show pure-egg tempera. In fact, several forgeries of the twentieth century were uncovered which adhered strictly to the (now discredited) theory that medieval painters used a mixed egg and oil technique. Artemis-Arethusa 15:11, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Egg yolk is an emulsion, adding water makes it more fluid, it does not make it any more of an emulsion. The mentioned recipe is common enough and well known and I know it works as I have used it.

NOt sure where to put the following re dust hazards:

One way to minimise the dust flight is to premix the pigment with water in a jar, this creates a wet paste which is much easier to handle and mix with the yolk and water. The paste will keep if in airtight container and you can mix the pigment as when rather than having more tempered paint than required (which will go off).

If using synthetic vermillion or lamp black, a small amount of vodka will break the surface tension, so that you can shake the jar and water and create your paste instantly. This tip is well worth following as it reduces dust flight a great deal.

My only concern with the article is that only directs to a modern source book, looking at the original texts is useful for the context, especially in the realms of discussing what is a temper. stluke23

Recipe move to wikibooks?
While looking for something else on the Wikipedia:Guide to Votes for deletion page I read the following and thought of this article.

''"recipe" is a shorthand for "The article is a recipe, giving preparation instructions rather than discussing the foodstuff in question". Although articles on foods should discuss how the food is made and what is used to make it, they should not provide step-by-step guides directing the reader on how to do so; that is the province of our sister project Wikibooks.''

Perhaps the same guideline applies to this article? --sparkit (talk) July 6, 2005 04:22 (UTC)