This is such a learning curve. I spent the entirety of the movie Random Harvest doing this little bit.
First I got my pigments ready. I diluted a number of them various parts to white till I had four colours – pure pigment, a bit of white, and a lot of white. I have since learned I need to rethink what I need by ‘a lot of white’. I wrote down the proportions of pigment on the jars. This is unusual for me cause I’m pretty slapdash usually, but hey, you can change.
Then i mixed up a bit of pigment with an equal amount of egg. I used about a teaspoon of egg and did that first. This was too much, i will use much less next time. A lot was wasted at the end.
I also got aluminium foil to cover the pots i was not using cause it does dry out.
(BTW…FYI, wordpress? I’m Australian. So it is actually spelled ALUMINIUM so please stop attempting to correct me.)
And then I commenced to painting. Lots and lots of layers, starting with pure pigment and working up to try and get drapery shadows. i also did some flowers in her hair and had a go at her lips.
It was more like using gauche than any other sort of paint, if anyone has used that. A thick watercolour type thing. It’s very unique though I can see it’s going to take a lot of getting used to. I did layer after layer, and ended up having to add more white to the lightest one – my ‘light’ was not nearly light enough – and I ended up with this.
I can see I will need to work on the shadows by mixing the red with something like dark blue or something? I guess I will wing it.
I intend to do the draperies and background and all of this first until I get the hang of it, before I tackle her face!
This is a learning curve indeed. Not a bad one, just a one!
All the posts in this series:
Egg tempera I – preparing the panels
Egg tempera II – transferring the picture
Egg tempera III – Grinding the pigment
Egg tempera IV – inking and cross hatching
Egg tempara VI – laying down real colour
Egg tempera VII – finished Painting
