I’ve always been highly influenced by Andre Wyeth and today I’m doing a test of egg tempera, Wyeth’s preferred medium.
I was hoping that egg tempera would be an easier and better way to paint versus oils but after today’s test I don’t think it is. The first issue I have with egg tempera is the ground. You can’t just use an acrylic gessoed panel. You have to make “True Gesso”, basically gesso from rabbit skin glue and chalk. This is a very arduous process and one that I’m not willing to put the time into.
Painting with egg tempera was much like gouache except that I did not observe any value or color changes after the paint dried which is a plus for egg tempera. But the downside is that it dried glossy, no as glossy as oil paint but still enough to make dual polarization photographs of the work necessary.
Overall I feel that gouache would be a better medium than egg tempera as long as I can get used to the color and value changes when it dries.
I think it’s still fun to experiment. Especially when it’s influenced by such an artist you admire like Wyeth. Good for you for checking it out.