Blue Jay

I want to try a bird.

This is a tracing from an earlier blog photo onto gesso with Saral, then firmed up with silverpoint. I used graphite on the corn and some little carbon particles seem to float about the tempera. Then I inadvertently smeared my palm across some tracing. What a mess! I was hesitant to remove graphite with erasers, fearful of contaminating the gesso surface. The only method I've found useful for removal is sanding.

Odds and Ends

The remaining kernels painted in, some balancing between the ear and husk, a final sanding on the unpainted gesso to clean up spills, and my painting was ready for framing.



My tempera workflow continues to firm up. I like porcelain palettes, until now using mostly various sized and shaped plates from Pier 1 Imports. My new small welled palettes from DickBlick are proving perfect for my egg mixes. A bit of pigment, preferably from my new jars, placed into a well and mixed with egg is the starter. From there, bits of that mix can be dropped into other wells for thinning with water and/or adding Titanium White (held in the large center well) for lightening or opaqueness. The way these wells nestle the mixes leads to increased working time before the mixes coagulate and dry.


A couple of new books just arrived! Click on each image to link to a preview on Google Books.

Pigment Maintenance

I am beginning the task of mulling and bottling each dry pigment. As I mentioned earlier, this method has become favorite, at least for now.



More Penzeys bottles are soon to be ordered and a new order of pigments was recently placed with Kremer:

• Phthalo Green dark - 20g jar
• Phthalo Blue - 20g jar
• Phthalo Blue reddish - 20g jar
• Irgazine® Orange DPP RA - 20g jar
• Irgazine® Red DPP BO - 20g jar
• Irgazine® Ruby DPP-TR - 20g jar
• Permanent Yellow medium - 20g jar
• Dioxazine Violet - 20g jar
• Alizarine Crimson dark - 20g jar
• Verona Green, very fine - 50g
• Titanium White Rutile - 100g

All these pigments carry an "AP" rating from The Art & Creative Materials Institute (ACMI). Here's the AP rating defined:

"The new AP (Approved Product) Seal, with or without Performance Certification, identifies art materials that are safe and that are certified in a toxicological evaluation by a medical expert to contain no materials in sufficient quantities to be toxic or injurious to humans, including children, or to cause acute or chronic health problems. This seal is currently replacing the previous non-toxic seals: CP (Certified Product), AP (Approved Product), and HL Health Label (Non-Toxic) over a 10-year phase-in period. Such products are certified by ACMI to be labeled in accordance with the chronic hazard labeling standard, ASTM D 4236, and the U. S. Labeling of Hazardous Art Materials Act (LHAMA). Additionally, products bearing the AP Seal with Performance Certification or the CP Seal are certified to meet specific requirements of material, workmanship, working qualities, and color developed by ACMI and others through recognized standards organizations, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Some products cannot attain this performance certification because no quality standard currently exists for certain types of products."

With Husk

I spent some time this evening bringing in the husk. After a few hours, I figured it best to lay it aside. I might want to wash it down lightly with a bit of white and better connect the husk to the ear. It's a bit off but that's okay for now.

Closing In on the Kernels

Getting there. Phew, there sure are a lot of kernels! :-) I'm working two to three hours each night and completely enjoying the experience. I wish I had more time... I'd like to turn from the cob for a bit and try my hand at the detail in the husk.




Now it's time for another Kremer order. More on that soon! :-)

Keeping Pigments Ready

There are many ways to handle pigments prior to tempering--dry, wetted and mulled; dry, wetted and mixed with a palette knife; in dispersion; or kept in distilled water. I think I'm coming around to the last example.

Before my store bought pigments arrived, I mulled North Carolina pigment prior to mixing into a tempered paint. What's important though is that mulling is only partly used for and useful for grinding pigment. Better grinding is probably accomplished with a mortar and pestle. Where mulling really shines is for separating particles simply stuck together and more importantly surrounding each tiny particle with water.

Instead of mulling, particles can sometimes easily be mixed well with water using only a palette knife. This is my most often used technique. A palette knife is quite sensitive to particle size. I can see, hear, and feel grit with a knife against my porcelain palette.

I have a few bottles of dispersions. They're okay but the pigment particles are held in suspension with the help of additives. I don't know what those extra ingredients are and don't really detect anything unique about them. One problem I find with dispersions is that when I open the cap, there is always some dried pigment that falls out and lands on my palette. I hate that. The other thing is that getting just the smallest drop I can is often too big. So, there is convenience and inconvenience.

And now, my the final technique. Dry pigment is either mulled or mixed with a palette knife, placed into a jar, and covered with distilled water. A rather hard to discern example is below. My apologies, as this is German Vine Black and really doesn't show very well. There's about a 5mm layer of pigment settled in nicely. I also used a bit of isopropyl alcohol as a wetting agent. By the way, this jar came from Penzey's Spices. I buy my herbs and spices in bags and keep cooking amounts in these four ounce jars.



When I want to use German Vine Black, I open the jar, tip it to the side, and scoop out just what I need. It's already mixed, wetted, and the perfect amount. Although this was only mixed with a palette knife, it should probably have been mulled as I can see granulation in my tempera. That's cool if that's what I want, but I am leaning towards smooth pigment mixes so I will probably mull this batch. And, I will probably mull all pigments as I jar them up.



My palette knife is an okay tool for scooping pigment but I want something still smaller. I envision making my own tiny trowels for scooping and mixing.

Slow Corn Continued

Experiments with black and white are helping to develop form although I do wonder if heavy black was introduced too quickly. Ah, the impatience at times... I'm learning that even with my limited set of pigments that many colors can be reached with simple overlays, especially when selectively applied. For instance, I won't wash over a kernel but only around the edges. Also, that a bit of white makes a fine highlight, as well as a great cover for mistakes.

Quotes From The Past

I've discovered some fine and old documents on the eggtempera.com site, volumes of articles from the Society of Painters in Tempera.

Quoting from a portion of the article Yolk Of Egg Tempera by R. Spencer Stanhope, April 23, 1903 :

"The Advantages are as follows :-
Pictures painted with the Yolk of Egg possess the Richness and depth of Oil
Paintings, without losing any of the brilliance of colour which oil to a certain extent injures. In fact there is no medium of any kind in ordinary use for painting which so little, if at all, affects the colours with which it is mixed, whilst it gives a softness of effect which is more or less wanting in all the others; and that this quality is permanent may be seen in any Cinquecento work which has not been meddled with in any way, and the colours will there appear as brilliant as on the day they were painted. As the colour dries in a minute or two the part on which the painter is at work can be completed off-hand, the colour remaining permanently the same. The slight yellow tint caused by the yolk disappears entirely in a few days. All marks of the brush pass away as the colour dries, and a perfectness of surface is obtained without any effort on the part of the painter; and, as I mentioned before, owing to the natural grease in the yolk of egg the soft rich effect of oil is produced whilst the painting can be seen in any light as is the case with fresco or water-colour. From the day of painting the colour the surface steadily hardens and, provided the technical part of the work is properly done, this hardening process goes on without any cracking or shrinking of the surface till it reaches that pitch of hardness which is so notable in Cinquecento work. Finally, as the painter puts the colours on the panel he can judge of the permanent effect, which is not the case with mediums such as Oil, Fresco and ordinary Distemper."

I'm working on my corn but it's a slow haul. I'm checking out synthetic pigments by Kremer--rich colors and small particle size. For instance, using a cadmium yellow was an incredibly smooth painting experience but I am leaning away from toxic materials. There seems to be a good selection of innocuous and luscious synthetics.

Slow Corn

Oh ya, this is going to take some time! :-)

At this point, I'm not looking for color accuracy but simply a starting point. It's really great practice working small areas for smooth brushing and experimenting with overlays.



I just discovered that Dover Publications offers freely usable art vector diagrams on CD! They even offer a weekly subscription of free samples, and if you sign up you also get some instant free samples. Very cool!

Maize

Although the sky/tree painting is still ongoing, I want to take some time away from it. Yesterday I hunted about the yard and then the produce section of the grocery but nothing jumped at me. Later I picked up a fresh dozen eggs at the local farm stand and came across some beautiful ears of corn!

I took a shortcut by photographing, processing in Photoshop, taping tracing paper to the LCD on the laptop, tracing, and transferring to a gesso panel. The yellow is dropped in for placement guidelines.

This yellow is a cadmium--so smooth, so grit-free. That is not so for all my pigments and I'm pondering how to handle rougher pigments. Can I mull them to the smoothness I want for this painting? Will I need to search out finely ground pigments?

Margaret in Paint and Prose

I received a lovely email today and with the writer's permission I will share with you. Margaret and I "met" as students during both of the Cornell drawing and watercolor online courses. In our mixed and lively discussions, she mentioned how she dug her own earths. Of course, I just had to have some, and in fact, her offer came before my request.

Here is Margaret's watercolor using only her North Carolina earths that I ground and tubed up.



And here is her letter:

Hey John,

I am going to try and attach a scan my 1st painting using only the "Earths"

Meantime, there is a little bit of story behind the ochre-ish PB.

On the way to my parents house in N. Ga. I take a back road and in a curve just over a hill is a gas station of the kind I suspect is indigenous only to our region and southward. When it was open, there were boiled peanuts when in season, so the place was often shrouded in smoke. Through the smoke, you could see cars in various stages of assembly, or dis-assembly. A rack of dented aluminum canoes for rent and a goat wandering about freely don't even begin to complete the picture.

Behind and beside this is the bank of beautiful yellow earth.

I have eyed that bank for ages, but never stopped. The gas station/store was just too complex to take in.

Last year the store closed. Everything is there except the goat, but it is all still.

It seemed like the only thing going on there was gravity, so on one trip home I whipped the car over, got some Dollar General bags out from under the debris in the backseat and went to clawing earth out of the bank. A dog came along, but I didn't pay much attention. I was engrossed in finding color and in appearing non-chalant when cars passed. When I did finally look up, there was an enormous, big bearded man standing in the door of the store. His arms were crossed and his demeanor did not appear to be friendly.

"Hi," I said.

No reply.

"I'm just getting some dirt."

No reply.

"I'm gonna make some paint."

No reply. Just then the dog almost got hit by a car.

"That your dog?"

Head shake.

"You know whose it is?"

Another head shake.

"I think it might get hit, maybe I should find it's home."

Head nod. Demeanor unchanged.

" Well, is it OK if I take this dirt?"

Head nod.

"Well I guess I'll take the dog, too."

Head nod.

"Thank, you"

No reply.

He was still standing in the door with his arms crossed as I packed in the dog, earth and headed down the road.

The dog was reconnected with its owners at next establishment.

A brief splinter in geologic time.

The painting evolved with experience, and skill with the paint will continue to evolve, I hope.

I learned to be lighter, worked it right to left and you can see the change. The right is much too heavy.

I actually began to enjoy the limited palette. It's a little like working with ink washes, but w/subtle colors and different behavior. I love the little mica sparkles in the wash.

I am thinking toward doing another an adding just a little bit of wash from my commercial paints.

Fun and challenging. I looked up egg tempera recipes and find myself tempted.

Waiting for a large slot of uninterrupted time.

Thanks

MO

Daniel V. Thompson

I have so very much appreciation for the works of Daniel Varney Thompson, Jr. (1902-1980) If you're not familiar with him, you may remember some recent posts with quotes from his The Practice of Tempera Painting.

Below are back cover quotes from his other books:

The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting

"Medieval painters built up a tremendous range of technical resources for obtaining brilliance and permanence. In this volume, an internationally know authority on medieval paint technology describes these often jealously guarded recipes, lists of materials, and processes.

"Based upon years of study of medieval manuscripts and enlarged by laboratory analysis of medieval paintings, this book discusses carriers and grounds, binding media, pigments, coloring materials, and metals used in painting."

The Craftsman's Handbook: "Il Libro dell' Arte" by Cennino d'Andrea Cennini

"This is D. V. Thompson's definitive English translation of "Il Libro dell'Arte," an intriguing guide to methods of painting written in 15th century Florence. Embodying the secrets and techniques of the great masters, it served as an art student's introduction to the ways of his craft.

"Anyone who has ever looked at a medieval painting and marveled at a brilliance of color and quality of surface that have endured for 500 years, should find this a fascinating read. It describes such lost arts as gilding stone, making mosaics of crushed eggshell, fashioning saints' diadems, coloring parchment..."

All three are available as inexpensive Dover's. Fun and interesting reads! And of course, my copy of The Practice of Tempera Painting is getting lots of use. :-)