Egg Tempera exercise - Bugs

The assignment was to do an illustration using egg tempera, showing off the binding properties and making a design in transparent layers, with the theme of "bugs" and insects. I didn't really plan this one out; I just wanted to paint something already! I painted these dark beetles into fun striped party colors. Using all of these bright colors made it really fun to work on. The background came last, a bit of an afterthought, too late to do anything elaborate since I'd already taken up all the space with the bugs themselves. Woops.

If you were like me and don't know what egg tempera is - it's raw egg yolk mixed with water and gouache! The egg yolk works as a binding medium to keep the gouache from shifting around as it is wont to do sans binding agent. Using this mix, you can layer gouache in transparent layers on top of each other. You have to crack open a raw egg, divest the yolk of its egg white by passing it through your hands and wiping with paper towels to make the surface of the yolk membrane tacky and sticky so that it'll stay attached to your hands as you hold it. Then carefully pierce the yolk membrane and hold onto it firmly as the yolk liquid drains into a bowl. If you didn't dry the yolk properly enough for it to stop sliding off your hand and drop the whole thing - or you didn't poke the yolk membrane carefully and the thing rips, then it becomes difficult to fish the membrane pieces out. It took a few tries and a few broken wasted eggs for me to get the hang of it.

Even though it does take a bit of trouble to make it happen, getting to be very hands-on and mixing up my own paint this way is really fun, and makes me feel more connected to the process.