Basic tempera recipe
Cenno Cennini’s fourteenth-century manuscript, The Craftsman’s Handbook,1 is one of the most complete and detailed known writings about the artistic profession. The artist detailed many contemporary techniques, including traditional fresco and tempera painting. Many modern artists have adapted recipes from Cennini’s methods, but the process has changed very little across the centuries. In The Painter’s Craft,2 artist and chemist Ralph Mayer (1976) builds on Cennini’s techniques to offer traditional and oil-emulsion recipes.
The recipe below is the mixture I use for the majority of my work. It follows in the tradition of Cennini and Mayer, using egg yolk, water, and vinegar. Although I usually approximate the proportions in my binder, I needed a way to systematize my mixture to create a consistent color swatch guide. Therefore, I used precise measurements in this instance, and I have included them here to serve as an example.
Ingredients
As mentioned before, you will find many variations on the basic tempera binder. All of these recipes share a few of the same ingredients:
Egg yolk: The yolk is made of egg oil, lecithin, and albumen. A natural emulsifier, egg yolk allows oils to be incorporated into your paint, if you choose. Yolk takes some time to cure even after it dries to the touch; this chemical process is similar to cooking an egg over a stove.
Vinegar: White vinegar, or acetic acid, acts as a preservative in your binder. It prevents mold from growing. Cennini suggests using white wine for the same reason.
Water: It is recommended that you use distilled water when you make your binder; this prevents mineral buildup or impurities from interacting with your work.
With these three basic ingredients, you can begin working with egg tempera.
Basic tempera recipe
You will need:
The basic egg tempera recipe is a ratio of 1 part vinegar to 1 part water to 2 parts egg yolk. Mix together in a jar and let the bubbles settle out before using. This will keep in the refrigerator for a week. © Katie Toepp 2020
small jar with lid
towel
clean pin or nail
1-2 fresh eggs
distilled water
white vinegar
kitchen scale (optional, but will help)
Roll the yolk on a towel to absorb excess moisture from the egg white. © Katie Toepp 2020
Crack and separate an egg. If you break the yolk you will need to start over. Discard the egg white (or save for baking or making other art).
Roll the yolk on a towel to soak up the egg white and any extra moisture. The yolk is contained in a membrane that is fairly strong. As a rule of thumb, the thicker the membrane, the fresher the egg (and healthier the chicken). Farm fresh eggs will have a relatively durable yolk membrane.
Delicately hold the yolk sac over a jar, and puncture the membrane with a pin or nail. Allow the yolk to drain out. You can even squeeze the yolk sac to get as much as the yolk as possible. In this example, I measured out 24g of egg yolk. This means that I will need a total of 24g mixture clear liquids in the next steps.
In a separate container, measure 1 part white vinegar and 1 part distilled water. In my example, I measured 12g of distilled water and 12g white vinegar, totaling 24g. This gives me a ratio of yolk to clear liquids as 1:1.
Close the jar and shake the liquids until they are thoroughly mixed. All that shaking created some foam on the surface. The bubbles should settle after a few minutes, but if you want to paint immediately, I suggest you use a disposable pipette to draw binder from the bottom of the jar.
The binder will keep in the refrigerator for a week.
My yolk yields 24g. © Katie Toepp 2020
12g white vinegar and 12g distilled water are combined to make 24g liquid. © Katie Toepp 2020
Shaking the liquids in a jar will result in a foam on top. Let the bubbles settle or use a pipette to draw binder from the bottom of the jar. © Katie Toepp 2020
Now you’re ready to paint! Use a 1:1 ratio of binder to dry pigment. If you are using watercolors or gouache colors, you may need to adjust this ratio to find a consistency you are comfortable working with. These variations will be detailed in a later post.
1. Cennio d’Andrea Cennini, The Craftsman’s Handbook, trans. Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. (New York: Dover, 1960), 92.
2. Ralph Mayer, The Painter's Craft: An Introduction to Artists' Methods and Materials (New York: Penguin Books, 1976), 123-127.