Tempera Notebook

Take chances, make mistakes, get messy.

~ Ms. Frizzle

Process of painting a scene of tardigrades on a round, pine panel prepared with absorbent acrylic ground. Materials: Handmade egg tempera binder with pigments Sap Green, Zinc White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Indian Yellow, Chromium Oxide Green, Red Ochre, and Cobalt Blue.

For this ladybug, I used several photo references. I used a drybrush technique to paint from light to dark.

I used the colors: Red Ochre, Burnt Umber, Sap Green, French Vermilion, Alizarin Scarlet, Ivory Black, and Titanium White. See my color swatch guide for more information.

In this post, you will find my step-by-step approach for painting a study of an olive branch. I have included observations and lessons from my experience as well as photos of my process.

I purchased some small test panels to try Golden’s Absorbent Ground. The test panels I used are Da Vinci Pro Birch Panels measuring 3 x 3 x 7/8 in. I applied two layers of ground to the face and sides. I sanded until smooth and then applied liquid gold leaf to the sides. After that, I freehanded a sketch of the honey bee I wanted to paint.