Trained first as an engraver, he avoided oil paints altogether, working in conventional watercolour, mixed media, and developed two distinctive techniques, one of watercolour monoprints, the other using glue tempera.
tempera
The yolk of fresh hens’ eggs used as a binder for fine and thin brushstrokes, from about 1250-1500, and revived in 19th and 20th centuries.
Ancient paint made using glue as a binder loses chromatic intensity as it dries, fades readily over time, and forms a fragile paint layer. But it has been popular at times.
Painting with an edge hierarchy requires fine control over paint viscosity and drying time, and a deep understanding of technique.
Tragic stories of great paintings that no longer look anything like their originals, from Leonardo da Vinci and William Blake.
Paints using glue as their binder were revived by Pierre Bonnard, the Nabis and Odilon Redon in the late 19th century, with startling results.
Paints using glue as their binder, instead of oil, were popular in the early Renaissance before being replaced by oils. William Blake revived them around 1800.
At the start of the 15th century, Italian easel paintings used egg tempera. By the end, Leonardo da Vinci was pushing the technical boundaries using oil paint.
Having painted in Realist, Naturalist and Impressionist styles, from about 1893 she settled with the Pre-Raphaelite, even making egg tempera her main medium.
Painted on two panels of oak using egg tempera, it combines gold and raised details to mimic precious stones. How it was made.
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