Latest Experiment: Old Lady with a Cat

In my quest to learn more about egg tempera, I ended up doing this hybrid of egg tempera and gouache:

Old and Cat 8 x 10
egg tempera and gouache on illustration board

In my research I found some basic things about egg tempera:

1. Egg yolk is used as the binder so you have to separate the white from the yolk and then carefully puncture the membrane so the liquidy part of the yolk will come out.

2. Really, you are supposed to use dry pigment powder. Then its just a matter of mixing the pigment with the egg yolk to a smooth consistency. You just use water as a thinner. Paint it on in numerous thin, transparent layers.

Since I didnt have any dry pigment and didn't want to invest any more money at this point, I had plenty of gouache tubes on hand and discovered that really the only difference is the gum arabic binder that they use.

I mixed the egg yolk with the tube gouache. My assumption was later verified by a artist who uses egg tempera and on his website he suggested this as a way to test it out.

In progress

details of the painting including an actual  hair on the last one

What I have learned:

I have always liked the results using gouache but have been very frustrated in the actual painting process because of its tendency to lift off when layers are added. This is because it is water soluble and just melts when it is re-wetted with fresh paint. The best solution I have found is  Acryligouache which is a gouache with some acrylic added to it so it doesnt melt quite so easily. I think I like this even better, though. I can use regular (cheaper) gouache and just add egg yolk. When the layer is completely dry the egg forms a sturdier layer which holds up better to new layers. I also used egg yolk as a sort of gloss varnish over the whole thing.

I'm sure its not exactly the same as real egg tempera.  I used plain gouache for the final details because it was more opaque so I know it behaves differently than real tempera. I like it though so I guess its time to buy some dry pigment.

Nan and Grampa

This will be a journal of my new project using the mische technique. This is the process I used on "See my gerbil" ( check 2 experiments if you want to see details on that technique) It is based on a picture of my Grandmother and Grandfather. I say based cause I doubt it will turn out looking much like them.
Here is the photo:

As you can see it is in pretty bad shape. This is after I fixed it up on photoshop. Its quite faded and beaten up but this is how I remember them best. Circa 1971 or so, when my cousin and I would sleepover and play dress up with my grandmother's nightgowns and jewelry.

So here is how I started:

ink on gessoed panel

Then, as the process goes, I covered it with a layer of red oil paint:

red oil paint

I let it dry for about a week and then began to paint in the light areas with the egg tempra (made with the egg oil emulsion):

red covered with white egg tempera

I can see that both faces will have to be readjusted (the faces are the hardest part for me) but there's going to be so many layers on here I will have plenty of time to change it.

And the final result:

2 Experiments update 2

Its now November 23, right before Thanksgiving and I am finally done with the fungus lady. I wanted to try to make the fungus look slimy and wet but i think i have to work on that a bit. This is as good as she gets:

I did a lot of studying for this painting and even if it didnt all come out in the final product , I did learn quite a bit. I was originally thinking of doing a series of these. We'll see. Now on to something new.

Mixed Technique "Mischtechnik"

The Mixed Technique or "Mischtechnik"

I am starting this blog to help others interested in learning about the Mixed technique of painting or "Mischtechnik" in German. I have been intrigued by the results I have seen from other artists using this technique so I have been trying to learn more about it. I have been scouring the internet to find specific information on the steps and materials used in this technique but really haven't been able to find much. For myself and anyone else who is interested in learning how to do this, I have decided to write this blog as a confluence of all the information on it I have found. I plan on updating this site as I find new things. 

First, a definition

From Wikipedia:

Mische technique or mixed technique or mixed method is a method of painting where egg tempera is used in combination with oil based paints and resins to create the possibility of rendering a luminous, resonant realism. The egg yolk of the egg tempera is a naturally occurring emulsion of water and oil. As such, the old masters found ways of extending the natural advantages of its emulsion to create lean, siccative, smoothly transitional, semi transparent layers of paint. The visual effects created by working in the mixed technique essentially rely upon the phenomenon of light refracting through many subsequent layers of paint.

One common approach is to transpose the main compositional elements of a value study onto a panel using India ink, then slowly build up volume by alternating egg tempera, with an overall glaze of oil paints mixed with resin, producing a jewel-like effect. The technique can be very time consuming and demanding. It is unforgiving of pentimenti, yet full of delightful surprises, since many unexpected colors can naturally arise during the ongoing glazing process.

Old masters such as Albrecht Altdorfer, Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald and Martin Schongauer used the method which saw a revival in the twentieth century by artists such as Ernst Fuchs and Egon von Vietinghoff, as well as Surrealist and visionary artists such as ((Philip Rubinov Jacobson)) and Brigid Marlin. Nicolas Wacker taught his own version of the technique at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the late 1960s and 1970s. Many contemporary painters credit their knowledge of the technique to him.

Next, examples

The artist that originally sparked my interest in this technique is Pietro Annigoni. Here are some examples of his work:

He is perhaps most famous for his portrait of Queen Elizabeth

In brief: Annigoni, Pietro (1910-1988) M, Italian, ARTS AND CRAFTS: painter) Pietro (ˈpjɛːtro). 1910-88, Italian painter; noted esp for his portraits of President Kennedy (1961) and Queen Elizabeth II (1955 and 1970)

There is a more information about him in italian than there is is English but there is this english video about his technique here: http://youtu.be/s-iNa7klC1I . This is a good introduction but obviously not meant for other artists.
Pretty much all I could find out about him is that he used a combination of tempera and oil paint. He used each to its greatest advantage. The oil, for the smooth, blended colors and the tempera for the fine details.

A good start, but I wanted to find out the specifics of using the Mixed Technique. I went on an internet exploration.

The next artist I came across for this technique is Brigid Marlin. She seems to be the Queen of the Miche Technique. She certainly is generous in sharing her knowledge and experience. Her website gives a great deal of information on how she creates her artwork including a step by step tutorial and her formula for egg tempera. I will not repeat all of it here. You can visit her website at: http://www.brigidmarlin.com/index.html .

In short this is how it works:
An ink drawing is painted over completely with a layer of red oil paint. The next day (when the paint is tacky) white tempera is used to paint the highlights, the lightest areas. She then paints a layer of yellow oil paint over the entire thing and then continues to refine the light areas with tempera being sure to let the tempera dry completely between layers. Then a layer of blue and more tempera. At this point she begins to block in the colors with oil paint.

The oil/tempera/oil layers give the painting a luminous, rich quality. Here is an example of her work:

The one thing that wasn't quite clear to me at the time how she used the tempera vs oil paint in the later layers. Through my own experience and experimentation I came to believe that while she uses white tempera for the under layers, she uses a variety of tempera colors in the later layers. 

There were a few questions that arose in trying to learn this technique.

1. What is the best formula for the egg tempera?

2. At what point do you paint the tempera over the oil paint? Dry, tacky, or wet?

October 31, 2013

Im not sure if this is the proper way to do this but that's how Im doing it. So I have spent today experimenting with different combinations of egg tempera and oil layers at various stages of dryness.

A  This one is cad red medium glaze w damar varnish/ linseed oil dried for 10 days.

B   This one is Indian red but only because that is the only water soluble oil paint I have. I wanted to see if that made a difference but obviously if it has dried for a week its not going to matter. 

 C   This one is cad red glaze with liquin (to speed drying) it was about 1 hour dry when I started.

D    This one is Alizarin crimson straight but wiped out. It was about 3 hours dry when I started.

The egg tempera was all the same formula: 1 prt egg yolk, 1 prt linseed oil, 1 part water, 1 part vinegar. I mixed it with titanium white goauche. I just eyeballed the proportions of paint to emulsion. About equal parts seems to work.

Results:

So far, it seems to work best on the driest one, A. B had some strange reaction with the ink I used and made halos around the lines. Dont see any advantage to water soluble if its dry. Ill have to try a tacky one. C was pretty wet so the tempera tended to mix with the red, I dont think its supposed to be like that but i might be able to use it. Tomorrow I will do a layer and see if it sticks better than A. D was pretty much like C Except I think the liquin made C dry faster so that was actually better.

ONE THING: The biggest difference i saw was the texture of the surface. I rolled the gesso onto the panel and it was pretty even (kind of drywall texture) but it was still far too course for the tempera. I sanded C and D before applying the oil paint and that helped tremendously.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2 Experiments Update

Its now October 18th and this is what's happening:

I have finished the first layer on the fungus lady. That is, the canvas is all covered with the general color it should be. This is what she looks like:

Now i have to make adjustments and add detail and darks and lights etc. I can see from this photo that the background needs some changes. Its taking a long time but I am learning as I am going.

I think I have actually finished the other one:

I have titled it "Blick auf meine Wüstenrennmaus"

or "See my Gerbil"

It was interesting. 

2 Experiments

Right now i am working on 2 new paintings. Since they are both done in layers I am working on one while the other is drying.

The first one was inspired by these paintings by Bougeureau:

This is my sketch

This is what I aspire to

If you cant see from the poor quality photo, my poor girl has fungus growing on her body. Specifically this one

yellow brain fungus

I am trying a technique used by many of the old masters called gisaille ( gray in French). They would do almost the entire painting using only black and white to get all the values correct and then add transparent glazes for color. Here is an example

This is what I have so far:

At the rate I'm going I will probably be done in a couple of years.

progress as of 10/2013

Part 2

This is the other one. This technique is called the "mische technique" or "mischtechnik". In brief, it uses alternating layers of oil paint and egg tempera hence mische or "mixed'. Others have gotten some pretty nice results this way. The artist Brigid Marlin seems to be the queen. Here is some of her stuff:

If you want to learn more about it you can visit her website http://www.brigidmarlin.com/Pages/Mische.html

The idea is to use the way the brain sees to create richer colors, theoretically by painting separate color layers and then adding details with the egg tempera something like a color separation in printing. so this is what I got so far.

reference photo

ink drawing with red over it

added yellow then egg tempera with blue over it

I neglected to take pictures or the stage in between where I painted white egg tempera over the red for highlights and then painted a layers of yellow, but you get the idea.

Next comes more refinement of the highlights and then there are a couple of ways to go. i think i will try putting local color glazes on each area like this artist http://www.madelinevonfoerster.com/technique.html.

Art for Sale

This is a list of art I have done that I would consider trying to sell:


It seems to be split into 2 categories. Girly, more mainstream stuff and stuff that seems to be considered "one- off" or "weird".  I'll just put them up by how I think they would fit.

Mourning Walk 18 x 24 oil on panel

This one is pretty new so i still have some emotion attachment to it but id sell it for the right price.

Half Man/Half Woman  28 x 40 acrylic on canvas

This is the largest piece. Shipping would be an issue but I can remove it from stretcher bars and roll it up.
Also I was considering the possibility of getting prints made of some of the paintings and selling those but then you have to layout the money up front and hope you sell enough prints to make it worth while.

I still have these circus banners 24 X 36

Nature Goddess 1 & 2  16 x 21 oil on wood panel 

These 2 go together. They were painted on "repurposed" wood panels. That is doors from a nice old stereo cabinet so they probably shouldnt be framed and they are pretty heavy.

Nature Goddess 3 16 x 24 oil on wood

This chick is some kind of nature, fertility goddess that kinda goes with the last 2 but she is on a different shaped plywood board.

Old Woman Climbs Avocado Tree 16 x 20 acrylic on canvas

I personally like this one cause i like the news story it was based on. An old lady was going to lose her home so she climbed up the avocado tree in her backyard and the fire department had to come get her out.

Vogue Dog 16 x 20 oil on canvas

Taken from a model in Vogue Magazine but its a dog.

Dreaming by the Sea 11 x 20 pastel on paper

This one is pretty corny but I'm not doing anything with it so I'd gladly sell it.

Dimples paper mache 18" 

Then there's these guys. I should keep the jester but I was thinking of making a few more slightly smaller version all at once and selling those cause now that I figured it all out it would be faster.