Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was an amazing man who lived and worked during the Renaissance. He was a master painter as well as a scientist, engineer, researcher, inventor, and musician. This post, of course, will focus on his art.

Leonardo was born in 1452 in Vinci, Italy. Da Vinci was not his last name. His name means Leonardo from Vinci.
As a teenager, Leonardo became an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio. Verrocchio was a well known painter, sculptor, and goldsmith with a large studio and many apprentices. Leonardo learned a lot from his teacher. By the time he was 20, Leonardo could paint as well as Verrocchio. He soon decided to start his own studio.

Leonardo took on apprentices of his own and was able to earn a living as a master artist. He painted for many important people and, when he was 30, he moved to Milan, Italy to paint for the ruling family, the Sforza. In 1499 the Sforza was overthrown and a new family came into power. Leonardo moved back to Florence (near Vinci) but in eight years he returned to Milan.
The king of France became an important patron of Leonardo. He allowed the artist to paint whatever he pleased.

Leonardo longed to paint for the Pope. He moved to Rome in 1513 but there were already several great painters working for the Pope, including Michelangelo.

In 1516 Leonardo moved into a small castle that was bought for him by the new king of France. He stayed there until he died in 1519. While living in the castle, Leonardo continued to paint. He also gave the king advice.
There are several reasons why Leonardo’s paintings are so amazing. Leonardo studied the human body. He learned exactly how all the muscles moved and how the body looked in different positions. This allowed him to create realistic paintings.

Leonardo was great at observing people. He noticed little details about hands and feet and especially faces. He was a master at painting facial expressions.
He also studied plants and trees, rocks and soil. He studied anything he painted so his art would look as real as possible.

Finally, Leonardo figured out how to use perspective to make more realistic paintings.

Notice all these things in the pictures scattered throughout this post. The first painting is The Annunciation, the second is John the Baptist, the third is The Last Supper, and the forth is The Mona Lisa.

Return to main page.

Renaissance

I’m back! Tennessee was fantastic. The weather was pretty good for most of the long weekend. I saw lots of great bands, met some nice people, and got to spend time with one of my closest friends who lives in Florida.

But you’ve been missing your daily dose of art, I know. . .

Most of you have heard of the Renaissance but some of you are not sure what the word means. You have probably even heard of a lot of famous artists from the time, like Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. You don’t have to wonder anymore. Today, I’ll tell you about the Renaissance.

The word Renaissance means rebirth. Beginning in the 1400s, artists wanted to create realistic paintings and sculpture like the ancient Greeks and Romans did. The Renaissance was the rebirth of the artistic style of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Artists continued to paint in this style until the 1600s.

The Renaissance began in Italy in the 1400s but spread to England, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, and the Netherlands. I have highlighted these countries in red in the map below.
During the Renaissance, artists were able to create art that was even more realistic than the art of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Renaissance artists were the first to study perspective and use it in their art. (I’ve already posted about perspective. Refresh your memory if you need to.) They also studied the human body and how it worked. Leonardo da Vinci is famous for his studies. He wanted to know exactly how muscles flexed and how bodies bent and moved. It was important that the people in his paintings looked natural. Other Renaissance artists agreed.

The Renaissance was about more than just art. During the Renaissance many scientific discoveries were made. Scientists developed a new way of learning. They looked at the things around them and used what they saw as evidence. Also during the Renaissance, people studied books from ancient Greece and Rome. They used what they read to shape their world.

Tomorrow I’ll post about Leonardo da Vinci.

Return to main page.

Create Your Own Kelly Grid Art

Today I’ll show you how to weave paper together to create grid art like that of Ellsworth Kelly. Make sure to look at some of his paintings for inspiration.

Supplies Needed:

Construction Paper
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Glue
A note to parents/teachers: Younger kids can enjoy this project, too. Just prepare the paper ahead of time.
Cut one-inch-wide strips of colored construction paper. You only need one strip of each color but you’ll want to use a variety of colors. Now, measure and mark one-inch-wide, vertical strips on a piece of white construction paper. Fold the paper in half so you can cut along the lines. Do not cut all the way to the edges!
Weave the strips of colored paper through the slits. When you’ve woven as many strips as will fit, glue the ends to the back of the white paper and cut off any extra colored bits.
If you are feeling especially creative, weave the left over pieces of colored paper into the strips you’ve already attached.
Hang and enjoy!

I’m off to Tennessee until Wednesday. I’m not sure how often I’ll post while I’m away but I hope you enjoy the rest of the week!

Return to main page.

Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly is the final color field painter I plan to post about at this time. He is still living so I’ll just give you a quick summary of his life.

Kelly was born in 1923 in New York. As a child he moved a lot. Moving makes it difficult to develop friendships so Kelly was sometimes lonely. To keep him busy his grandmother taught him to bird watch. Kelly was very interested in the birds and he began to study them. John James Audubon’s work, which you may remember reading about, helped Kelly in his study of birds. Watching birds made Kelly sensitive to color and influenced his art later in life.

Another experience that influenced Kelly’s art was his army service. During World War II he spent a lot of time around camouflage. This helped him learn to use shadow in his paintings

When he got out of the army, Kelly moved to Boston where he studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Two years later he continued his art education in Paris.

In 1954 Kelly returned to New York. His art was not accepted right away. It was very different from the other works of art created during the time. Even so, people saw that there was something special about what he was creating. He was among the only artists who used more than one canvas in a single painting. He also used shaped canvas. Kelly even created entire paintings using only one color.

What I really love, and what I wanted to show you today, are Kelly’s colorful, random grid paintings. Some Kelly created by lining up small, square canvases, each painted a different color. Check out this one. For others, like this one, he drew and then colored in the squares.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to make your own grid art.

Return to main page.

Create Your Own Portfolio

Artists often keep portfolios of all their best work. You can do this, too. You’ve probably made a lot drawing and paintings. If you’re like me, they’re scattered all over the place. This portfolio (which is like a folder for your art) will help you to organize your art and keep it safe.

Supplies Needed:

Posterboard
Fabric
Glue
Hole Punch
Yarn or Ribbon

Cut your posterboard into two pieces. Each piece should be about 14 inches wide and 11 inches long. Cut a 4 inch by 14 inch strip of fabric. Choose any colors you wish.

Spread some glue onto the bottom edge (the 14 inch side) of the posterboard. Glue one edge of the fabric to the posterboard. Next, spread glue over the bottom edge of the second piece of posterboard and attach the other edge of the fabric.

Punch a hole through the center of the top edge. Tie a piece of yarn or ribbon through each hole. If you’d like, decorate the outside of your portfolio.
Slip your artwork into your portfolio and tie the strings together.

Later in the week I’ll post a project that you can add to your portfolio.

Return to main page.

Dr. Seuss

I need a break from color field painters. Dr. Seuss is just the thing, don’t you think?

I’m sure you’ve heard of Dr. Seuss, author and illustrator of more than 40 picture books including The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and The Lorax (my favorite). You’ve probably read at least a few of his books. But did you know that he created works of art that were never meant to be used in his books?

At night, when he wasn’t working on his books, Dr. Seuss loved to paint and sculpt. He created this art only for himself. He didn’t mean for others to see it, though he probably knew that eventually people would. I love Dr. Seuss’ illustrations and I was thrilled to find that there were more pictures to look at.

The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is a collection of Dr. Seuss’ artwork. Some of you may be interested to read the introduction which was written by Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are. The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is full of the wacky characters you’d expect from Dr. Seuss. There are lots of cats, of course, and many creatures not found in nature. I think my favorite piece in the book is the Impractical Marshmallow-Toasting Device. You’ll have to check out the book for yourself to see what that device looks like!

I hope you enjoy this discovery as much as I did. Have a great weekend!

Return to main page.

Use a Compass to Create Your Own Stella Masterpiece

Sorry for the posting delay. We had tornados yesterday and a lot of the area lost power. I did my best to stay out of the apartment as long as possible. Not to worry: everything’s fine now.

A note to parents/teachers: For your enjoyment, I am posting a second math-related project inspired by Frank Stella’s work. This one is perfect for practicing using a compass. Compasses can be tough to use at first and when students need to create circles of specified size it can be even tougher. This is a fun and artistic way to practice.

Begin by teaching the students a new term: concentric. Concentric circles are two or more circles within each other that have the same center point. Concentric arcs are two or more arcs lined up next to each other that share a center point.

Supplies Needed:

Paper
Pencil
Compass
Colored Pencils or Crayons
Black Marker (optional)

Place your compass point somewhere on your paper and create a large circle. Your parent or teacher may ask that the circle be a certain size. Make sure it will fit on the page before you begin. If you’re doing this project on your own, choose for yourself what size you want your largest circle to be.

Now, set your compass to a smaller size. Place the point in exactly the same place on the page. Remember that concentric circles must share a center point.

Continue to create smaller and smaller circles inside the large circle.

When you’ve created as many circles as will fit inside your large circle, move your compass to another point on the paper and decorate the blank spaces with concentric arcs or smaller concentric circles.

Finally, color the spaces between the circles with colored pencil or crayon. If you wish, trace the pencil lines with black marker to make them stand out.

Return to main page.

Use Geometry to Create Your Own Stella Masterpiece

It’s easy and entertaining to use Frank Stella’s art to review geometry. The project below can be fun for elementary students in grades 1-5 with only small adjustments depending on the level of the students.

Supplies Needed:

Posterboard
Construction Paper
Pencil
Scissors
Glue Stick
(Optional) Geometric Stencils

A note to parents/teachers: I recommend creating some stencils out of cardstock if you plan to do this project with children in 1st or 2nd grade. Even older kids may benefit from tracing the shapes rather than drawing their own. Draw circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, hexagons, and octagons onto cardstock, cut out, and make the stencils available to the kids. You can easily adapt this project to your kids and situation by creating fewer shapes (ex: only circles, triangles, and squares) or more shapes (including trapezoids and parallelograms).

Choose which shapes to use in your artwork. You may choose to use as many or as few of each shape as you’d like. Trace the stencils onto colored construction paper and cut out your shapes. Older kids can practice drawing their own shapes onto construction paper and cutting them out.

Arrange your shapes onto your posterboard. When you are pleased with the art you have created, glue the shapes in place.

Cut away any extra posterboard to create a shaped canvas just like Frank Stella.

Another note to parents/teachers: You may wish to have the kids write an explanation of which shapes they used. Ask them to write how many of each shape they used and something about each of those shapes. For instance, if you’ve been learning that circles are enclosed shapes with no sides, have the kids write that. If you’ve been learning how to find area and perimeter, have the kids measure the shapes they used in their art and figure out the area and perimeter of each.

Check back tomorrow for another math-related Frank Stella project.

Return to main page.

Frank Stella

Today our look at color field painters continues...

Because Frank Stella is still alive and painting, I’m not going to say much about his life. He was born in 1936 in Massachusetts. He attended Princeton University where he studied history. He was also interested in art and he visited museums and painted. After graduation he moved to New York where he still lives.

Stella’s paintings are meant to be objects themselves. He does not mean to portray any subject you would recognize and he doesn’t try to paint emotion onto canvas. He wants each painting to be a unique paint-on-canvas (or wood, or aluminum, etc.) object.

Many of Stella’s early paintings are extremely orderly. You’ll notice straight or curved lines that repeat in patterns. For example, look at Sunset Beach Sketch and Harran II. Can you guess which painting Stella created using a protractor?

Stella began painting on strangely shaped canvases which were often better suited to his creations. Check out Sunapee I, for example.

Soon, Stella’s paintings began to take on 3D shapes. He started attaching pieces of canvas to wood and building his paintings outward using aluminum and fiberglass. Look at The Pequod Meets the Bachelor which was made from aluminum and magnesium.

Finally Stella started to create sculpture. Click here for one 10 ton example.

Stella’s paintings can easily be used to review some simple math concepts. Tomorrow I’ll post a fun project that can be enjoyed by elementary school children of any age.

Return to main page.

GeeArt

I wrote a post for today but then I found an amazing website that you must see. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to read more about color field painting. I don't want to distract you from playing with this great interactive art site.

The GeeArt website includes funny cartoons in which colorful penguin-like creatures and polar bears talk about art. There are also games and fun quizzes about art. You have to subscribe to use all 16 lessons included on the site, but you can try one out for free. My favorite part about the trial lesson is when Vincent van Gogh and Johannes Vermeer face off in a fastest painter contest. It's pretty funny.

Go check it out for yourself. I'd love to hear what you think.

Return to main page.

Create Your Own Rothko Masterpiece

You learned about Mark Rothko’s color field paintings yesterday. Today, make your own color field masterpiece like Rothko.

Supplies Needed:

White Paper
Tissue Paper in assorted colors
Scissors
White Glue
Paint Brush

Decide on an emotion you’d like to create. Maybe angry, maybe serene. Maybe you want to show love or hate or jealousy. Choose tissue paper in colors that look like the emotion you chose. For instance, if I wanted to create serene I might use turquoise, green, and cobalt blue.

Cut rectangles of tissue paper. You can layer the tissue paper on top of itself to make deep colors, or use just one layer if you wish to see the white paper through the tissue paper. Arrange your colored rectangles on the white paper.

Finally, brush a thin layer of white glue onto your white paper and apply the tissue paper.

Let dry, hang, and enjoy!

I hope you enjoy your weekend. Check back next week for more color field artists.

Return to main page.

Mark Rothko

The first color field painter I’ll post about is Mark Rothko. Rothko did not begin as a color field painter but he his best known for the paintings he did in this style.

Rothko was born in Russia in 1903. He and his family moved to Oregon when he was 10 years old. They struggled for money. Rothko did well in school and earned a scholarship to Yale University. He thought he would become an engineer or an attorney—careers at which he would make some money. In 1923, his second year of college, Rothko left Yale.

He moved to New York City and became involved with some artists. He began taking classes at the New School of Design. Arshile Gorky, whom I wrote about earlier, was one of Rothko’s teachers.

Rothko’s early paintings were somewhat realistic. They showed some recognizable objects such as people, buildings, and landscapes. (For an example click here.)

In the 1940s Rothko became interested in using mythology in his paintings. He thought he could best paint emotion by showing known creatures from myths. These mythological paintings were similar in style to Surrealist paintings. (For example: The Syrian Bull.) It didn’t take long for Rothko to decide that mythology was outdated. He began to believe that too many artists had already used myths in their paintings. He was also convinced that painting myths wasn’t the best way to show emotion in his art.

Mark Rothko’s art became more abstract at the end of the 1940s. He decided that simple shapes were the best for showing complicated feelings. The large, simple shapes allow you to feel instead of think when you look at Rothko’s paintings. (Examples: here, here.)

His later paintings, those from 1948 and later, show only two, three, or four rectangles lined up one of top of the other (vertically). He painted these color field paintings on huge canvases because he wanted the viewer to get lost in the painting. He didn’t want you to stand back from his paintings and look on. He wanted you, instead, to stand close and become a part of the artwork. He wanted you to feel the emotion he had painted. (For images click here, here.)

Beginning in the late 1950s, Rothko used much darker colors. He overlapped colors until the canvas was covered with deep reds, blues, blacks. He was painting sadder, angrier moods than before. (For images click here, here.)

Rothko died in 1970.

Return to main page.

Color Field Painting

My trip to Massachusetts was a lot of fun but tiring. I got a sore throat on the way home and by this morning it was killer. I'm feeling much better tonight, though! I hope you all had a good weekend, too.

Today, I thought I’d say something about color field painting. I plan to post about some color field painters this week.

Color field painting is a type of abstract expressionism that began in the U.S. in the 1950s. Color field artists did not paint recognizable objects. Like some other abstract artists you've read about, they were trying to paint emotion onto canvas. Color field painters also aimed to create more organized, rational, and ordered art. They did this by painting large canvases with solid, geometrical shapes of bright color.

There were, of course, color field painters who didn’t use geometrical shapes. There were also those who painted vibrant shapes but who, instead of filling them in with solid colors, used many colors to outline them. There are always exceptions to rules, especially in the art world. Once you’ve learned about some of these artists it will be clear to you what links them together under the style of color field painting.

Return to main page.

Create Your Own Jacob Lawrence Inspired Series

On Friday you learned that Jacob Lawrence told stories by creating series of paintings. He illustrated one scene of the story at a time until it was complete. Lawrence was careful to use the same colors in each painting of a series. He did this by first planning each painting. Then he filled the colors in one at a time. For instance, he would paint all the red parts of the paintings, then all the yellow, then all the blue. Today, draw your own story.

Supplies Needed:

At least 5 sheets of paper
Pencil
Crayons

Decide the story you want to tell. It can be true, from you own life or from someone else’s, or you can make up a story.

Sketch each scene onto its own sheet of paper. Create at least 5 scenes. Jacob Lawrence’s series were much longer. His migration series was 60 scenes long!

Now color them in. You can color each picture separately or add one color at a time like Lawrence did.

Remember to number your scenes (on the back of each paper) so you can easily keep them in order.

Return to main page.

Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence was born in 1917. His parents had just moved from the south to the north in a huge African-American migration that was going on at the time. The families who picked up their belongings and journeyed across the U.S. were looking for better lives. It was difficult for African-Americans to find work in the south and Lawrence’s parents hoped it would be different in the north.

The family moved around a lot and finally settled in Harlem, New York. Lawrence’s father left the young family so Lawrence lived in the apartment with his mother, brother, and sister. In Harlem, the family lived in a tall apartment building surrounded by other tall apartment buildings. Their neighbors were all African-Americans.

Lawrence did not do well in school. He was bored and frustrated that he only learned about white heroes. His mother signed him up for an after school program and the things he learned there changed his life.

At the after school program, Lawrence began to draw, color, and paint. By experimenting, Lawrence taught himself to paint. He also learned about some important black heroes, including Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas.

Lawrence’s family never had enough money and Lawrence had to drop out of school to get a job. When he was working he didn’t have time to paint but he longed to create.

When he was 21, Lawrence worked on the Easel Program which paid him to paint. During this time he began painting series. He wanted his paintings to tell a story. He painted a series which told the story of Harriet Tubman. He painted another that told Frederick Douglas’ story. He also painted a series about the African-American migration which his parents took part in. Click here to see some of the panels from the migration series. Lawrence’s series brought him fame. Suddenly painting paid the bills and more.

Lawrence created paintings about everything he saw. He served in the Navy during World War II and painted images of daily life. When he checked himself into a mental institution he painted pictures of other patients.

In his old age, Lawrence moved to Seattle and taught art classes. When he wasn’t teaching he loved to paint pictures of the workers construction buildings. He stayed in Seattle until he died in 2000.

Return to main page.

Dubuffet and Art Brut

Jean Dubuffet, born in 1901 was a well-known and well-liked French painter and sculptor. Throughout his early life, Dubuffet had doubts about how valuable art really was. He ran the family wine business until he took up art full time in 1942.

In addition to painting and sculpting, Dubuffet helped show the art of the insane to the world. He even came up with the term “art brut.” It means “raw art.” What Dubuffet meant by art brut was art that came from inside the artist and was not influenced by what other people thought. This was true of the art of the insane.

As Dubuffet traveled and met artists, he discovered that others (who were not insane) could create raw art as well. People who didn’t fit into society could create art that was free of society’s influence. Dubuffet began to use the term “art brut” to talk about any art, whether the artist was sane or insane, that was created without the influence of society.

Dubuffet began to collect art brut works and eventually put them on display. The collection grew and traveled from Europe to the U.S. and back again. As Dubuffet became a well-known and somewhat wealthy artist, he hired about 100 people to find and collect art brut works.

Finally, in 1976, Dubuffet’s collection found a permanent home in Switzerland at the Chateau de Beaulieu. The space was once used for studying the behavior of the mentally ill but now houses the huge collection of art brut works.

I'm off to Massachusetts this weekend but I've already set up post for through Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

Return to main page.

Adolf Wolfli

Yesterday I told you about art brut. Today, read about one important art brut artist, Adolf Wolfli.
Adolf Wolfli had a rough childhood. He was an orphan and very poor. He was not always treated well by the adults who passed through his life.

When he was 31, in 1895, Wolfli was admitted to the Waldau clinic near Bern, Switzerland. He remained there for the rest of his life.
Wolfli began to draw and soon the activity took up most of his time. He would wear a pencil down to nothing in only a week and he had to collect used packing paper on which to create his drawings. He never had enough materials.

Wolfli created tons of artwork. Between 1908 and 1930 he wrote his life story as he wished it to be. He illustrated it with images that often included music (see below). The 45 books that made up the story totaled 25,000 pages!
As you can see in the pictures shown here, Wolfli’s drawings were very ordered. They often had borders and connecting circles or ovals, and they usually contained geometric shapes and music notes. Wolfli began his drawings at the edge of the paper and worked his way inward. The drawings aren’t symmetrical but upon first glance may appear to be. Notice the faces that appear in all the drawings shown here.
In 1921 Dr. Walter Morganthaler wrote a book about Wolfli and his art. It was the first major book about a mentally ill artist and it increased Wolfli’s growing fame. Visitors began to show up at the hospital to meet the artist. They bought his drawings and some brought him supplies so he could continue drawing.

Wolfli drew steadily until he died in 1930.

Return to main page.

Art Brut: An Introduction

The term “art brut” means “raw art.” It is used to describe art created by talented artists living outside of society. Art brut is the art of the insane. The name didn’t come about until the mid-1940s and it was soon used to refer to other forms of outsider art. But that’s a topic for another day.

Until the mid-1800s no one paid attention to the artwork created by mental patients. Psychiatrists such as Dr. Paul Gaston Meunier, Dr. Auguste Marie, and Dr. Charles Ladame changed this. They began to collect the artwork because they thought it could help grant new information about the minds of their patients.
In the 1920s, as you know, abstract art movements were forming and gaining popularity. Artists like Wassily Kandinsky were creating art without recognizable subjects. Their art was based on feeling. They tried to paint emotions onto canvas and people accepted the art that was created.

The idea of putting pencil or pen or brush to paper and letting it wander with the mind made people look differently at the art of the insane. Those doodles and scribbles no longer seemed so silly.
As it turned out, the insane created more than just doodles and scribbles. Some created very realistic sketches of life. Others carved abstract sculptures. Some created ordered, patterned drawings, filled with every imaginable color. Just like the work of mentally healthy artists, the artwork of the insane varied in style and could be seen as strange or disturbing or even beautiful.

In 1922, Dr. Hans Prinzhorn published a book on the art of the insane. He also set up a gallery of artwork he had collected. The book and the gallery made people aware of the art made by the mentally ill. And the most interesting thing—the artwork influenced “normal” artists! The Surrealists were especially inspired.
Look at the pictures I’ve included. (The first was painted by Adolf Wolfli, the second by Franz Karl Buhler, and the third by August Natterer.) Tomorrow I’ll tell you about Adolf Wolfli, a mentally ill artist who is remembered today by many as a creative genius.

Thanks to BeverlyKayeGallery for suggesting this topic. I’m having a great time researching it and look forward to the next week or so of posts! Click over to the BeverlyKayeGallery blog to learn more about art brut and outsider art.

Return to main page.

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum

Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Glasser have created a gorgeous picture book: You Can’t Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum. Wordlessly the author and illustrator show the frenzied chase of a security guard through New York City as he tries to snag a run-away balloon. Inside the museum, a girl enjoys the artwork, unaware of the adventure her balloon is experiencing.

I love the way Weitzman and Glasser use famous works of art to punctuate the action happening in the city. The book doesn’t try to teach you about art or about New York City. Instead, it gives you a glimpse of both and lets you draw your own conclusions.

There are two other books in this series which may interest you. You Can’t Take a Balloon into the National Gallery follows a balloon’s travels through Washington, D.C., and You Can’t Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts is an adventure through Boston, Massachusetts. All three books feature beautiful pen-and-ink drawings with punches of color.

Return to main page.

Tempera Paint

Tempera is a type of paint made using egg yolk. It is still used today by some artists but it was very popular in ancient Egypt as well as during the Italian Renaissance. To make the paint, an artist ground minerals into powder. He separated the yolk (the yellow part of the egg) from the white. Then the artist mixed the yolk with the colored powder until he like the color and thickness of his paint.

Egg yolk dries quickly and forms a hard coat. Once dry, yolk is difficult to remove. (Try scrubbing dried egg out of a bowl…) Because of this, paintings made with tempera last a long time. The Fayum Portraits of ancient Egypt have lasted more than 2000 years!

You can make your own tempera! Be sure to have an adult help you with this one. Do not make the tempera until you are ready to paint with it.

Supplies Needed:

Chalk
Pencil sharpener
Egg
Water
Empty egg carton
Bowl
Fork

Sharpen a piece of chalk with your pencil sharpener. Empty the shavings into one of the egg carton cups. Repeat for each color you wish to create.

Separate the egg yolk from the egg white. You will only need the yolk. Mix the egg yolk with about three teaspoons of water.

Stir a small amount of the yolk mixture into each cup. Your paint should be a little runny. Be sure to stir until the paint is smooth.

You are now ready to create your masterpiece! Be aware that tempera paint dries fast. If the paint sits in the cups for too long, you’ll have to add a little more water to prevent it from thickening.

Return to main page.