What about Color?

the Egg Tempera Pallette:
Powdered pigments can be quite exciting to see and to use - especially the first time.  In egg tempera one must always work with powders to grind up the colors for the daily session.  Though it sounds like alot of work, in actual practice, the quantities are so small that mixing up amounts for each daily session does not take alot of extra time or effort.  I avoid prepared tube colors for egg tempera and always go direct from powder.  However, it is possible to pregrind up colors in distilled water and keep that paste in a small airtight jar ready for egg yolk.  

In general I usually try to use the same pallette for egg tempera as for oil, minus white and black.  You will need to see for yourself what you like. There are two pigments that are particularly difficult to grind - thalo blue and alazirin crimson - but do come around with persistence.  You may wish to avoid them.  Earth colors are very receptive to medium (water or egg). 

• Two yellows (a cool and a warm one, like citron yellow and cadmium yellow medium)
• Two reds (a cool and a warm one, like  alizarin crimson and cadmium red medium)
• Two blues (a cool and a warm one, like thalo blue and ultramarine blue)
• Sienna (burnt and raw)
• Umber (burnt and raw)
• Yellow Ochre

As I try to use egg tempera for underpainting, the colors need to be pure.  Light strokes dry quickly, as blocks of color that can be worked up like bricks mortared to a finely structured building.  

 

Some examples of egg tempera

Medium:
Did you know that the medium dictates the pallette?

Color Theory
Additive and subtractive color basics...

Oil Pallette
How to choose?

Egg Tempera Pallette
Best practices...

Fresco Pallette
the gentle chemistry of the earth