I paint and sketch the same view over and over again. I'm slowly figuring out how to move from depiction to abstraction. Here, with two colours (sienna and phthalo blue) and white. I'm making the oil paint smooth with egg yolk because I don't want to use solvents. What do you think: Not enough contrast? The mountains shouldn't be the same height? Where is the focal point? I look forward to your comments!
I paint and sketch the same view over and over again. I’m slowly figuring out how to move from depiction to abstraction. Here, with two colours (sienna and phthalo blue) and white. I’m making the oil paint smooth with egg yolk because I don’t want to use solvents. What do you think: Not enough contrast? The mountains shouldn’t be the same height? Where is the focal point? I look forward to your comments!
Louise Balaam - Monthly Landscape Painting
Thank you very much for your offer, dear Louise! Once the paint is mixed with the egg yolk–linseed oil–water mixture, it becomes water-soluble, which makes cleaning the brushes much easier! You can clean them with soap.
What an interesting image Elle – would you like to submit it to me for individual feedback and I can give you a much fuller response? Briefly, I love the textures and I think the limited palette is working really well.
I’m fascinated by using egg yolk as a medium as well – I’m familiar with it mixed with dry pigment to make tempera paint but haven’t come across it used with oil paint. How does it affect clean-up of your brushes?
I’m so glad you like my painting! I’d love to tell you how I made the egg medium:
I only use the egg yolk — without the membrane. If you pierce the skin with a knife, the yolk slips out easily. Then I add about the same amount of linseed oil and water. I usually use half an eggshell for measuring or just eyeball it.
I mix everything together with a fork, like preparing scrambled eggs. Then I blend this medium into the paint with a palette knife until it’s nice and smooth.
I’ve noticed that different pigments react quite differently: sienna and phthalo blue turned soft and creamy right away, while titanium white clumped up at first. It needed quite a lot of the medium, but then it worked beautifully.
I used it for a thin underpainting of oil paint and medium on unprimed paper and painted directly on top. The texture felt really nice — smooth but not slippery.
And how lovely that you have your own chickens! I’d love to hear if you try this medium and how you like it!
I love this one Elke….so vibrant & energetic with those fabulous blends fo colour. Im very curious about use of egg yolks? How do you do that? What quantities? I have a lot of questions about that – because I usually have far too many eggs from the hens!