Left: I’ve decided to use some of the sketches I made at Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood for this painting. I want to do a series with a seaside theme, so I’ve chosen Punch and Judy. I’ve started with an underdrawing using black India ink

Using egg tempera is an elaborate process, where once you’ve primed your surface with gesso, you go on to the next stage “underpainting” or “underdrawing”. This is an initial drawing to guide you when you begin to paint. Some transfer a drawing using tracing paper, others draw directly on to the gesso surface. The materials you can use to draw this initial design include graphite, silverpoint, goldpoint, black India ink and gouache. There are probably many others, but these are the ones I’ve discovered artists using so far.

I’ve found that using egg tempera has educated me in terms of the history of art materials. Until I started to use egg tempera, I’d never heard of “silverpoint” or “goldpoint”, a medium used in the Renaissance period and superseded by graphite later. (For more information on this material visit http://silverpointweb.com). It is a very stable medium and has sometimes lasted for hundreds of years.

For my initial attempts at using egg tempera, I decided to use black India ink for the underdrawing. Egg tempera is translucent, so what you choose to use as your underpainting medium will show through the paint you put on top. I’ll post the finished painting soon, so watch this space.