Did you know artist like Leonardo da Vinci used eggs to make tempera paint?
During the Renaissance period, many painters would mix eggs in different natural materials to create more vibrant pigments. This popular technique was used with materials such as rock, soil, spices, bone, and even plants.
Earth day is the perfect day to create fun paintings using your own tempera paint! We used some of our chalk pieces to make vibrant colors.
Materials Needed:
•Spices or chalk (make sure the chalk is non-toxic)
•Egg yoke (3-6 yolks with no egg whites)
•Small muffin tin or separate containers
•Water (6 tsp for mixing and one small filled jar)
•Paint brush
•Paper
•Small hammer
•Mortar and pestle
•Parchment paper
Directions:
1. Separate chalk by colors and break chalk into smaller pieces. Wrap chalk pieces into parchment paper and smash with a hammer. This is perfect time for children to help out. Then use the mortar and pestle to grind chalk into a fine powder.
2. Add the chalk powder or spices into the muffin tin (adding each color into its own tin compartment).
3. Separate egg yolks from the egg whites, and add directly to pigments (since I didn’t use much powder I divided three egg yolks to my pigments). Add one teaspoon of water to each compartment and mix together. (Mixing can be done with a popsicle stick or paint brush-just make sure clean it off after each mix in the paint).
4. You are ready to paint. Grab your materials and create your egg tempera masterpiece.
*Note: This paint is not for reuse, and does not store well. Use a jar of water and old cloth to clean off paint before using a new color.
My littles loved making their paint pigments. They painted a few different paintings with one tin and even tried mixing colors.
I hope you enjoyed this this Earth Day inspired activity. Please visit me on Instagram @naturallylayan for more homeschool inspiration and activities.
