Using Tempera Paints

There are many different items on which artists and students paint, but each has its own requirements for the paint to adhere properly. If canvas is the painter’s choice, acrylics or oil paints are a good choice. These two types of paint will bind with the material in different ways, but there will be little danger they will crack or flake off. Longevity may be an issue for some, but it can take up to a few centuries before oils or acrylics will crack due to excess bending of the canvas and tempera paints have been known to last for more than a thousand years.

Tempera paints are water based like acrylics, but they use egg yolks as their binder. When applied to canvas, they produce approximately the same binding properties. Solid material such as wood does not take acrylic or oil paints as well, but tempera is a good fit because the egg yolk in the mix binds it more securely to the surface of the wood.