Eggs Tempera

I did a couple of eggs tempera (that seems more mellifluous than "egg temperas" for some reason - like "surgeons general" or perhaps "eggs benedict") for a "Small Works" show at local frame shop/gallery Hope and Feathers. These are not 100% egg tempera - I haven't gone the whole hog of grinding my own dry pigments. I started with regular tube watercolors and added the egg yolk as a medium. The show stipulated dimensions of 5" x 7" or 6" X 6" so these are both 5" x 7."

I did a bunch of thumbnails in preparation, first to decide what images I wanted to make - here are some that didn't make it:

For the first one, I did the preliminary pencil sketch right on the panel, then went over it in India ink for the grisaille underpainting:

Doing the first one brought home to me that for egg tempera, you really want to nail down the layout and values pretty well before painting - the medium isn't conducive to major surgery later on. So I did more thumbnails and a full size sketch for the second one.