How to Use Tempera
Although tempera painting is the world's oldest painting medium, it is still in use today, and artists from beginners to professional level use tempera paints to execute their artistic visions. There are, however, some specific considerations to be made when working with tempera to assure that the best possible products is produced.
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Instructions
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Choose a surface to work on. The way tempera dries is much different than oils or acrylics and therefore your substrate choice is of the utmost importance. Since tempera paint dries to a very crackly, plaster-like finish, make sure that what you paint on is very flat and rigid, as a surface that is too textured or has too much give will cause the paint to crack more. Canvas board, illustration board and gesso's Masonite are good choices.
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Plan your painting. Since one of the advantages of using tempera paints is the clean, crisp edges, its best to use tempera paints for graphic subject matters. Letters and symbols are a good choice. Draw your image on the surface with a pencil, possibly using rulers and drafting tools, to make nice, clean lines.
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Prepare your color palette. Unlike other painting mediums, tempera paint isn't meant to be mixed. The colors aren't as true as they are as they are with acrylics and oils, so if you choose to mix to create new colors, mix well and test to see what your new color looks like on a piece of scrap paper before you apply it to your artwork.
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Get the paint to the thickness you want. Tempera paint is incredibly thick, and although this is a good thing because it makes the paint opaque, it can make it difficult to use tempera paints for painting small details. You can thin the paint down with some water if you find it too thick to work with.
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Apply paint to your substrate. Let one color completely dry before you add a new color over it. Unlike other mediums, the colors won't mix to form a new color or gradation on the canvas, but will instead muddle together to make a distracting smudge.
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Tips & Warnings
Although you can create realistic landscapes and portraits with tempera paints, their bold nature makes them more suited to graphic painting techniques. Paint slowly, applying one color at a time. Let paints dry thoroughly before adding new layers of paint.
