Practice question · Multiple choice
Egg tempera and oil paint rely on identical pigments, yet produce entirely distinct visual styles. What accounts for this formal divergence, and what does it demand of the painter's method?
Hints
- What component of paint governs the working time before the surface sets?
- Does the visual difference arise from the colour agent itself or how it is held on the support?
Show the answer
D. The binder determines the drying rate and the feasibility of blending
Why
Pigments provide hue, but the binder governs behaviour. Egg yolk dries in minutes, enforcing sharp delineation, whereas oil dries over weeks, allowing wet-in-wet tonal transitions. Support affects scale and transport, not the intrinsic handling of the paint film itself.
Practise Painting I: What the Medium Decides
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More questions on Painting I: What the Medium Decides
- Sort each capability by the medium that permits it.
- Why did the arrival of oil paint change the way a picture could be composed, not just how it looked?
- Jan van Eyck invented oil painting.
- Which follow from the chemistry of buon fresco?
- Complete the account of the media.
- Roughly how many days can an oil painting remain workable, allowing wet-into-wet blending?
- Arrange the stages of painting a buon fresco in order.
- The pigments used in fresco, tempera and oil are largely the same; it is the binder that differs.