Luminous Brush: Painting with Egg Tempera [Paperback]

Altoon Sultan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

This important resource is essential to any artist who is interested in using the time-honored medium of egg tempera to achieve the luminous effects that can't be duplicated by any other medium. Complete with step-by-step photography, the book elucidates all stages of preparation, development, and completion of egg tempera paintings. Formal issues such as the depiction of light, color, form, and detail are discussed.

Altoon Sultan's paintings are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and other fine institutions. Represented by the Marlborough Gallery, she lives in Groton, Vermont.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823028887
• ISBN-13: 978-0823028887
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #643,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only Current 'How-To' for Egg Tempera Painting, October 17, 2001

By 

hamsterdance (TX) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Luminous Brush: Painting with Egg Tempera (Paperback)

While I own and have read Daniel V. Thompson, Jr.'s book The Practice of Tempera Painting I'm glad I have Sultan's book as well. I don't know how hatching and cross-hatching can be construed as "uninspired" since this is the traditional method egg tempera artists employ to create paintings. Neither is Sultan's book a "dumbed-down" instruction manual of Thompson's book. The Luminous Brush is a complete book on egg tempera painting itself. The one main technique Thompson's book covers which The Luminous Brush doesn't is gilding.

The Luminous Brush will appeal to people who appreciate the many step-by-step photos showing how to prepare your own grounds, the amount of pigment paste to egg yolk to water ratios, etc. The author provides exercises for the reader using ink and/or gouache for practicing egg tempera painting techniques so the transition to egg tempera itself will be easy. There are chapters on painting landscapes, skies, rough and smooth textures as well as a chapter showing new experimental approaches to egg tempera painting by guest artists. There is a bibliography and sources selling pigments, grounds or other materials for use in egg tempera painting.

Unless you are planning to employ gold gilding in your egg tempera paintings or want to read chapters on which paint pigments to buy that were current as of 1936 (some now known to present health risks and made obsolete by safer, lightfast alternatives) The Luminous Brush will be just fine for anyone wanting to get started.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Luminous Book on Egg Tempera, December 21, 1999

By 

Hanna Hannah - See all my reviews

This review is from: Luminous Brush: Painting with Egg Tempera (Paperback)

In this luminous and exquisitely presented book Altoon Sultan vividly conveys a sense of the richness inherent in this ancient medium. Sultan eschews the pitfalls of most art instruction books that purvey pat formulas, which lead merely to a hobbyist's superficial and empty technique. Rather, while providing a rigorously detailed and clearly delineated process--each step accompanied by lush, illustrative photographs and a very directly written text--Sultan encourages and leaves room for individual adaptation; which is precisely one of this work's greatest strengths. The text is further amplified by a rich array of the author's own masterful works, as well as samples ranging from the first century A.D. to the present. She includes abstract work that is predicated on spontaneity and improvisation, properties not generally associated with this medium. This is in fact a large and generous work that conveys the author's articulately expressed sense of excitement at the possibilities she has discovered in tempera and eloquently invites us to explore.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Introductory Text, December 2, 2002

By 

Alessandra Kelley (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Luminous Brush: Painting with Egg Tempera (Paperback)

This book is an excellent modern alternative to Daniel V. Thompson's useful, but dated book, which I find mired in 'thirties philosophy and art theory. Ms. Sultan lays out the materials and techniques well, not only her own preferences but also other possibilities. I was pleased to see a small but handy section in the back where a number of diverse egg tempera painters with widely varying styles spoke briefly about their own approaches. This is a very good introductory text.