A Recipe for Tempera Putrido

Tempera putrido is like ‘white-out’ for oil painters. It is a white that can be used for corrections in a painting where you have to paint a light over a dark. The putrido will dry quickly and will not become transparent over time as a regular white would.

This recipe came to me via John Angel who had a tube of it in his fridge back in the early 2000’s. I was responsible for moving his home to a new apartment and I forgot the tube of putrido.  It worked wonderfully and so I am not sure if I will ever live it down.

You will need both tempera white and oil white:

Tempera white – Mix together: 1 part egg yolk, 1 part water and 1 part pigment.

Oil white – white pigment ground thickly into stand oil.

The  pigment can be titanium white or lead white although lead pigment is highly toxic if breathed in.

Then: one part oil white ground in one part tempera white will give you tempera putrido. Tube it and  store it in the fridge.

Here is an old BBC video of Pietro Annigoni, John Angel’s maestro, mixing tempera colours for his painting.