Homemade Tempera Paint Recipe

Have you ever made homemade tempera paint?  This might just be the easiest paint recipe we've ever made.

Egg Paint Recipe

Can I make a confession?  I only recently found out that it's spelled tempera and not tempura.  I have countless posts on my blog calling it tempura paint.  Whoops!  A few readers pointed it out.  Maybe someday I will go back and edit all my old posts.  Or maybe I'll just continue to ignore the mistakes and move forward writing new posts.  At least now I know how to spell tempera!  We go through quite a bit of tempera paint in our house, and we also make a lot of homemade paint.  How fun to be able to make homemade tempera paint!

How to Make Egg Tempera Paint

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Supplies:

• eggs
• liquid watercolor paint or food coloring
• paper
• paint brushes
• forks or whisks
• bowls
• extra container

Directions:  To make homemade tempera paint first you need to separate one yolk from the white for every color you want to make.  We made four colors of tempera paint, so I separated four egg yolks, one in each container.  I suggest having an extra container nearby to throw the egg shells and whites into.  Or you could keep the whites separate and make yourself and egg white omelette. 

My boys took turns adding color to each yolk.  We didn't measure, but I would say we used anywhere between 1-2 tablespoons of liquid watercolor paint per yolk.  It all depends on the desired shade.  Food coloring can also be used, but liquid watercolors produce much more vibrant colors.

The boys used a fork to mix the egg yolks and liquid watercolors.

That's it!  After mixing, the paint is ready.

I recommend taking into consideration the colors you choose since they will be mixed with the yellow egg yolk.  Some combinations might not turn out quite like you expect.  We chose red, yellow, tangerine, and lime, and all four colors were gorgeous.

We use Colorations liquid watercolors, but if you prefer to shop on Amazon I have heard great things about Sax watercolors.

The picture below shows what the homemade tempera paint looks like when dry.  It is glossy and beautiful!  

For more homemade paint recipes follow me on Pinterest.

A few of our favorite homemade paint recipes:

Scented Puffy Paint Recipe ~ Erupting Flour Paint ~ Baby and Toddler Safe Paint