Tempera
Artists
Clement Hurd
Gustaf Tenggren
A crop of Gustaf Tenggren's art from The Poky Little Puppy. Click through to enlarge.
Tempera paint is mixed with egg emulsion and is brightly saturated.
Tempera is made of powdered pigment mixed with a gum arabic and egg emulsion. It has a high pigment load, giving it bright, saturated colors. Because tempera dries quickly, it is often used for flat blocks of color, similar to gouache, rather than being used for techniques involving gradations and transparency.
Clement Hurd: Country and Goodnight Moon
Country
This tempera process art is part of a fold-out, accordion style wordless picture book. At the end was a page of suggested story ideas for parents to use.
Goodnight Moon
In an interview with Publishers Weekly, 1966, Hurd said that the field of children's book illustration ''is related to painting and graphics, but is specialized in that the artist must keep the ultimate audience more firmly in mind than the 'pure' painter who primarily tries to satisfy himself.'' This audience, he added, ''an ever new and wide-eyed group, responds freely to what interests it, and turns away from what does not.''
http://mentalfloss.com/article/64005/11-fascinating-facts-about-goodnight-moon
Gustaf Tenggren: The Poky Little Puppy
Gustaf Tenggren worked for Walt Disney as a concept artist when he left Sweden for the United State. Although Tenggren was known for his watercolor and ink illustrations in his early career, he adopted tempera on hot press watercolor board as his medium and surface of choice after he left Disney for New York City. ;Known for its bright vibrant colors and quick drying time, tempera was a perfect match for his Golden Book era works.
Marcus, Leonard S., Golden Legacy : How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became an American Icon along the Way. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2007.