Distemper

If egg tempera was the protagonist of Jan Dickey's workshop, distemper was its quieter sibling — demonstrated side by side precisely so we could feel the difference between two animal-protein binders.

What it is

Distemper is the simplest of all: animal glue (rabbit skin glue or hide glue) plus pigment — and nothing else. No chalk (which would make it gesso), no egg (which would make it tempera). Just protein binder and color.

How it behaves

Where egg tempera dries to a slightly waxy, translucent surface, distemper dries drier and more matte. It offers more coverage than egg tempera, though it’s still based on a clear binder — opacity comes from pigment concentration, not the binder itself. One thing to know going in: colors tend to bleach out as distemper dries, with a slight shift toward yellow. Plan for this when mixing.

• Matte, non-reflective finish.
• More coverage than egg tempera — flatter and drier, but unlike gesso the binder is clear, not chalk-based.
• Colors shift on drying — they lighten and drift slightly yellow.
• Like all animal-glue paints, it re-activates with water and is reversible.

Where it came from

Distemper began as a wall and decorative painting technique in the European tradition — the paint of murals, theatrical scenery, and decorative interiors, where large areas needed even, matte coverage and where permanence under handling mattered less than immediate effect.

A note on the word

The vocabulary itself is instructive. "Tempera" comes from to temper — to bring a material to the right balance or quality. "Distemper" shares its root with temperament, the balance or stability of a thing. Both names point at the same underlying idea: a binder is something you bring into the correct temper, the right working balance of strength, flow, and film. Jan demonstrated distemper alongside egg tempera so the two could be read as variations on that single theme — different animal proteins, tempered to different ends.

Jay’s Studio Note

Watching them side by side was the moment it clicked. Both are animal-protein binders — you’d assume something similar. But egg tempera has this quiet depth and faint sheen when it dries, and distemper just goes flat. The colors also shifted more than I expected: they bleach out a bit as they dry, pulling slightly toward yellow. Something to mix accounting for from the start.

The word thing Jan mentioned has stayed with me: tempera and distemper are really the same word — both about bringing something into the right balance. I think about that whenever I’m mixing anything now.

References

• Jan Dickey, Tempera & Distemper Workshop, Material Memory Studio, Seoul, 7 June 2026. Jan Dickey is a New York-based painter, curator, and art writer. Jan Dickey at Material Memory Studio
• Cennino Cennini, Il Libro dell'Arte, c. 1400 — descriptions of hide glue-based binders in the European painting tradition