Art by Wendy: working with shadows

Showing posts with label working with shadows. Show all posts

Oct 22, 2020

Where does Ambient Reflected Light come into your Painting? - Painting & Drawing Tips

IMAGINE: Lights softly dimmed; slow easy music playing; candles sparkling; wine chilling.

I think you can picture the rest.

A strong mood and atmosphere. Each item helps to build the total scene. Individually they flounder. For Cohesion and Drama, they need to work together.

TRICKLING WATER - matted 12 X 16 $650 - Part of my Deep in the Forest Series. Note the affect of reflected light on the rocks and water both real and fantasy

In my last post I talked a lot about light and shadows and the effect of reflective light on them. (See Playing with Light, Shadows and Values ) I find this a very interesting topic that has implications in all areas of your art. I also created a video "Getting Those Shadows Working for You' which is available In the Instructional Series for the Arts Council of Surrey. (October 2020) In addition there is a Free Downloadable Mushroom Activity Sheet to go with it.

Reflective Light is more than just LIGHT . . . .

Lighthouse at Amphitrite Point, BC - Note the Reflected light on the rocks, trees and lighthouse from the sky

Reflective Light has colour. Think of that lovely scene I described at the beginning. It has a special ambience to it. There is a "mood, character, quality, tone, atmosphere, etc., to that environment." This ambience is created with sight, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch. In planning your picture you take into consideration the same things to design the 'feel' you want your picture to have.

But the Ambience of a space is more . . .

The ambience created by the softly dimmed lights, the sparkling candles, even the wine in the glass all affect the colours you use. Yes, you are saying. That makes sense. But I want you to look one step further. I want you to look at the effect of Ambient Reflective Light on the colour of each item in your painting.

I found the effect of Ambient Reflective Light an EYE OPENER. . .

A good example is the Cockatoo below. I took this picture at the local Bird Sanctuary.

Note the affect of Ambient Reflected Light on this white Cockatoo

The Cockatoo is a white bird with a plume of yellow on his head. When you look at this picture you definitely think "white bird". But take a closer look.

Close Up of the Cockatoo - note the colours on the tail feathers and legs

When I looked closer at my picture, I found this profound. My white bird wasn't white. There was green tones and red tones on him. These are the effect of the Ambient Reflective Light. The green is from the leaves beside him. Their colour is reflected on the bird as it bounced off the leaves onto him. The redish tones are also reflective light. That colour is reflected off the wooden branches the bird is standing on. Would you have painted green and red tones on your white bird?

AFTERNOON TEA - Matted 16 x 20 $650 - Note the Reflected Light on the Hummingbird

In my painting, Afternoon Tea, you can really see how Ambient Reflected Light brings drama and cohesion to the work. This little hummingbird really fits into the picture with the pinks of the flowers reflected onto his body. The pinks in the sky give the feeling of other flowers around in the background providing a very cohesive setting and giving the feel of a bright sunny day.

Close up: Trickling Water - note the repetition of colours in the water, rocks and mossy areas

Now, I don't want to create panic in your mind. My intention was to open up another area of awareness as you painted. It has made me realize that cohesion in my work requires use of colours throughout my work rather than in isolated areas. In otherwards, to have green grass and blue sky is not enough. The green grass is reflected into the sky and the blue of the sky is reflected into the grass. There needs to be some greens in the sky and blues in the grass for the picture to be cohesive.

This is the part I found hard. Green in the blue sky? Just like the red and greens on the white bird. When you first drop that colour down it may look foreign but as you build your image with it, you will see it needs to be there. My rule of thumb is " if I used the colour somewhere in the background it needs to be in other places. At least 3. It can be a different value and size but it needs to be there".

Take a look at the close up for Trickling Water. The mossy rocks have all the colours on them that are found in the water. Does it seem right to you? Does it make sense to your eye? Ambient Reflective Light is a really fun to work with and can create all kinds of different effects in your work. Check out other works to see how they use Ambient Reflective Light.

See you next week. Better still, see you at the show. Info below.

FACE-TO-FACE Gallery show!! - Only 9 Days Left!!

Artswest Showcase

October 1 - 31, 2020

Landmark Pop-Up Gallery - 15140 North Bluff Rd, White Rock

Full Covid Safety Rules in Effect - Only 6 in the Gallery at a time

Open: Wed 10-5pm Thurs & Fri 10-8, Sat 10-5pm Sun 12-5pm

Come see what our Art Group has been doing - Lots of new Original pieces of Art, special

One-of-a-Kind Art Items and special gift items for any occasion.

Do you have big/small projects on the go?

Looking for a sounding board, help, suggestions, techniques. You and your Inner Critic looking to expand your discussions. I am available for Online Coaching/Teaching (3 sessions 30 minutes each $75). more info here.

Many find this post helpful: Turn your Inner Critic into your BFF

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Have a great Artful Day,

Wendy

Oct 15, 2020

Playing with Light, Shadows and Values - Painting & Drawing Tips

Have you ever spent time in the DARK SIDE?

With Halloween coming and the night slowly creeping into our daytime hours, Darkness seems part of our life.

Meet My Shadow People - Come Join them in the DARK SIDE

When Max and I finish our evening walk it is often very dark. I am holding a flashlight and looking for the next street light. It gives me lots of time to study shadows.

In Art we have 2 Shadows: The Core Shadow and the Cast Shadow

Like me you have probably studied shadow diagrams like the one above. Probably even drawn them too. I must admit I didn't learn much from them. But one day I took a flashlight, shone it on a few shapes and really started to look at things. It changed my perspective.

Shadows are really not like they appear in photographs. . . .

I learned that shadows have their own life. They are very much affected by the light around them. To understand some of the things I noted take a look at the Cast Shadow.
***My video "Getting Those Shadows Working for You " offers more examples and discussion on this topic.

Cast Shadows are not all sharp black shapes

Secrets of the Shadow World:

1. Photographs show a shadow as a black shape. But really if you take a closer look you will see the value is not consistent throughout the shadow shape. Shadows are very dark near the object but get lighter as they spread out away from the subject. (This is very clear with the picture below. The Reflected light from the surface makes the middle part of the shadow much lighter than the ends.

2. Shadows are not all sharp edges. I always find edges a very important part of anything I draw. I noticed that shadows have very different kinds of edges. Close to the object they have sharp edges but as they move away from the object the edges get softer or fuzzier. The longer the shadows the fuzzier the edges get.

Core Shadows can look very different than the ones on the Apple you drew in Drawing Class

3. The Core Shadow holds many secrets. When I compare 'my little person' to the apple, I can see many different shadow values. Reflected light is working on not only the sides but the tops and bottoms of the curves in the shadows. That distinctive dark line - The Terminator - on the Apple is much harder to find on 'my little person'.

Two Objects with the same light source have different shadow patterns if they are in different planes.

4. The Core Shadow on two objects with the same light source is very different. I think this was the biggest surprise to me. When working with a forest of trees, my thoughts were the Core Shadows were all the same. This is only true if they are in the same plane in the picture. If some trees are in the foreground and some in the background for example, their Core Shadow patterns are quite different. Although the light source (the sun) is coming from the same place, it will hit them differently. My example only had 2 little People in 2 Planes. Try it with 3. Line up 3 Little People and put one in the Foreground, one in the midground and 1 in the background. It is really interesting how different the Core Shadow is.

Now don't panic. You really don't have to know all this stuff to draw and paint. However, I do think being more aware of these things will change how you view your subjects. The Big Game Changer for me was how much Reflected Light affected both the Core Shadows and the Case Shadows.

Free Printable Download: Mushroom Sheet

I played around with drawing some shapes and shadows and put together this little Mushroom Activity Sheet. I found it a great exercise.

Mushroom Sheet: Here the Light Source is from the left

Put an arrow for your Light Source and then shade the picture accordingly. Can you make the leaves curl up and down? The mushroom appear round? How about making the skirt on the stem spread out away from the stem? (I like to pretend a little piece even gets caught in the light.) Note how the shadow from the stick reinforces the idea of leaves rolled up on the ground.

Mushroom Sheet: Try it again with the Light Source coming from the Right.

I worked on two examples, one with the light source coming from the left and one from the right. You can really see how the light source changes what is happening in the picture.

You are welcome to download and print my Mushroom Sheet Free. It fits on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. Print several and try different light sources.

See My video "Getting Those Shadows Working for You " on YouTube for further discussion.

Have fun with your light and shadows, I hope it leads you to NEW adventures. Next week let's look at Ambient Light. Like Reflected Light it changes the shadows but also the COLOUR of things.

FACE-TO-FACE Gallery show!!