BET mC a ita Creator ofJAMES GURNEY COLOR AND LIGHT A GUIDE FOR THE REALIST PAINTER Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC Kansas City Sydney + LondonColor and Light copyright © 2010 by James Gurney. All rights reserved. Printed in China. No part of t book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews. ‘Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC an Andrews McMeel Universal company 1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106 wwwaandrewsmemeel.com 11 1213 1415 SDB 109876543 ISBN: 978-0-7407-9771-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2010924512 gurneyjourney.blogspot.com ATTENTION: ScHOOLS AND BUSINESSES ‘Andrews McMeel books are available at quantity discounts with bulk purchase for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail the Andrews McMeel Publishing Special Sales Department: specialsales@amuniversal.comCONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: TRADITION tp Masters’ Covor 2 The ACADEMIC Trabrrion ia (Open Aum Pansrine 1 Brirars 16 Tu Hupson River ScHoot Is etn-Ain MoveMenrs 20 Symnouist Daeaws 2 Macazine IuLusteanion m4 Cuapter 2: Sources or Lint Dinecr Sustucirt 28 Overcast Lion 0 Wixpow Lioitr 2 (CANDLELIGHT AND FiReLiGuT M Ixpoor Eurcrric Liottt % STREETLIGHTS AND Nictfr Conpmios 38 Lomiescencr 0 Hippex Licirt Sources, 2 Cuapter 3: Lit AND FoRM Tie Fora Priscir.e 46 SEPARATION OF LiGHT AND SuaDoW 48 Cast Snapows 0 Hate Sitapow OceLusion Suapows x Tunee-QuarreR LIGHTING 56 Froxrat Lica 58 pce Lichtin 0 Cosa Jour 2 Ligit rxow BELow of Rertecrep Liat 66 Sroruiairna 6 Lawirations oF rie Fort Paiscwur 70 Cuapter 4: ELEMENTS OF CoLor Renimxkino tie Covor Wate 4 Cimon ano Vatue 76 Loca. Covon 8 Gaavs ann Neureats. 0 Tue Green Prostem 2 Gaaparion 4 Ths 86 Cuapter 5: Paint AND PIGMENTS “Tur SeaRcu For PIGMENTS 0 CChiartixe Proments 972. Lacareasrwess 4 Waxat Unbenransease 96 Sky Paneis. 98 “TnaNsPaRENcy AND GLAZING 100 PALETTE ARRANGEMEN' 102 Limire Paverres 104 Tur Mun Drnare 106 Cuarrer 6: CoLor RELATIONSHIPS: Moxocuromaric Scie wes no Wana ano Coot. uz Couonen Licttr IvreRACTIONS na Tuavs 116 Coton Accent iy Cuapter 7: PREMIXING Mixtne Covor Sraivas 122 Gaur Mareisc 124 (Crexine Gawur Mass 126 Suaves oF Coton Scueatrs 128 Maxine A Conrrouuep Gar 130 Conor Scrirrc 132 Cuaprer 8: VisUAL PERCEPTION A Worup winiovr Couon 136 Is Moontiair BLUE? 138 Epes anp Dern 140 Coton Orrosrrions 142 ‘Couor Corsrancy 14a ADaPraTION ANb Cowreast 146 "APPErIZING AND HEALING Coons 148 Cuaprer 9: SURFACES AND Errects ‘TaansnirreD Licht 152 Suasuneace Searranis 154 Coton Zonts oF THE Fact 156 ‘Tue Hain Secner 158, Causnics 160 Srrcutar Reriecroxs 162 Hicnuicis 164 Coron Corona 166 Morios BLur 168, Pitotos vs. OBSERVATION 170 Cuaprer 10: ATMOSPHERIC EFFEcts Sky BLUE ArMosmiznic Pexseectivr Revense AraoseneRic PeRSprcrive Goupes Hour Lictrrine Susers Foo, Mist, Swoxe, Dust Rassnows SkYHOLES AND Fouiaat SuNMEAMS AND StaspOwBEAMS Daeruep Lior Crown SiaDows TuvwinareD Forecrounn Syow avo Io Ware: REFLECTION AND TRANSPARENCY ‘Mountain Sraeans Cotok Usoexwaren Cnapter 11: Licut’s CHANGING SHow SeRIAL Parntine Arnie Exp oF iz Day Cuaprer 12; Resources Grossary Proenr Inronstarion RecownmenDep READING ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Twoex m4 176 178, 180 182 184 186 188 190 192 194 196 198, 208 210Re ee a een ne ee ec eee eS Ve ner eoe eSNTRODUCTION This book examines the painter’s two most fundamental tools: color and light. It is intended for artists of all media interested in a traditional realist approach, as well as for any- one who is curious about the workings of the visual world. When I was in art school I took a color class that consisted of painting a lot of flat swatches, cutting them out with them down ind gray scales 1 spent ‘months learning how to paint perfectly smooth swatches and trying to get the steps between them exactly even. At the end of each day I would leave the classroom and look up at the colors of the sky, the trees, and the water around me. The sky was not composed of adjacent flat colors, but rather of an infinite variety of gradating hues, Why did dark colors turn blue as they went back toward the horizon—except in a few instances, such as in the painting, opposite, when a setting sun casts the far vista in orange light? Why did the leaves have a sharp yellow-green color when the light shined through them, but a gray- green color on top? In school I was learning how to see and mix color, but I had no idea how to apply this experience to real-world painting problems. Color theory seemed more like a branch of chemistry or mathematics, a separate science that hhad litle to do with making a realistic painting. [felt like a piano student who hhad played a lot of scales, but had never gotten around to the melody. If there were answers to my questions about how light interacts with color, atmosphere, water, and other materials, I would have to find them in fields like physics, opties, physiology, and materials science. I started digging back into art instruction books from more than seventy-five years ago, when it was taken for granted that artists were trying to create an illusion of reality, Artists as far back as Leonardo da Vinei were strugaling to explain the behavior of the visual world around them, Each old book had its vein of gold, but the information needed to be translated and updated for our times, and the old theories needed to be tested against recent scientific discove [investigated recent findings in the field of visual perception and found that many of my assumptions were mistaken, even about such basic things the primary colors. I earned that the eye is not like a camera, but more like an extension of the brain itself. I learned that moonlight is not blue. It only appears blue because ofa trick that our yes are playing on us. During the last few years, since the rlease of Dinotopia: Journey 10 Chandara, Uhave taught workshops at a lot of art schools and movie studios. Thave also kept up a daily blog that explores the methods of the academic painters and the Golden Age illustrators and have adapted some of the blog content into my recent book, Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist. As | assembled that volume, I realized that the information on color and light was so extensive—and so popular with blog readers—that I decided it required a second volume, This book begins with a survey of his- ht in toric masters who used color and interesting ways. Although those pa ings are a tough act to follow, for the rest of the book I'll use my own paintings both observational and ima examples, Since I painted them, I ean tell you what I was thinking when I made them. Chapters 2 and 3 examine the vari- ‘ous sources of light, and we look at how light creates the illusion of three-dimen- sional form, Chapters 4 and 5 cover the basic properties of color as well as an introduction to pigments and paints. Chapters 6 and 7 present the method 1 use called gamut mapping, which helps in choosing colors for a given picture,The last chapters of the book deal with specific challenges that we face when we paint textures lke hair and c followed by the infinitely varied phenomena of atmospheric effects. The book ends with a glossary, a pigment index, and a bibliography. This book doesn't contain recipes for ‘mixing colors or step-by-step painting procedures. My goal is to bridge the gap 7. ion boa, 12 18 in Pbished in Dips Jourey 10 Chandar between abstract theory and practical knowledge. I would like to cut through the confusing and contradictory dogma about color, to test it in the ight of science and observation, and to place it in your hands so that you can use it for your own artiste purpases. Whether you ‘work in paint or pixels, fact or fantasy, want this book to bring color and light down to earth for youTRADITIONTRADITION OLD Masters’ COLOR Light and color were preciou: 10 the old masters. Artis didn’t have hundreds of available pigments, as we do today. Paint samples scraped from the edges of Vermeer’s artwork show that he used no more than seventeen pigments. sce Vellaquea, Spans, 1599-160. T1474 i. Museo det Prado, Madi, Spin, Scala Ar Resource, NY In The Forge of Vulcan, Diego Velazquez surrounds the head of the god Apollo with a supernatural radiance, but uses light angled from the left to sculpt the ‘mortal figures, even boldly casting a shadow of one figure onto another. Vermeer's Lacemaker is a tiny window into an intimate world, made more real by the shallow-focus effects he observed ina camera obscura. The yellow, red and blue colors shimmer against the variegated gray color of the background.TRADITION Tue ACADEMIC TRADITION New ideas in chemistry and visual perception fueled a revolution in the use of light and color in French painting. Nineteenth-century academic masters such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau (right) and Jean-Léon Gérome (opposite) responded to three major innovations. 1. Science of Perception. Professor of chemistry Michel-Eugéne Chevreul studied the perception of colors and demonstrated that colors can be understood only in relation to each other and that no color exists in isolation. Another influential scientist was Hermann von Helmholtz, who made the case that we don't perceive objects directly, Instead, our visual experience consists of color sensations on the retina, The result of these ideas was to dissociate color from surfaces and to emphasize the effects of illumination, surrounding color, and atmosphere on any perceived color. 2. New Pigments. The painter's palette expanded with new pigments, such as Prussian blue, cobalt blue, chrome yellows, and cadmiums, Both academic and impressionist painters sought out subjects to show off the new colors to their Full advantage. 3, Plein-Air Practice. The collapsible paint tube was patented in 1841. It soon ‘came into common use by artists painting outdoors. Although outdoor painting was pioneered as early as the 1780s, it was a familiar practice by midcentury. Jean-Léon Gérome recommended to his students: “When you draw, form is the important thing. But in painting the first thing is to look for the general impression of color... Always paint a direct sketch from nature every day.” 4=~TRADITION OPpEN-AIR PAINTING IN BRITAIN | wie so: ‘The changeable weather of Britain fostered a long tradition of observant colorists from Turner and Constable to later realists. et Milas, British, 129-1996 The Blind Gir, 1856, Ol on cates, 32 = 245i The Birmingham Museums and Art Galley ‘Belo Stanhope Alexander Forbes, RA. Bish, Oil on canvas 479% 61 in Plymouth Cty Museum ad Art Galery Photo© Bridgeman Att Library ‘Stanhope Forbes helped establish a British art colony in the Cornish fishing village of Newlyn. He painted Fish Sale cntirely outdoors. For nearly a year he overcame challenges of rain, wind, fainting models, and rotting fish. He \was able to paint only when the tide was ‘out and the sky was gray. Working out- of-doors was essential to eapture the truthful effects of light and atmosphere and “that quality of freshness, most difficult of attainment by any other means, and which one is apt to lose when the work is brought into the studio for completion.” Sir John Everett Millais, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite move- ‘ment, painted the background of Blind Girl in Sussex in 1854, and then added the figures later. The pitiful condition Of the beggar girl shows in her tattered contrast with the rich colors of the land- scape behind her. She sees neither the double rainbow nor the butterfly on her shawl The Pre-Raphaelites experimented with new ways of painting, applying colors in transparent glazes over semidry white ground, and achieved a depth of color that struck some critics as garish, but others as faithful to natureTRADITION Tue Hupson RIVER SCHOOL The otherworldly paintings of the Hudson River School painters owe a great deal to their use of light, which often seemed to emanate from within the picture itself. Careful studies made out-of-doors were synthesized into spectacular studio compositions Landscape painting in mid-nineteenth- century America was fueled by both a ition of close observation of nature and a fascination with nature's sublime moods, which wei Frederic Church organized paintin; expeditions to Newfoundland, Jamaica, and Colombia, seeking dramatic natural effects. Improved pigments found thei ‘way into his images. His sunset epic Twilight in the Wilderness was partly inspired by a new formulation o madder lake. Asher Brown Durand was the chief spokesman of the Hudson River ‘Schoo!’s preoccupation with painting ‘outdoors. His famous essays, Letters on Landscape Painting, were published in 1855, the same year that he painted the study Landscape with Birches. dere Evin Church, American, 1826 ‘Reynold House Muscum of Americ {ce 18s in, Museum of Fine Art B ioauest of Mary Fale WisTRADITION PLEIN-AIR MOVEMENTS Painters outside of France combined their knowledge of outdoor light with a powerful sense of composition. Many nations, including America, Australia, Denmark, Italy, Russia, Spain, and Sweden, each developed a distinctive approach. Russian landscape painter Ivan Shishkin painted Midday in the Outskirts of ‘Moscow after doing countless plein-ait studies in the countryside. The painting shows workers coming home from the fields of rye. In the distance a country church and a winding river are dwarfed by the immensity of the towering clouds above them. The spaciousness and Joyfulness of the composition had a galvanizing effect on later generations of Russian landscape painters, who realized the potential for landseape to be the vehicle for expressing the deepest stirrings of the human soul Arthur Streeton's view of the Hawkes- bury River in Austratia, opposite, looks ‘across to the Blue Mountains in the dis- tance. The title was drawn from poetry. He said the painting “was completed with a kind of artistic intoxication with the thoughts of Shelley in my mind.” Indeed, he often brought volumes of Wordsworth or Keats with him on location Since he had no charcoal, Streeton recalled that he designed the composi- tion in red and cobalt blue. The noonday light casts the tree shadows directly downward, avoiding drama and playing down sculptural relief. The square com- position, a novelty in its day, emphasizes the flat, decorative quality, The richest blue is not in the sky or the far moun- tains, but rather in the depths of the foreground river, a color Streeton called “the blue of a black opal.”Above: Arthur Streton, Austrian, 1867-1943. "The purple no's ramparent mig,” 1896. 1 on canvas 48» 48 in, ‘National Galley of Victoria, Melbourne purchased 1896, Opposite: Wan Shishkin, Russian, 1832-1898. Midday nthe Outskirts of Mosca, 1869. 8 on canvas 49% > 31% ‘The Tretvakor Gallery, Moszow. aTRADITION SYMBOLIST DREAMS ‘The symbolist painters used light and color to create images that stirred the imagination and evoked strange states of mind. They were interested in ideals of beauty often inter- mingled with an obsession with tragedy and despair. The poetic imagery of the Symbolists| was reaction to mundane realism, Their goal was to to evoke feelings of gloom, patriotism, and mystery. They showed that color doesn't have to be used in a literal or naturalistic way. The painting above is by a Hungarian painter named Adolf Hirémy-Hirschi, who created dramatic scenes from ancient mythology. The bearded man is us, the legendary wanderer at the end of the world, He is the last man in the polar wilderness, caught between the angel of hope and the specter of death. Before him lies a fallen female figure, the personification of dead humanity, as crows circle ominously Hirémy-Hirschl restricted his palette of colors to blue, gray, black, and white, with a faint hint of warmth in the human flesh, and a few touches of gold The primary light appears to radiate from the distant angel, who hovers before a stormy sky. Opposite: Alphonse Mocha, Csch, 1860-1938. Tempera on canvas, 187 * 156i. elon: Adolf Hiréy-Hinsh, Hongatian, 1860-1933. hss th Ed he Word 1888, it on canvas 54 90/ in. Pivat cobection, Christies Umages Lied Alphonse Mucha, opposite, drama- tizes the patriotic spirit of the Slavic people. He achieves a dreamy, weightless feeling with carefully controlled tonal organization, framing the glowing center with darker and cooler areas. The color scheme is extremely disciplined, Bands of swirling hues suggest the movement of a flag. Mucha said, “The expression of beauty is by emotion. The person who can communicate his emotions to the soul of the other is the artist.TRADITION MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION In our own color-saturated times, it’s hard for us to realize how much impact color reproductions in books and maga- zines had on readers’ imaginations. The full spectrum of the art museum finally arrived on the coffee table. Color gradually trickled into the pages of popular magazines that had long been available only in black and white. Walter Everett painted the illustration opposite with a full-color palette, even though he knew it would be reproduced in tones of gray. Influenced by impressionism, he used broken color—the placement of adjacent strokes of contrasting hues, which mix vibrantly in the eye As the twenticth century progressed, many magazines added a single extra ‘color to the black-ink run. Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers were in tones of gray plus red for ten years. Other magazines printed story illustrations in black and green or black and orange. Staying within the constraints of these limited palettes made those artists into resourceful colorists. Tom Lovell, who painted the magazine cover, lef, started in the pulp magazines, where color was a luxury. With the full palette available here, he sets up a color scheme that contrasts greens with reds, while down- playing yellows, violets, and blues. The reds appear in their full intensity in the sift bow, and muted in the pinks of the girl's dress. The mother wears different areens in her shoes, skirt, and blouse. Lovell’ friend Harry Anderson takes a red-green palette through similar set of paces on pages 10-11330-1946, The Lom 99. Used with pe aly A cl, American, 1909-1997, Jat Right, cover of Amer magatins, Dacember 1951. Oi on panel, 23 * 18 Private collsction.Newburgh, Winter Afiernoon, 2004, Oil on linen, 84 18 in,SOURCES OF LIGHTSources oF Licut Direct SUNLIGHT A clear, sunny day has three different systems of illumina- tion: the sun itself, the blue sky, and the reflected light from illuminated objects. The second two sources of light derive entirely from the first, and should be subordinated to it On a clear day, the luminous blue dome of the sky surrounds the sun. Compared to sunlight, skylight is a diffuse, soft light ‘coming from many directions at once. At high altitudes, or if the air is especially clear, the sky is even more blue-violet than usual, and the shadows are darker and bluer relative to the sun. As more clouds appear in the sky, shadows become grayer. With more haze or sm shadows appear relatively closer to the tonal value of the sunlight. ‘As well explore in more detail on page 6, the color of the ground and nearby objects reflects up into the shadow areas. In the painting at left, the warm light bounces into the sculpted ornament over the shadowy doorway, while the blue skylight is most noticeable in the shadow cast by the triangular pediment om the area above the doorway that says “KINGSTON LIBRARY.” In the figure at right, the blue sky color ives the top of the shoulder a greenish ‘quality in the shadow. Where the sleeve 4érops from the shoulder, the yellow shirt picks up warm colors from the ground, ‘and appears more orange. Above: Kingston Libary, 2014, Oil on pane, 10% 8 Oppose: Jeanette Sketching, 2008. Oi on pane, 10* Sin,Sources or Licut OvercAsT LIGHT Most people like sunny, cloudless days, but artists and photographers often prefer the soft illumination of a cloud- covered sky, The layer of clouds diffuses the sunlight, elimi- nating the extreme contrasts of light and shadow. Blocker, 2000 Oo boar, 10% 18m Maine Church 1998. ion boar, 10% $nOvercast light is ideal for complicated ‘outdoor scenes. One of its virtues is that it allows you to paint forms in their true colors without dramatic contrasts of light and shade. Without sharp shadows complicating the scene, a picture is simpler and the shapes are bigger. ‘Surprisingly, colors appear brighter and purer than they do in direct sunlight. It’s easier to show the patterns of cos- ‘umes or signs. The sky in the painting above appears light gray or white, often the lightest note in the composition. The sketch in Maine, opposite, was painted on a rainy day. The white church steeple was a little darker than the sky. Overcast light doesn't change much throughout the day. Its stability allows a plein-air painter to work for four or five hours without the light changing too much. In art school you don't often get a chance to paint overcast light conditions because there’s no way to simulate it perfectly indoors. A very large north: - close, but studio facing window con north light is still directional compared ht. Even a bank of fluorescent fixtures across the ceiling doesn't match it exactly because the light needs to be coming equally and evenly from above. Photographers like to use overcast light because its easier to expose a scene evenly. In 3-D computer-generated images, overcast light is one of the hardest light conditions to simulate because an accurate rendering involves such a vast umber of mathematical calculations, 1Sources or Licut WiInpbow LIGHT Interior scenes in daylight are often lit by the soft light that enters the room through windows or open doors, This light has traditionally been popular with artists because of its constancy and its simplifying effect. Assuming the sun is not shining directly through the window, the daylight that enters a room from outside is usually bluish. The cool color contrasts with the relatively orange color of artificial lights, shining in the room, (On a sunny day there's often a second source caused by ight that shines on the ‘ground outside and bounces upward into the window. This light is best seen on a white ceiling. Irs often comparatively green or orange in color, depending on the color of the ground surface. If you look closely at a room lit by a north- facing window, you'll notice the floor of 4 the room typically has a bluish cast from skylight and the ceiling has a green or orange cast from light reflected from the arass or the dirt outside In the Dinotopian workshop scene above, the large window provides a source of coo! light coming from the left while a warm lamp offscreen to the right provides a contrasting color of light. The observational oil study of an Irish hearth, opposite, shows cool light from an open doorway and an adjacent win- dow. You can tell the light comes from two side-by-side sources because of the twin vertical highlights on the teakettle, ‘water pot, and stovepipe. The light was brightest on the left of the scene, at the place where the owner once replaced a broken black tile with a white tke. ‘The light casts soft warm shadows to the right of the black stovepipe, the cchina dogs, and the plastic bucket of turf Aboye: Denson’ Stuy, 1993. On bowed, 111420, Published in Dinotopia The World Beneath Onpsite: Ish Stove, 2002-01 on panel, 10% 8,Sources or Licut CANDLELIGHT AND FIRELIGHT Candlelight, lantern light, and firelight are all yellow-orange in color. The light is fairly weak, dropping off rapidly as objects recede from the flame. After the sun sets and twilight deepens, the effects of flame-based light become more noticeable, Manamathin Sy Vilage, 191. Oi on 7 163, In the days before electricity, lamps and Janterns were lit at dusk when there was still enough light to find the matches. In the painting Garden of Hope, opposit the lantern shines in a garden just as the last sunlight fades on the far mountains. The lamp is surrounded by a halo of warm orange color that makes it impossible to see details of the far forest ‘canopy. Light streams down on the white dresses, the lilaes and roses, and the wall behind the figures. In the cabin scene at left, painted from observation during an evening rainstorm, a kerosene lamp provides the light for a board game on the porch In such firelit environments, smoke often scatters the light, leaving no deep darks in the vicinity of the light sources. Photographs of night scenes often miss these qualities, making the darks appear profoundly black. To the eye they often have a glowing appearance, with plenty of soft edges. FALL-OrF The brightness of any point-source illumination diminishes rapidly with distance. This weakening of light is called fall-off. It diminishes according to the fmerse square law, which states that the effect of a light shining on a surface ‘weakens at a rate comparable to the square of the distance between source and surface. As the diagram above demonstrates, at twice the distance, the light is only one fourth as bright because the same rays must cover four times the area. At three times the distance, it drops to one ninth as bright.Sources or Licnt Indoor ELeEcTrIc LIGHT The most common indoor lights are incandescent and fluorescent. To paint their effect: you have to keep in mind three qualities: relative brightness, hardness or softness, and color cast. BRIGHTNESS The brightness of bulbs is measured in lumens, but what matters to artists is relative brightness within a sce especially when you have more than one source, The relative brightness depends ‘on such things as the wattage, the type Cf lamp, how close the subject is to the light, and how bright the other lights are Harpness or SOFTNESS Hardness or softness refers to how large the patch of light seems to be from the point of view of the subject. A hard ight comes from a sharp, small point. The sun—or a spotlight—is a relatively ght. igure 2. Spectra % hard source of light. Hard light is more directional and more dramatic, It casts crisper shadows and it brings out more surface texture and highlights. A soft light emanates from a wider area, such as the large panel of fluorescent like tubes over the workbench in the scene at right. In general, softer light is ‘more flattering and reassuring, Its bet- ter for task lighting because it reduces the confusion of cast shadows. Tonal transitions from light to shade are more gradual in soft fight compared to hard light, Lighting designers routinely turn a hard source into a soft source using lange translucent “silks” or diffuser panels. It's also the reason people put lampshades over incandescent bulbs. Cotor Cast The color east is the dominant wave. length of a light source, often measured ind serees Kelvin, a standard measure based on the main color of light that an ‘object emits when it is heated to extreme temperatures. The color cast is some- times hard to judge by just looking at a light. The graphs of spectral power distr= ution (left) show which wavelengths of the visible spectrum have the strongest output. Regular incandescent lights are stron- ‘gest in the orange and red wavelengths, and they tend to be weak in blue, That’s why red colors in a picture look so 200d—and blue colors look so dead— under normal incandescent light. Standard warm white and cool white fluorescents emphasize yellow-green, They're made to give the most light in the range of wavelengths to which the human eye is most sensitive, In the painting above, the light has a yellow. green cast, The outdoor light looks violet by contrastSources or Ligut STREETLIGHTS AND NIGHT CONDITIONS Before outdoor electric light was developed in the late nineteenth century, there were two colors of light at night: moonlight, which appears blue or gray, and orange flame- based light. As electric lighting developed, new colors entered the nightscape.‘The painting opposite sets up the blue green moonlight in contrast to the warm light of the shops and streetlights. The ‘goal is to show what the eye would see, rather than the camera’s view, Which would include a lot of black shadows. Light from both the moon aand the gaslight shimmers off the wet cobblestone streets. The gaslight is a relatively weak light, much weaker than modern electric sources The modern nightseape includes incandescent, fluorescent, neon, mercury vapor, sodium, arc, metal halide, and LED lights. Each has a distinctive spectral power distribution, The variety of outdoor lighting colors is best seen when flying over a city at night. The little oil sketch, right, painted from observation from a hotel balcony, records some parking lots in Anaheim, California, during the predawn hours The orange sodium vapor light of the foreground makes a striking contrast to the blue-green mercury vapor lights in the farther parking lot Sodium vapor is rapidly replacin ‘mercury vapor. A sodium lamp gives off avery narrow set of wavelengths, which gives ita sickly look. Mercury vapor has a ‘wider spectral output, but the cool color drains the warmth out of flesh tones Here are some tips if you want to learn ‘more about night illumination: 1. Take photos with a digital camera set mae Glow, 2006. ion pana, 10 Sin. ‘on its night setting. New cameras are excellent at capturing low-level lighting Figure 1 Spectral power ds effects, 2. Disable the white balance setting and sreligh seth photograph a color wheel under different strectlights. Then compare the digital photos side by side to see how the colors are skewed. 3, Try some urban night painting, using ‘a portable LED light to illuminate your palette. 4, Start a scrap fle of photos showing moder cityscapes at night. om fr son vor —_Fgure2. SpcSources oF Licut LUMINESCENCE When hot or flaming objects give off light it’s called incandescence. But some things give off a glow at cool temperatures through a process called luminescence. This light can come from both living and nonliving things. In the science fiction universe of Dinotopia: The World Beneath, 1995 (right and opposite), large caverns beneath the island are lit by glowing algae, crystals, and ferns. Although higher plants in the real world aren't known to give off their own light, many things are luminescent BIOLUMINESCENCE Organisms that can produce light live mostly in the ocean. They include fish squid, jellyfish, bacteria, and algae. In the deep sea beyond the reach of light, the light patches function to Ture prey, confuse predators, or locate a mate. ‘Some light-producers are activated by ‘mechanical agitation, creating the milky light in the ocean alongside ships’ wakes. Land animals that emit light include fireflies, millipedes, and centipedes. Some kinds of mushrooms that grow on rot- ting wood emit a dim light called foxfire. FLUORESCENCE Fluorescence is light that is produced by an object that converts invisible electromagnetic energy, such as ultraviolet radiation, into a visible wavelength, Some minerals, such as amber and calcite, will give off colorful visible light when theyte lit by ultraviolet light. Tips AnD TECHNIQUES 1. Luminescent colors often gradate from one hue to another. 2, Blue-green colors are most common in the ocean because those wavelengths travel the farthest through water. 3. Paint the scene first in darker tones without the luminescence, then add the slowing effects last “Sources or Ligut HIDDEN LIGHT SOURCES There are at least three ways to light a scene: from a source shining from outside the picture, from a light inside the picture that you can easily see, or froma light inside the scene that’s concealed from view. ‘This last arrangement lends mystery, because the viewer is intrigued to explore further to find out where the light is coming from, ‘The painting opposite shows a large interior space where long-necked dino- saurs sleep beside parked carriages. It is lit by two sources. A pale blue moonlight shines in the doorway from the right, flooding the area near the doorway with light, and sending a shaft through the dust on the far side of the room, The other source is much warmer in hue. It shines outward and upward from ‘a source hidden below the balcony on the left. The contrast of a cool down ward light and a warm upward light ‘makes the scene more interesting than it would have been if lit by a single source. ‘The painting above has at least four different sources of colored light: blue in the right foreground, red-orange across the canal, blue-green through the arch, and a warm light touching the stern of the boat. The red-orange light is hidden behind the prow of the boat, This light helps dramatize the silhouette shape and intrigues the viewer about the festive ‘group on the far bank, which is rendered in largely reddish and orange tones.LIGHT AND ForRMLicut AND Form THE ForM PRINCIPLE Light striking a geometric solid such as a sphere or a cube creates an orderly and predictable series of tones. Learning to identify these tones and to place them in their proper rela- tionship is one of the keys to achieving a look of solidity. Oslo, ‘Shadow ‘Sunlight The form principle is the analysis of nature in terms of geometrical solids, which can be rendered according to laws of tonal contrast. Mopetinc Factors ‘The two photographs of the sphere above show two classic lighting condi- tions: direct sunlight and overcast light. Each has a different set of tonal steps from light to shadow, known as modeling factors, In the direct sunlight, there's a strong division of light and shade. The light side includes the light and dark half- tones, the center light, and the highlight. THE TERMINATOR The terminator, or “bedbug line,” is the area where the form transitions from light into shadow. It occurs where the light rays from the source are tangent to the edge of the form. If it's a soft, indirect light, the transition from light to shadow at the terminator will be more ‘gradual. The form shadow begins just beyond the terminator. You can cast a shadow with a pencil ‘on the object to test which areas are in light and which are in shadow. The cast 46 Shadow Overcast Light shadow will show up only on the lighted side and not on the shadow side, Within the shadow is not darkness but the effect of other, weaker sources, Outdoors, the blue light from the sky usually modifies the shadow planes, depending on how much they face upward. Reflected light often raises the tone of the shadow. It comes from light bouncing up off the ground surface or from other surfaces. The darkest parts of the shadow are usually at the points of contact, called the occlusion shadow. Core oF THE SHADOW Another dark part of the shadow is the area just beyond the terminator. This area is called the core or the hump of the shadow. ‘The core of the shadow only forms if the secondary source of light (ede light, reflected light, or fill light) doesn’t ‘overlap too much with the main light. Keeping the core intact—or painting it in even if you can’t see it—can give the form more impact. If you're setting up ‘a model or maquette, you can place the primary and secondary lights just far ‘enough apart so that you can see the core beginning to appear GrouinG PLANES To simplify something as complex as the rocks along the coast of Maine, ‘opposite, it helps if you organize groups of planes that are roughly parallel. The rock seemed to break along four definite fracture planes: 1. Top planes 2. Side planes in lighter halftone 3. Front planes in darker halftone 4, Side planes in shadow The actual scene had a lot more complexity, detail, and randomness of tones. Grouping the planes makes it ‘easier to sort things out, Regardless of the nuances and subtleties, always try to state the form in terms of the simplest truth; light and shadow. This makes the details read instantly, and it saves, painting time, ‘TeXTURE AT THE TERMINATOR A common mistake in painting a textural form in sunlight, such as a dinosaur, is to make the skin texture equally prominent throughout the form. In digital images, the appearance of overall equal texture can result from‘mapping a bumpy tw pattern equally over a form. The texture in the shadow should not just darker version of the texture in the light because that’s not how the eye sees it, In fact, the texture is very difficult to sce at all in the shadow region. It's much more visible in the Fully lit areas, especially in the darker halftone, just before the line of the terminator divides light from shadow. This d the half= light, an area of raking light where an uneven surface stands out dramatically Dirruse Licht In soft or diffuse light, such as overcast light, there is no distinct light side, shadow side, terminator, or core. All of the upward-facing planes tend to be lighter, since they receive more of the diffused light from the cloudy ceiling That was the quality of light falling on where they face more toward the The drapery study shows the effect of 4 primary light source coming from the left, and diffuse secondary sources filling the sh fabric goes all the way to bla deepest folds. ait, 1995. Oi on panel, $% 1 Graphite on bristol hoard, 20> 18 igh: Pam the Sry, 209, Oi on board, $10,Licut anv Form SEPARATION OF LIGHT AND SHADOW In sunlight the light side and the dark side of the form can be separated by as many as five steps of the tonal scale. Just as musicians are always conscious of intervals between notes, artists must be aware of maintaining consistent tonal intervals. Pees Aus Black Are these swatches labeled correctly? Of course not, The swatch on the left isn’t black. It’s a midrange gray, and so is the one on the right. The swatch in the middle isn’t white. I darker in value than the other two. The value of a color js a measure of its lightness or darkness in comparison to a scale of grays between pure white and pure black. In fact, the swatch labeled #1 below is black acrylic paint, #3 on the far right is a jet black dress shirt, and #2 in the middle isa white newspaper. ‘The X-factor is sunlight and shadow: and the tricks that our visual systems play on us, The samples were all lifted straight out of the single photo taken outdoors. 4 choard Ison Ou vs system ses content coe to onze theca formation our eyes esive. The Tight square in shadow (2) equal to Ue dark squae in ight (1) Even when the tones are adjacent, such as 2 and 3, our minds tell us that the “white” is lighter. Its good to keep this rule in mind: In bright sunlight, a newspaper in shadow is darker than a black shirt in the light. Licutine Ratio It’s easy to underestimate the tonal separation between the light side and the shadow side in sunlight. When lighting experts set up artificial lights for a movie shot, they call this separation the lighting ratio, and they usually try to reduce it 0 cancel the unflattering effect of harsh or dark shadows. As artists we may want to do the same, depending on the feeling we want to create, But most often, beginning painters tend to ignore the dominance Of direct illumination and play up secondary sources too much. If youre counting steps on a value scale from one to ten, you might typically see five steps of tone from sunlight to shadow, or two F-stops on a ‘camera's aperture setting. The separation would be reduced if there were high clouds, hazy atmosphere, or alight colored ground surface.LIGHT AND ForM Cast SHADOWS When a form intercepts a parcel of direct light, it projects or casts a shadow onto whatever lies behind it. The resulting dark shape can be a useful design device to suggest depth or to tie together elements inside and outside your composition. ‘Tue Evepatt on THE ANT In outer space, shadows appear pro foundly black. The lack of atmosphere ‘means that there's no luminous glow to fill the shadows. But on Earth cast shad- ows are flooded by various sources, To understand those sources, try to imagine yourself as a little eyeball mounted on the back of an ant ‘As you walk across the shadow, imagine yourself looking up at all the bright patches of light around you, not just the blue sky, but also white clouds, buildings, or other bright objects. Those patches of light determine the lightness and color temperature of your shadow. ‘On sunny days, east shadows tend to bbe blue only because they look up to the blue of the sky. But the eyeball on the ant doesn’t always see blue patches. ‘On partly cloudy days, the light above is more white, and sometimes the blue sky patch is small and other sources are more dominant, Tue Licur Np THE SHADow Epcr The nature of the cast shadow is closely related to the nature of the light soure: A soft light will east a shadow with a blurry edge. A hard light will east a shadow with a relatively sharp edge. Two side-by-side lights (such as car headlights) will cast two side-by-side shadows, eine: Dale's Bel, 208.08 om ems ‘mounted to panel 9 12 in, Below: Irish Bridge, 2002 O00 panel, 108i. ‘The edge of every shadow gets softer as the distance increases from the object that casts the shadow. If you follow along the edge of the cast shadow of a four-story building, it will go from sharp at the base to nearly six inches wide where the shadow is being cast onto the street below. This softening of the cast shadow edge is visible in the foreground Of the painting opposite. The long shadow gets softer as it erosses the steps, and then even softer as it spreads over the building across the street. In the painting of a bridge in County Kerry, Ireland, above, a series of cast shadows create parallel bands of light ‘and shade that the viewer must cross to enter the village in the distance. This parallel pattern of light and shadow is aan effective device to create depth in a painting,Licut AND ForM HALF SHADOW One way to create drama, especially with a vertical form, is to light the top half and leave the rest in shadow. The plein-air study at right shows t touching the top of an old neon The color of the red sign is lighter in tone and more intense in color where it appears in the sunlight compared to the shadow. Likewise, the white letters hhad to be painted lighter and warmer where they appear in the light. In shadow they're really a dull blue-gray The edge betw soft, suggesting that something far away ht and shadow is. is casting the shadow The watercolor study of the minaret shows the bottom half of the tower in shadow, Both the golden brickwork and the white horizontal stripes had to id the same relat be ch ¢ amount Since I was using watercolor, it wasn’t possible to premix the colors the way you could in oil. Instead I put a Payne's gray wash over the shadow area before painting the rest of the colors I painted the glowing pass after the sun set. The sky is painted with ‘opaque watercolor to get an absolutely even tonal gradation. The painting opposite appeared in Dinotopia: First Fight in 1999. It shows Gideon Altaire, the first skybax rider in Dinotopia, standing beside his pterosaur named AV: fully vanquished the machine army of Poseiddos after its invasion of Dinotopia in a failed attempt to steal the ruby sun- stone power erystal. The shadow and light help accentuate the feeling of a tar. They have just success- conelusion to an epic story by sus ind of the day. the dramati and pousche, 7% 4.Licut AND Form OccLusion SHADOWS Dark accents occur at places where forms come close enough to each other to crowd out the light, leaving a small, dense area of shadow: They're commonly seen where materials push together in folds or at points of contact with the ground. ‘The Dinotopian domestic scene above has a variety of humans, creatures, and ‘objects resting on horizontal surfaces, At cach one of those points of contact, the light is occluded or interrupted, resulting, in a dark accent, These dark areas are called occlusion shadows or crevice shadows. They occur wherever two forms touch each other ‘or wherever a form touches a floor. You can see the ellect by pressing your fingers together and looking at the dark line where they touch, en ‘Occlusion shadows also occur when ‘objects get close enough to each other to interrupt the light, even though they may not actually be touching. This is often visible at the inside corner of a room where the walls meet. Early computer-lighting programs didn’t create this dark accent automati- cally. Until recently, it had to be added ‘manually. But software pioneers have made lighting tools that can anticipate ‘when the light will be occluded, and then such an accent will automatically appear. Abn: At Home, 2007. ion board, 10% * 18 in, ‘Public in Dinotopia Jury 10 Chonda Opposite: Locally Grown, 2008 COoncaneas mounted to pate, 1814,LiGut AND ForM THREE-QUARTER LIGHTING Most portraits are painted with light coming from about forty-five degrees in front of the model. The light reaches most of the visible form, leaving only a fraction of the form in shadow. The light is low enough to illuminate both eyes. Abn: Biv and Ard; 193, Oiton board, 5% 6, Published ia Dacia The Wold Beweh Right: Grven Eyes, 196. Oi om board 129 n In the portrait of the man and dinosaur at left, the main light casts a shadow from the nose onto the cheek on the far side of the face, leaving a lighted triangle on the shaded cheek. This general pattern is ealled three-quarter lighting. The light emphasizes the nearer or broader side of the face, so it’s also called broad lighting. The sketch group study below called Green Eyes uses a low, broad, three- quarter light coming from the left Photographers call this main light the key light. The shadow receives a weaker, second source of greenish light coming from the right. This light entering the shadow is called the fil ight. In TV and movie lighting, a separate electric light usually provides the fill ight. However, painters usually make do with natural reflected light for the fil, The mountain man on the opposite page is lt with dramatic broad lighting to bring out character, The shadows help to define the wrinkles in the brow, and the low sun increases the squint. The side plane of the cheek on the left catches the biue light from the sky behind, tying the face to the background. ‘The portrait of the man on the bottom of the opposite page uses light on the “short side” of the face—the farther, foreshortened side, Short lighting can hhelp make a face look thinner.LIGHT AND ForM FRONTAL LIGHTING Light that shines directly toward a model from the viewer's perspective is called frontal lighting. The light can be hard and direct, like a flashbulb, or soft and diffuse, like a north window. Incither case, very little of the shadow is visible. Frontal lighting occurs when you're sketching someone with your back to the light source. The subject ofthe pencil portrait at right was lt by an airplane window behind me. The thin line of illumination along his profile came from his window. The profile portrait, opposite, has the key light shining from slightly to the let and above, leaving very litle of the form in shadow. The shaded parts of the face are the planes below the nose, the lower lip, the chin, and the front of the neck The illuminated side of the face is mod- cled in close values, using variations of reds and greens more than tonal changes Using a flat, posterlike treatment helps the portrait to read strongly from a long way off In the Abe Lincoln bust, the planes get darker as they turn away. The shadows are narrow shapes just under the nose, chin, and hair. Frontal lighting ean also be employed in landscape, as inthe street scene below, where most of the scene receives direct illumination, and the shadows are minimized Frontal lighting emphasizes two- dimensional design instead of sculptural form. It's. a good lighting to choose if you want to emphasize local color or pattern—to feature a fashion or costume, for instance. And it’s one of the few times when outlines actually appear in real life. The outline is really the thin fringe of shadow that appears at the very edge of the form. That line deserves close study. It varies in weight in propor- tion to the width of the plane that is turning away. Left: Morton Ltr, 20,009 pol 8 1D,Ligut anv Form EpGeE LIGHTING Edge lighting comes from behind to touch the sides of the form, separating it from the background. It’s also called a rim light or kicker in the film industry, and it usually requires a relatively strong source of light. Shearing Duy, 2008. Oi on panel, 10> 8, o Edge lighting occurs outdoors when the sun is low in the sky and shining toward the viewer. The plein-air sketch, eft, shows some Icelandic sheep waiting their turn for shearing, The sun Was just above the top of the composition, casting, shadows directly toward us, making this a form of backlighting, A halo of warm light touches the top and side fringes of each ewe. The color of the brightly lit edge isa lighter version of the white or brown color of the woo! The painting of the small dinosaur at right applies some of the lessons from the sheep sketch, The background is dark enough to allow the edge light to stand out dramatically, making each Inairlike feather clearly visible. A star- burst of light radiates from the brow of the dinosaur, suggesting a hard, bony surface, which reflects a larger ‘quantity of light, enough to create a flaring highlight. The width of the rim light varies according to the size of the planes that face backward to the light. Edge light is not just a thin white line around the form. In the Abe Lincoln cast, above, the broadest plane and the widest part of the rim light is on the forehead.Ligut anv Form ContTrRE Jour Contre-jour lighting is a type of backlighting where a subject blocks the light, often standing against a bright sky or an illuminated doorway. The field of light takes on an active presence, almost surrounding or infusing the edges of the object. When a form is placed contre jour, its silhouette shape becomes prominent. The colors lose saturation, and shadows ‘d, Details disappear as the slare of the light spills over the edges of the form. The sun itself often shines from inside the frame of the picture, making the viewer squint involuntarily ‘One approach to contre-jour lighting is to think of the light area behind the subject not as flat white paint but as ‘sea of illuminated vapor, with light streaming out of the background, ‘melting away the edges of the form. The portrait opposite shows the milky white light spilling over the edges of the 's shoulders, and lighting the side planes of his helmet and cheekbones This can be an effective way to vignette Oppose: Asteroid Miner 1982. 01100 pane, 24%20in. q subject against the white of a page in a printed illustration. The sketch at left shows a white house and a white s sky. The air is extremely hazy, which has the same effect as pouring alittle bit of milk into a glass of water. The nearer sides of the forms are cooler and darker, It's often effective to keep a little color in the background haze, and to lower it a bit from white. The sky in this painting blends a light cool gray and a yellowish white together at the same value. Aone Marathon 01, 996 Oi onboard, 8% 10mIGHT AND Form LIGHT FROM BELOW Strong light doesn’t usually come from below, so when you see it, it grabs your attention. We tend to associate underlight- ing with firelight or theatrical footlights, which can suggest a magical, sinister, or dramatic feeling. Faces that are familiar to us—family, friends, and celebrities—nearly always appear lit from above, We hardly even recognize them when we see them with the light shining upward on their features. Sources of light that shine upward are often strongly colored, either with the warm orange glow of firelight, or with the blue flicker of a computer sereen. The portrait of the character Lee Crabb from Dinotopia, below, shows him at a dramatic moment when he ‘wants to take control of a powerful lowing sunstone, The ruby-colored ;ht from the sunstone gives him a threatening, power-mad look. But not all upward light arrangements suggest evil ‘A person relaxing with a sun-flooded book might have her face lit mainly by the reflected light, which would have positive connotations. Crabb Triumphant, 195.031 booed, 11» 125m Published in Dinca: Te Word Boreas Nicnr Scene ‘The scene on the opposite page was a poster for a science fiction festival in Nantes, France, the hometown of Jules Verne, who is visible in the lower left corner of the composition, ‘The scene takes place in 1893, A flying machine called a lepidopter is taking off at night from the town square. The action could have been staged in the daytime, but that wouldn't have been quite as magical. Of course in real life, it would have been very difficult to light an actual outdoor set with this much light coming. from a single source. The source would be hidden on the far side of the fountain. The light is hitting the smoke and dust kicked up by the force of the wings. The cast shadows on the buildings on the right suggest that the aircraft is interrupting the lighting. Note how the light is much stronger at the base of the wings, which draws the attention downward. One way to make something look large in a nighttime setting is to have the light shine on just part of the form and fall off rapidly. A very large object, such as a spacecraft, aan ocean liner, or a skyscraper, will look even bigger if only parts of it are lit from below by small, weak lights shining upward at it, Building a small maquette or model, opposite, makes it easier to experiment with actual light,Licut AND Form REFLECTED LIGHT Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun into our night landscape, every object in a scene that receives strong light becomes its own source of light. Therefore, any nearby area of shadow will be affected by it. What's wrong with the croquet balls in Figure 1? They are set up indoors in a shaft of sunlight, and they're resting on black velvet f) Figure shows another photo, this UPFACING AND DOWNFACING time of a green ball and a yellow ball. PLANES, . Perhaps you've guessed that the images Most of the time we think of shadows have been doctored in Photoshop. as blue, Surfaces in shadows do tend The thing that's wrong with the toward blue if they are facing upward croquet ball isthe color'af the fected — beneath un open sraefiorsky, We oun light. The let balls are switched in the make Pia 1. Photograph oft cog two pictures. The ball that was there Upfacing planes in shadow are relatively before the switch reflected its telltale blue on a clear, sunny day. color in the shadow of the yellow ball In the sketch of the library in The green ball shifted the Millbrook, New York, opposite, there's toward greenish yellow, and the red ball plenty of blue color in the cast shadows turned the shadow to orange. ‘on the sidewalk, for example. But Figure 3 shows what happens when we planes in shadow that face downward set the balls up in a shaft of sunlight and are different because they pick up the let their reflected light spill over toan warm reflected olor of illuminated adjacent piece of white board. The light surfaces below them. You can see this bounces up and to the right. Its influence effect in the white pediment above the falls off rapidly as the distance increases columns, Where the projecting forms from the balls, and the colors mix in the face downward, they're distinctly warm, intermediate areas not blue at all Fine 2 Photograph ofa green bl amd yellow bl Toledo Al 2102, Oi on 5. Photoraph of thee croquc bal refi sung onto a white surface inThis natural effect is exaggerated in the photo of Abe. The shadows are strongly colored from the reflected light bouncing up from an orange piece of cardboard held nearby in the sunlight, while the blue sky influences the upfacing planes. In the painting of a narrow street in Toledo, opposite, the shadow side of the yellow building has taken on a strong orange color because of light reflected from an illuminated red building across the street. Normally you would expect the shadow side of a yellow building to bbe much lower in chroma, especially if it \ere lit mainly by light from the sky. Millvook Libary 2004 Oi.on panel, 1 14 combined with the local color of the object itself CONCLUSIONS ABOUT Rerecrep Licut 5, Ona sunny day, vertical surfaces in shadow usually receive two sources of illumination: warm ground light and blue sky light, Lets review five general truths about color in reflected light. 1LIn shadows, upfacing planes are cool, and downfacing planes are warm. 2, Reflected light falls off quickly as you get farther from the source, unless the source is very large (such as a lawn). 3. The effect is clearest if you remove other sources of reflected and fill light. 4, The color of the shadow is the sum of all the sources of reflected illumination, oLigut AND Form SPOTLIGHTING In theatrical illumination, the light is almost never completely uniform, Less important areas of the stage fall into shadow, while the spotlight rivets the attention of the audience on the most important part of the action. nro: Warrior on Ledge, 1984 Oi 2 canvas mounted to pane, 16 «9% in Pablnhod ws Witch of Kreger, DAW «6 Here are two imaginary scenes. Both are set at night. In each picture a spotlight picks out the central figure, leaving the rest in shadow, In the quick concept sketch, left, the light is coming from the right, casting a long shadow from the running man. The shadow should match the color of the sidewalk ahead of the spotlight beam, because it is eveiving the same ambient light as the rest of the scene. Ambient light is the light left over when the key light is removed. ‘The shape of the spotlight implies that it comes from a circular source, given the way it wraps across the forms of the building, It subconsciously gives the impression that the man is being followed and is evading capture. ‘The painting on the right shows a man on a ledge standing in a slanting bar of light that shines from below. The cast shadow from his arm is red on the bottom and blue above, The colored shadows give the feeling that there are actually 1wo adjacent spotlights, a red cone below and a blue one above. This is typical of theater lighting, where adjacent colored spotlights cast shadows with chromatic edges. A spotlight effect can be used on a small form, to0, such as the face above. “Eyelights” were common in classic cinema to concentrate the viewer's attention on the eyes,Licut anp Form LIMITATIONS OF THE FORM PRINCIPLE Solid objects with a matte finish behave predictably in strong light, with a light side, a shadow side, and reflected light. But other materials, such as clouds, foliage, hair, glass, and metal, respond to light differently and require a flexible approach. (Clouds are so variable in density, thick- But it's safe to make the following. ‘mass rising above the ranks of shadowed ness, and composition that is hard to _ statement: Clouds transmit a greater ‘loudls to receive the first morning sun, ‘make general rules about how light inter- quantity of light to the shadow side which penetrates the cloud and lights up acts with them. Even in direct sunlight, _ through internal scattering than the the near side. If you try to make clouds sometimes there's a definite light side volume of light they pick up from follow the form principle, they risk and shadow side, and sometimes there __ secondary sources. ooking like hanging lumps of plaster. just isnt ‘The scene below shows asingle cloud Foliage, too, is extremely variable in 7the way light interacts with it, The old elm tree at right was dense and opaque enough that you could begin to see a light side and a shadow side. But the trees behind it were thin enough to let the light pass completely through them ‘The form principle, with its analysis of light, halftone, shadow, and reflected light, is just a starting point, The world isnot made of plaster. It’s composed of wide variety of materials and surfaces, ‘which we'll explore further in Chapters 9 and 10. Right: Elm, 2004, Oi on panel, 8% 10in elon: Lost nthe Clouds, 1998 On pane, 928 in Published in Diatpia iret FlightELEMENTS OF COLORELEMENTS OF CoLoR RETHINKING THE COLOR WHEEL When white light is bent or refracted by a prism or a rainbow, it separates into a continuous gradation of colors. Wrapping those colors around a circle creates a hue circle, better known as a color wheel. Pig 2 Grodating es around a cite oo E- ud igre 3. The aduional color wheel any ‘* 3 How we name and separate the colors isa matter of discussion, related to physical science, visual perception, and artistic tradition, In the continuous spectrum produced by a prism, there's no clear division between the colors, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) proposed \wrapping the spectrum around the circle by merging the two ends of the visible spectrum, red and violet. He observed that the hues gradate smoothly into cach other (Figure 2), but in his diagram (Figure 1) he identified the seven colors known as ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) ‘The tradition among artists has been to drop the indigo and to concentrate on six basic colors ‘Tue Artist's PRIMARIES Artists generally regard red, yellow, and blue as the most basic colors. But from Greek and Roman times to the Renaissance, most people thought green should be included, too. The idea of a primary color is that it should be possible to mix every other color out of the three primaries. If you ask most people to select three tubes of paint to match their mental image of the primary colors, they will most likely pick something like cadmium red, cadmium yellow, and ultramarine blue You may have noticed that with those colors you can mix clear oranges, but the greens and violets are very dull. The traditional artist's color wheel, (Figure 3) presents yellow, red, and blue spaced at even thirds around the color wheel, about Fig I. Si hace Newt's ile in the position of 12 o'clock, 4 o'clock, and 8 o'clock. Mixtures of the red, blue, and yellow primaries create secondaries The secondary colors are violet, green and orange. They appear between the primaries at 2, 6, and 10 o’elock on the traditional color wheel CompLeMENts: Any color that holds a position directly across the wheel from another is known as a complement. In the world of pigments and color mixing, the color pairs are yellow-violet, red-green, and blue-orange. ‘When pigmentary complements are mixed together, they result in a neutral gray, that is, a gray with no hue identity, In the realm of afterimages and visual percep- tion, the pairings are slightly different. Blue is opposite yellow, not orange. Curoma ‘The wheels in Figures 2,4, 5, and 6 include the dimension of grayness versus intensity, known as chroma. Chroma is the perozived strength of a surface color, seen in relation to white. (Saturation, 8 related term, properly refers to the color purity of light.) As the color swatches progress outward from the hub to the rim of the color wheel, the colors increase in chroma At the center is neutral gray. ‘Tue TRADITIONAL WHEEL ‘There are a few problems with the tradi- tional wheel in Figure 3. First, the idea that red, yellow, and blue are primaries is, not set in stone, Any of the infinite hues ‘on the outer rim of the gradating wheel could make an equal claim as a primary.In addition, none of the hues are second- ary or composite by their nature. Green is no more secondary than blue is. ‘The third problem is that the spacing of colors on the traditional whee! is out of proportion, like a clock face with some of the numbers bunched up in one comer (center of Figure 3). It expands the yellow-orange-ted section of the spectrum too much, so that red is at 4 o’clock in- stead of 2, and blue is at 8 o'clock instead of 6. This uneven distribution came about partly because our eyes are more sensitive to small differences among the yellow! orangefred hues, and partly because pigments are more numerous for warm colors, compared to cool ones. There have always been many available pigments for the oranges and reds, but few for the violets and greens. The precious pigments vermilion and ultramarine became our ‘mental image for red and blue. ‘Tue Mounseit System Many contemporary realist painters use the system developed by Albert Munsell about a century ago. Instead of divisions of threes and twelves, the structure is ‘based on ten evenly spaced spectral hues. In deference to Munsell, the diagram here shows the reds on the left This is a much more useful wheel than the traditional artist's color wheel because it allows for exact numerical descriptions of color notes. Students of the Munsell system must become accustomed to the ten basic hues: yellow (Y), green-yellow (G-Y), green (G), blue-green (B-G), blue (B), purple-blue (P-B), purple (P), red-purple (R-P), red (R), and yellow-red (Y-R) CYAN, MAGENTA, AND YELLOW In the world of printing and photography, the three colors that mix the widest range of high-chroma colors are cyan, magenta, and yellow. These printer’s primaries, together ‘with black (K), are known by the short- hand CMYK. They are used throughout the industries of offset lithography, com- puter printing, and film photography. If all other industries use different primaries from the yellow-red-blue primaries we artists are accustomed to, ‘why have we kept them? One reason is, simple force of habit. Cyan and magenta don’t match our mental image of the blue and red color concepts we've accepted since early childhood Rep, GREEN, AND BLUE At right isa corrected wheel, first in digi- tal form, and then painted in oil. Note that the halfway mixtures between yellow, ‘magenta, and cyan are red (really orange- red), blue (really violet-blue), and green. These three colors (RGB) are significant, because they are the primary colors of light, as opposed to pigment. Lighting designers and computer graphics artists consider RGB as their primaries, and CMY as their secondaries, Mixing red, green, and blue lights together on a theatrical stage or 8 computer sereen results in white light. Until recently it was hard to find chemi- cal pigments that would match up with CMY primaries, and it’s still impossible to find pigments that have all the proper- ties that artists want, The pigments cad- ‘ium yellow liaht (PY 35), quinacridone magenta (PR 122), and phthalo cyan (PB 17) come close, but the later two are unsatisfactory if you like opacity ‘Tue “Yurmay” WHEEL, Placing RGB on the wheel evenly between CMY creates a universal color wheel, useful in many different settings, Think of these as the six equal primaries: yellow, red, magenta, blue, cyan, and ‘green. Counting clockwise from the top of the wheel, they are YRMBCG. You can remember them as “Yurmby” or “You Ride My Bus, Cousin Gus.” Should painters adopt this six-primary color whee!? It’s good to learn this mental image of the ideal color wheel, xrdless of what pigments you actually use as primaries. What's important is that you know where the colors you're using ‘actually belong on a mathematically accurate color wheel PB Figo 4. The Mel whee Re B Fire 5 Digital crentedYirmby whee y Figure 6. Mand pated YurELEMENTS OF CoLoR CHROMA AND VALUE Whenever you paint directly from observation, you have to translate the wide range of tones that meet your eye. The colors on the palette often can’t match the wide range of tones in a given scene. As we saw on the previous page, every color can be defined in terms of two dimensions: hue—where it appears around the edge of the color wheel, and chroma—how pure or grayed-down it appears ‘The third dimension to consider for any color mixture is the value oF lightness. This value dimension is generally represented along the vertical dimension above and below the color wheel, creating a spherical, cylindrical, ‘or double-cone shape. Since it’s a three- dimensional volume, it’s also called a color space or color solid, One of Albert Munsell’s contributions to the understanding and practical use of color was his numerical classifica tion system for all possible colors ac- cording to these three dimensions: hue, value, and chroma, Instead of trying to describe a given color as a “beige” or a ” one could unambiguously define them as a YR 7/2 or a R 3/6. The letters “YR” stand for yellow-red, The first number stands for value, ranging from black (0) to white (10). The second number refers to chroma, counting up- ‘ward to the strongest intensity possible. Many painters have adopted Munsell’ color notations to help them accurately observe, select, and mix any color. Artists trained in Munsell notation become accustomed to navigating in a three-dimensional color space each time they think about a color. Peak chrom vale chars showing yellow, ed, nd Hue charted by value (opt bottom) and chrom right left) Oil board, 7> 12 nchex 16 PEAK CHROMA VALUE Munsell observed that a given hue reaches its greatest chroma at one particular value, called the home value or the peak chroma value. That peak value varies from color to color. Yellow, for example, is most intense at a very light value, while blue is strongest when it is very dark. Red reaches maximum chroma at a middle value. ‘The hand-painted chart below takes, those three hues through all possible ‘degrees of chroma and value, Chroma is, constant along a vertical line, while value js constant along a horizontal line Rep Neon Red neon was the subject of the rainy day plein-air painting opposite. The neon presented a problem because the effect on the eye couldn't be mixed with pigments. The neon color was one of the light- est values in the scene. The red-orange color was also extremely saturated. The only paint that could simulate that high value was pure white oil paint—but then it would have no hue character at all, Likewise, any light tint of the red was noticeably weak in chroma, and looked orange or pink. And a bright red as it came from the tube wouldn't work be- cause peak chroma value was far too rk compared to white. ‘The compromise was to paint the neon bulb in a pure tint of red-orange and to surround it with a flood of red-orange at midvalue. The digital photo, above, which has its own limitations, also failed to capture the full effect of the neon light, but it did a better job than the painting,ELEMENTS OF CoLoR Loca CoLor Local color is the color of the surface of an object as it appears close up in white light. If you held up a matching paint swatch right against it, that swatch would be the local color. However, the color you actually mix to paint that object will usually be different. All the buses in Malta are painted in ‘bands of yellow, red, and white. When I sat down to paint the sketch above, my job wasn't too different from the task of filing in a coloring book. The colors on my painting resembled the actual paint colors used on the bus. But even in this simple sketch, I had to make a few modifications to the local color. [lightened the yellow in the plane above the wheel where the body projected outward. The red band also had to be lighter at the top where it angled back to pick up the light and color of the sky. The reflection of the blue sky into the red band resulted in a light violet color. ‘One of the reasons I painted the ‘gumball machine in the coin laundry, ‘opposite, is that I was interested in how each gumball had a light edge where it caught the glare of the window. I also noticed how the colors darkened on the side facing me. There was a little high: light in the center of each ball caused by the fluorescent lights above me. Generally the colors you actually mix in a painting will involve some modulation of the local color. You might lighten or darken the color to model the form, gray it down to push it back through layers of atmosphere, or shift the hue to account for reflected light from other objects,