Expressing light tips

 Tips on painting light

8x12 pastel "Tuolumne Barn"

spring reference for sky painting

Painting light with different media requires the artist to know the limitations of each media. Prepping surfaces ahead of time with middle values is very helpful, especially if you paint plein air. All prep work can be done opaque or transparent. This tone will be helpful with keying a painting and keeping it harmonious through out the piece. The white d of the canvas or paper helps to keep paintings in high key. Review the lights of Sargent and sorolla's paintings. How did they handle the light? Was the painting in high key? How dark are the darkest areas of the painting? What is the balance of the painting as a whole? Was it a 70-20-10, or some other combination of lights, mid or dark values?

Toned surfaces determine the degree of luminosity. A dark surface will absorb more light while a light surface reflects it. 

A trick I have found to make the light shimmer in any media. Paint the surrounding darker colors, then add the first color in a lighter tone but not white. You can glaze this lighter tone on the surface. Keep the edges soft. Then add a mark of a very light tone of your light. This can even be a spot of white in the middle of your color mark. Be careful not to add to much spotty whites, these can be strokes too. Stand back and you will see the light shimmer.

Be aware there are groups of people in all media that are purists. This can mean they paint with transparent paints only. The lights of your painting are acquired by technique and not mixing other media in your painting. Just beware if you do paint in mixed media and want to show your work you will have to meet certain criteria for acceptance into some shows. There is no wrong way to paint. Feel free to express yourself.

Pastels

Remember that you can use different paint strokes to increase effects. Start with light and dark areas in the composition. The middle toned paper should compliment your palette. Early in the painting process I would choose a color gamut James Gurney Color gamut to help with those types of decisions. Although, it is not an absolute rule to follow. Your strokes can be feathering (lay the light and then the shadow side of an object and feather in the transition of the light to shadow). This technique can also help with making an object recede. Broken color was very popular among the impressionist. You can express the light by placing a cooler color over a warmer color to gray it down with its compliment. Albert Handle refers to a bloom; application of a light color over a dark background color. Vary the pressure on the pastel stick and you can create different tones and blends that will be luminous. Always stay as light with pressure as you can, for as long as you can - Marla Baggetta 

Oils & Acrylics

Start your painting with thin washes of color at the beginning of the painting on a white canvas. The light will go through the thin wash and bounce back and reflect some of the canvas. You can follow this technique with opaque colors with similar values of the washes. This is a little like a watercolor approach to painting. Also, thin washes dry quicker in oil painting, so it may be possible to glaze easier. 

Opaque whites will contrast well with transparent darks. This can be built with a brush or palette knife. Along with direct painting techniques like scumbling (remember to use semi opaques over a darker value color to achieve this), scraping and glazing works well to show the colors underneath each other and the luminosity will show through. 

In oils you can use the thick and thin application of paint to bring out the lightest lights. 

Watermedia

Watercolors are painted with awareness of where the light is on the subject. It is important to save those areas for the lighter color nuances that will sing with light as you progress in the painting process in the shadows. This is key to understanding this media. Acrylics can also be thinned down enough to respond to the light the same way watercolor paints do. 

Acrylics can be painted thinly as watercolor but do have the advantage to take applications of this paint. With all water media it is highly suggested that you have a plan on your approach to the subject matter. It is easy to become lost or loose your whites and luminosity. Planning with color, drawing and composition is the foremost way to maintain success. Some artists are known to recapture the white of the paper with an application of opaque white gouache.