Tips on the Color of Light and mood

 The Color of Light and Mood

All paintings are made up of light. How we describe the light directly affects the mood. A good value map will help you decide what colors to use to help tell your story. After much practice color choices will become intuitive for you.  A challenge for you, would be to identify the color and light affects on your subject at different times of the day. Wherever you go through out your day be very observant to the subtle effects that happen in shadow; is it blue, purple? What color is the surrounding light compared to  the shadow? Really open your eyes to this in nature. It will open a whole new world to you. This type of observation could be explored your whole life. Monet did this when he painted the different lighting conditions with his haystacks. 

With your observations of light, mood and feeling will automatically interact together and show in your paintings. They are apart of light, so therefore you will become intuitive to mood and feelings of a painting. It also is why people are attracted to certain art works. Some paintings inspire us to remember favorite past memories.  The painting will  tell us a story that connects us to a favorite place, mood or even in the color palette. It makes the painting magical to us. 

Bright sunny days may inspire a cheerful mood; overcast days may describe a somber reflective mood, and misty fog may invite feelings of mystery. 

5x7 study of overcast day, Moody

This is a little study to express mood. The lighting was overcast with threatening clouds overhead in the golden hills of California. My objective here was to study the light. Other than the barn structure (or upright planes) everything is in a similar value. The sky is gray and all the colors are muted. It's not just a copy of a photo, but a feeling of the day. The clouds are heavy and close to the ground to help support the feeling I had on this day. 

So how does light effect the different seasons? When starting to paint, the planning stages require us to ask these kinds of questions. Put it down on paper so you can be reminded of the story you want to say to the viewer. This is your vision, express it in your own personal way.

Light effects with the seasons

Spend time studying light, reflections or refractions. Really feel the light on your subject, sense the presence of it. Study the edges of the light closely. Study the form of the light; how does it wrap around your subject? Does the shadow have sharp edges or soft? Understanding the patterns of light and shadow and how to accurately to express the shapes of light in your painting are very important. In fact it is a fundamental concept for success. The sky in any season directly relates to the earth and directly influences the color you see in the earth. 

Summer

What does summer say to you? I feel warm bright sun, water and fun at the beach. This study was to see not only color relationships but how to really get the light and shadow areas to read as a hot day. In this season the intensity of the light is absorbed into the greens of summer. What do the colors of green look like? Are they warm on one side and have reflected or bounced light from an object behind them? Remember that objects behind each other often have reflected color in the shadow with bright light. Ask yourself what is the influence the greens may have that is different between this season and winter greens? Are they bluer, yellower and brighter or duller?

9x12 watercolor study girls at the Bach

Morning summer light is clean and crisp. During the early light the sun is lower in the sky and the light is filtered through a moist atmosphere as it comes up over the horizon. You will see more pinks, oranges and purples in this lighting condition. It only last a short time from sunrise to mid morning before it changes to the midday light. Cast shadows are longer, the lighted areas are richer in color. Watch for value changes as the light is further from the sunrise. Colors are brighter the closer they are to you and become duller as they recede. My camera distorts the oranges in this type of light. I must make allowances for this when using a photograph as a reference.

Midday summer light is very predominant in this season. Light is at it's whitest, strongest and has a bluish tint to it in midday. The upright planes Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting (trees) are dark, the underlying shapes in the shadows have warmer reflections from the ground underneath them. Observe the value of the shadow directly under your subject on the ground plane and compare it to the  value of the subject in that shadow. Is there a difference in warm or cool; lighter or darker? Light from this time of produces very few cast shadows. 

Evening summer light is again lower in the sky, but the quality of the light is crisper and warmer. The sky is bluer and the shadows are again longer and cooler and bluer. Look for complimentary colors in the shadows of the foliage. Is the brighter color on the foliage green? Does this shadow have hints of green's compliment, red? Typically, during this time of day the local color doesn't influence the painting. Observe this closely. When the sun is just about to set what is the color of the upright planes? 

Fall

Autumn is full of color changes in the landscape. Greens move to duller colors replaced with deep reds and yellows as the foliage prepares for winter. The density of the foliage changes too as nature prepares for this season. Light gradually gets softer and lower in the sky during this transition. 

Del Puerto Canyon Fall

Mustards, orches and reds that are dull dominate the foreground as soft grays edging on purple show the receding fall landscape.   

Winter

What does the winter light look like? Is it cooler and grayed? Diffuse lighting probably is present during this time of year. In my area (the Cascades) the clouds seem to float in and out of the mountain tops. The background trees are a deeper blue-green. All colors are grayed down. This is very similar to California's winter landscapes. 

winter study 9x12 

 The sky is usually the lightest in the cloudy winter or overcast day. Colors get grayer and duller as you recede back into the landscape. Clouds that are big and fluffy are very luminous in this sky. Ground colors are usually not influenced by other sky colors in this condition and remain true to their local colors. You will see softer edges and soft contrasts in a winter scene. The muted colors and low key values are usually typical. Ask yourself do the dark colors get lighter in the distance and do the light colors get darker? What does a gray sky look like? Is it purples and muted colors? As long as the values are right this is where hidden mood lies. Reach into the landscape and see if you can pull these colors out. Shadows will also be muted, and upright planes can be more vibrant. 

Spring

The sky is warming up and a tourquise effect starts to take place in the midday sky. New foliage growth starts to appear in the landscape. Mornings are crisp with cooler and softer hues until the sun is higher in the sky. As buds appear on the edges of trees it takes on a soft reddish hue. In early spring you can still decipher the skeletons of the trees and the silhouettes are still very prominent.  

5x7 study of spring early light

The early morning light is influenced by pinks and oranges in this study. Almond trees are in full bloom and it is the most gorgeous sight to see. In this study I made the sky a purplish blue which compliments the shadow colors nicely. I wanted to feel the crispness of the morning. The shadows are long and the tree still shows itself as a winter tree with hints of buds. 

As a recap, light influences our paintings and ideas. Without it we would see nothing. It dances along the edges foliage. Daily, the beauty of the landscape changes on our planet. We are fortunate to see the cycles of rebirth. If we as artist can show the beauty of our world to others who cannot see this wonder, perhaps others will be able to view our world with new vision. Isn't this in the end what we as artist want to say?

Artist are the storytellers of the earth and give her a voice to the human race - Debi Crow-Sousa