Exploration of a Sphere Part 1: Types of Shadow and Light

One of the most basic core doctrines of learning to paint in a representational way is to learn how light behaves and how to paint it.  Enter the good old sphere or egg.  Now art schools make students draw or paint them until the students run away screaming.  The problem is that students are never taught the point to all this boring work.  The students are just annoyed by what they think is busy work.  So I am going to do a week long series on our simple friend the sphere to attempt to explain the point.  Every object in existence that you may want to paint can be split up into combinations of spheres and planar shapes (like a cube).  It is as simple as that.  I will do a post in the near future illustrating this point.

But first, before we can combine simple objects into more complex ones, we need to understand how light behaves when it falls upon a simple object, like our good old sphere:

I set up a wood sphere on a piece of paper with a desk lamp lighting it from the side.  This is what is termed "form revealing" light.  This light creates a clear distinction between light and dark on the sphere, thus revealing its shape.  If we moved the light around so it was shining directly on and from the front of the object, it would reveal no shadows (think a picture taken with a flash).  This would flatten our sphere out so it looked like a paper cutout.  We want to make things easier on ourselves, so we want to use form revealing light.  Think chiaroscuro or Rembrandt lighting (more about this in a later post).

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-portrait, c. 1629; Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg

See the strong difference between light and shadow?  This is form revealing light.  Anyway, back to our sphere, which we want to also be lit with form revealing light:

Under this lighting we can see:
a highlight
the core shadow
the reflected light
and the cast shadow

The highlight is fairly obvious, it is the lightest part of the sphere, where the strongest light is directly hitting it.  More on the other kinds of light and shadow tomorrow.

***

One of my students asked:
I was reading your blog (loving it) and I have a question on the figure painted by Rembrandt.  Is there reflective light under the figure's left eye? Thanks. 

Ooo, good question!  As the reproduction above looks, the answer could be yes.  It is darker than any of the lights on the light side of the face.  However, from my experience looking at Rembrandt lighting, that triangle under the left eye should be lighter.  It is illuminated by the main light source falling on the left cheek, not light being bounced off something.  You can just see the shadow cast by the nose on the left cheek, which ends before the triangle of light begins.  I suspect that the image above is not a great picture.  Rembrandt's paintings are notoriously difficult to reproduce.  I went looking and lo and behold:

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-portrait, c. 1629; Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg

That is better.  So the answer is no, that triangle under his left eye is direct lighting (but reduced a bit because it is further away from the light source).  The reflected light on the left side of his face is that bluish greenish gray tinge you see along the edge of his cheek, jaw, and under his chin. 

My Motivation for Producing Art

I have been having a bit of a frustrating week.  The struggle to pay bills at the expense of time to do my own work, for which I don't receive immediate financial compensation, is a teeter-totter ride and I too frequently find myself having to come down on the side of paying the bills.  I am not whining (I lie, yes I am), this is the life I have chosen, but it certainly makes me question my choices.  Sometimes the lure of financial security is very strong.  I have been listening to The Two Paths by John Ruskin recently and it has been a welcome relief. 

You can get the e-text of The Two Paths on Project Gutenberg here.
You can listen to The Two Paths on Librivox.org here.

Ask yourselves what is the leading motive which actuates you while you are at work. I do not ask you what your leading motive is for working--that is a different thing; you may have families to support--parents to help--brides to win; you may have all these, or other such sacred and pre-eminent motives, to press the morning's labour and prompt the twilight thought. But when you are fairly at the work, what is the motive then which tells upon every touch of it? If it is the love of that which your work represents--if, being a landscape painter, it is love of hills and trees that moves you--if, being a figure painter, it is love of human beauty and human soul that moves you--if, being a flower or animal painter, it is love, and wonder, and delight in petal and in limb that move you, then the Spirit is upon you, and the earth is yours, and the fulness thereof. But if, on the other hand, it is petty self-complacency in your own skill, trust in precepts and laws, hope for academical or popular approbation, or avarice of wealth,--it is quite possible that by steady industry, or even by fortunate chance, you may win the applause, the position, the fortune, that you desire;-- but one touch of true art you will never lay on canvas or on stone as long as you live. 

Make, then, your choice, boldly and consciously, for one way or other it must be made. On the dark and dangerous side are set, the pride which delights in self-contemplation--the indolence which rests in unquestioned forms--the ignorance that despises what is fairest among God's creatures, and the dulness that denies what is marvellous in His working: there is a life of monotony for your own souls, and of misguiding for those of others. And, on the other side, is open to your choice the life of the crowned spirit, moving as a light in creation-- discovering always--illuminating always, gaining every hour in strength, yet bowed down every hour into deeper humility; sure of being right in its aim, sure of being irresistible in its progress; happy in what it has securely done--happier in what, day by day, it may as securely hope; happiest at the close of life, when the right hand begins to forget its cunning, to remember, that there never was a touch of the chisel or the pencil it wielded, but has added to the knowledge and quickened the happiness of mankind.

--John Ruskin, The Two Paths

Why Realism? by Frederick Ross

I can't say it any better.  For all my students who have ever asked me "What is the deal with modern art?  I just don't get it."  Please read this courtesy the Art Renewal Center.

Skin Color Limited Palette

My palette for skin colors is based on the limited palette popularized by Anders Zorn (Swedish, 1860-1920).  Zorn's palette is based on four colors:  ivory black, yellow ochre, cadmium red, and white.  In theory, you could achieve any color you need with a palette consisting of white and the three primaries (blue, yellow, and red).  Zorn's palette is based on this, substituting ivory black for blue, as ivory black has strong blue undertones.

Every time I do a portrait or figurative painting I mix the strings of color above.  Looking at the larger puddles forming the strings of color they are, from left to right:
ivory black plus cadmium red, with increasing amounts of white going down = subtle purple
ivory black plus yellow ochre, with increasing amounts of white going down = subtle green
yellow ochre plus cadmium red, with increasing amounts of white going down
yellow ochre plus less cadmium red, with increasing amounts of white going down
yellow ochre with increasing amounts of white going down

I use these strings of color as the basis for all the subsequent skin colors I mix.  I will occasionally grab colors outside the Zorn palette to mix in with my strings of color if I need something a little different.  This is not necessary though, and I start all my students who have never worked with skin colors with just the Zorn palette.  As they gain experience with color we start experimenting with other colors.  I have found that students beginning with skin colors are completely overwhelmed by choice.  Using a limited palette is much easier for them to control.

My full palette is the top row of paint.  It is, from left to right:
ivory black, raw umber, burnt umber, ultramarine blue, cobalt violet, viridian, burnt sienna, permanent alizarin crimson,  yellow ochre, cadmium orange, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, zinc white, titanium white

Common Ground on the Hill

I will be teaching a week long oil painting portrait workshop at the Common Ground on the Hill festival at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD from June 30 to July 4.

Click here for info on Common Ground.

Click here for info on my class.

Land of 1755 by Jaime Cooper

Underpainting

Here is an underpainting for an oil portrait of a sculptor that I am currently working on.  My reference is a black and white photo ca. 1900.  I always do an underpainting as the first step to any oil painting.

Underpainting for Sculptor by Jaime Cooper

It greatly helps me to:
1.  draw the image (I don't do any drawing in pencil first)
2.  decide on major structural and compositional questions
3.  map out the value structure, especially placement of core shadows

I usually do them in either raw or burnt umber thinned to an ink consistency with turpenoid (and a little stand oil).  Sometimes with a landscape or still life I will use burnt sienna.  Every once in awhile I will go crazy and try something like purple or green.  This can be an interesting take on flesh tones for a portrait.  I use a brush, rag, or Q-tip to wipe out highlights.  After the underpainting is finished I will start painting the color layers over it.

The Da Vinci Initiative

After my post yesterday I remembered an email I had received from the Art Renewal Center about the Da Vinci Initiative.  I went looking around their site at the lesson plans they have available and low and behold:

"The Da Vinci Initiative is developing a series of educational videos and K-12 lesson plans. These lesson plans intend to both train teachers who may be unfamiliar with certain technical art skills, and provide a direct learning experience for K-12 students in art classrooms. These resources will be made available online for homeschooling parents as well as adults interested in learning skill-based art methods and techniques."

Click here for a link to their Drawing with Envelopes lesson plan.