Artist insight
Shirley Tan shares her expert advice on creating accurate lighting setups to bring the best out of the characters in your paintings
Many artists may think of lighting as an afterthought, the icing on the cake or the cherry on top of the pie, but that cannot be further from the truth. Lighting is an essential part of any painting, and it can make or break a piece.
With lighting you can create focal points in your piece, change the mood in a painting and help with storytelling. Lighting can direct the viewer’s eyes to the important parts of the painting you want them to focus on, bringing their attention to the story you want to communicate. It also affects the overall colour tone of your painting and with that, helps to set the mood and atmosphere necessary to support the narrative behind your artwork.
We can study lighting examples from screenshots of our favourite movies, stunning photography and animated films. When studying a screenshot, look out for the light sources, light direction and light intensity, and how it guides the eye to the subject. We can also reference the colour and tone, and see how these colours affect the mood and atmosphere of the scene.
1 STUDY REFERENCES
Choose a good reference for lighting, which affects the overall colours and mood of your painting. Study the reference well and make sure to note where the light is coming from. Common light sources are the Sun, or artificial lighting like lamps and digital screens. We must always light the scene in the same direction, so the shadows should always reach the same way.
3 BLEND MODES
Use various Blending modes to paint in the lights and shadows. For example, you can use Overlay mode to paint in the lights and Multiply mode to paint in the darker shadows.
4 CHECK YOUR VALUES
Check the black and white values of your painting often to make your work stand out more. Try to make more contrast at the focal point.
5 SURFACE LIGHTING
Remember, the point the light hits the surface will be the brightest and those in shadows will be progressively darker.
6 ADJUSTM
