Throw away your greys and paint shadows full of colour, advises Barry Herniman as he demonstrates a sunlit scene in Corsica using acrylics
Travelling around Mediterranean countries I’m never far away from a vista that is infused with a striking array of sunlight and shadow. Light is bouncing around everywhere off light surfaces and into dark shadow areas causing them to light up with glorious colour. When I’m out sketching en plein air I always take time to observe the view carefully and concentrate on looking ‘into’ the shadows to detect all the myriad colour influences therein. I have witnessed students mixing up homogenous grey shadow colours without any regard to what is actually there in front of them. Tonally their shadows could be fine but they will invoke an overall feeling of coldness and not portray the wonderful light and heat of a Mediterranean scene. It’s so easy to fall into the old maxim that shadows are grey – well not always so and especially not in these vibrant foreign countries.
Leonardo da Vinci on shadows
Leonardo considered shadows to be an essential part of a painting, stating: ‘Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.’ His research into light and shade is well known in architecture and art history, because shadow is directly involved in the rendering of volume and depth.
His famous quote is: ‘Shadow is the diminution of light’ so there is no such thing as shadow colour! Please keep this in mind as you follow this demo and notice how my shadows have colour and life.
STAGE ONE
Before I start, I like to brush on a liberal amount of white gesso over the whole surface of the canvas board. This gives me a nice rough textured surface to work on which I prefer to a smooth one. I then go in with my pencil and draw in the main elements of the scene
STAGE TWO
With a fluid ‘watercolour’ wash of orange and yellow I brushed this over the left-hand wall with my size 6 flat brush, keeping the board at an angle. You can see how the fluid colour pooled at the bottom of the stroke
STAGE THREE
Next came some texture. Mixes of burnt sienna, orange and a touch of violet were flicked onto the semi-dry wash producing an array of different textures. By keeping this process random you are never quite sure what the outcome will be but you can rest assured it will be exciting!
STAGE FOUR
Moving over to the sunli
