Understanding Light and Shadow
Hey there, young artists! Today, we're cracking open the mystery of light and shadow using a simple object: the incredible egg. You've seen how light plays on objects around you, right? It makes painting with acrylics exciting and also challenging. Let's explore the five lighting terms that make our paintings pop with realism!
1. Specular Highlight
The specular highlight is the super shiny spot where the light source hits the object directly. It's like the glint you see on a soap bubble – very bright and usually white or very light in acrylic paintings. In our egg, it's that bright spot where you imagine a lamp shining right at it.
2. Diffused Highlight
Think of this as the friendlier, softer cousin of the specular highlight. It's where the light is intense but not glaring. On our egg, this is the light area but not bright white. It's what gives the object a three-dimensional form.
3. Shaded Side
The shaded side is the side that's turning away from the light. It's not entirely dark, but it's where the light starts to play hide and seek. In acrylic painting, blending this area smoothly with the highlights is vital to a realistic look.
4. Reflected Light
Now, this is the cool part – light bounces like a superball! It hits the table or another surface and jumps back onto the object. On our egg, it's that subtle light you see on the edge of the shadow side. This sneaky light stops the object from looking flat.
5. Shadow
Shadows are the secret to anchoring your object in space. Without a shadow, your egg might as well be floating in an abyss! The shadow is the dark shape on the surface where the light can't reach because our egg is in the way.
Why Do Light and Shadow Matter?
When you paint with acrylics, understanding light and shadow is like having a superpower. It transforms a flat circle into a round, tangible object. By mastering these effects, you can make your paintings come to life. They tell you where the light is coming from, the object's texture, and even what time of day it might be!
Five Lights of Nature Explained
This colorful image of an egg would not come from any bird we know. It's a fantastic, almost magical object that one might find in a tale of enchantment, but we will use it as an example for the light terms.
This egg stands upright, and its surface gleams as if made of glass or a similarly shiny, translucent material. It's plump and smooth, with a gradient of color reminiscent of a lush forest seen from above. The top of the egg is a bright, lemony yellow that suggests the warmth of sunlight piercing through treetops. As the color flows downward, it deepens into a rich, verdant green, the shade you'd expect on the leaves of a summer tree.
Intricate patterns, like fine etchings of an unknown script or delicate fern fronds, overlay the transition from yellow to green. These lines and swirls are lighter and ghostly green, as if they capture the history of the egg, telling stories in a language of light.
The most luminous part, a specular highlight, is a sharp streak of brilliant white, bold and dramatic on the egg's upper curve as the glint of the sun reflected off a calm lake. It's so bright it seems to spill over the edge as if the light itself is liquid.
Beneath this streak, the light softens, diffusing gently across the yellow and green, cradling the egg's curve. This diffused highlight speaks of the egg's smoothness and roundness and how it would feel to the touch: cool and perhaps slightly slippery.
As we travel further down the egg, the green becomes deep and shadowy, like a dense thicket in twilight. Yet, even in this shadow, there's a hint of illumination on one side, suggesting that light reflects off some unseen surface, casting a gentle glow that keeps the shadow from being all-consuming.
The egg rests on a surface that appears soft to the touch, with a texture that might remind one of fine sand or a thin layer of suede. Here, shadow fans out from the base of the egg, a dark, fuzzy-edged shape that anchors the egg to its place, giving it weight and grounding it in the physical world.
Despite its stillness, the egg exudes a sense of latent energy, as if it might hatch something extraordinary from within its colorful shell at any moment.
Final Thoughts
Remember, light and shadow are the dance partners in the art world. They work together to tell a visual story. So grab your brushes, and let's start painting the light!
Ginger Cook
Professional Acrylic Artist and Educator of Acrylic Painting
Thank you so much for this article. I learned much about the importance of correctly lighting and shading an object.
Excellent explanation. Especially useful if the reflected light info. Thank you
Clear and concise. Great info, thanks Ginger and Jon.
Great article!
Super article, it would make a great page in my Quintessential Color Mixing Journal. Any chance some of the Blogs could be made printable??? Thanks Ginger, Jon and “Stuffy Staff” for everything
Hi Ginger & Jon! Thank you for sharing so much valuable information in addition to your usual stand – alone: BRILLIANCE!
I have a question about the reflected light. Should the reflected light be a darker shade of white? Or should it be a lighter, but duller, color of what’s underneath? I’m still training my eyes to see the colors.
Nicole,
Reflected light on an object, especially in acrylic painting, can be quite intriguing. It’s not as intense as the direct light source, so it’s typically represented with a color that’s lighter than the shadow but not as bright as the direct light. It often carries some of the colors from the surfaces around the object because it’s light that’s bounced off those surfaces onto the object.
So, to answer the question, the reflected light should generally be a lighter shade of the color of the object it’s illuminating, mixed with hints of the colors from the surrounding environment. For example, if your object is green and it’s sitting on a brown surface, the reflected light might be a lighter, somewhat muted shade of green with a touch of brown. It wouldn’t be a pure white unless there’s a very strong light source nearby, like a flash of sunlight.
This means you can use the base color of the object (like the green of your egg), lighten it with a bit of white, and then add a hint of the color of the reflecting surface to suggest the indirect light bouncing onto the object. The key is subtlety, and the result should enhance the form of the object, making it appear more three-dimensional and grounded in its environment.
Thanks. That makes perfect sense.
Excellent explanation. Especially useful if the reflected light info. Thank you
So extremely helpful. This is exactly what makes the subject ooze of detail with lights and darks so that the critic is in all of us is not left, “wanting.”
Am going to read and re-read until I’ve emblazoned this on my brain, and will help my art have a distinctive personality. Thank so much Jon and Ginger. Always the most helpful !!!