Adding light to your paintings

Picture

  • Contrast is the thing that really shows up the light - being next to a dark area will make a light area really shine
  • Leave plenty of white paper - this is the lightest you can get - both areas of white and specks of white left when brush is almost dry
  • Use transparent colours - marked on the tube or listed in catalogues. Chrome colours are all opaque so not good for light. www.handprint.com is a really good source of information about different pigments & manufacturers paints, it's really detailed and there's a lot to get through but it teaches you a lot.
  • Avoid mixing to many colours together and remember that many colours are already a mixture - this is shown on the tube on artists colours, also the handprint site above has details. The more different pigments in a wash the less transparent it will be. Particularly avoid having any complementary colours mixed together (eg green & red or orange & purple) as these will just make it dull.
  • Don't over paint too much - for sparkling colours you should use just one wash. Make sure it's done cleanly and don't play around too much trying to get it just right.

Of course it is easy to list things but I know it is so much harder to put them into practise.