by Mitch Baird

Working under different light conditions with different photos and creating one successful painting is pretty much near impossible. This is something that is important to consider as we all have done this while we are trying to figure things out. I don’t know one professional artist, even top artists, that are taking images that have different light qualities or directions or sources of light and creating a painting out of them. It is just too complex. With that said, we need to realize that we need to work with the conditions that we have. Those conditions place the visual field in the relevant place that it is and how we see things.

For example, let’s take a look at three images from the same scene with different light and shadows.

In the first photo below, we know it is a very overcast day. What happens when the light hits those clouds, no matter where the light is, the clouds absorb that light and spread it evenly. We know there is a little direction of light here because there is a light side and a shadow side of the cliff. The light coming from the sky is coming strongly from the top since the whole sky is basically the source of light. Everything is very top-lit and subtle between the light and shadows:

When we look at the next image (below), there is a cloud casting a dramatic shadow. When we focus on those cliffs, we can see how light and shadow work. If I wanted to create a light and shadow, the trick is that I now have to know about the things up front that are not on one side or the other. We don’t know how certain things will fit with the other elements. The bushes in the front are more front-lit but nothing is really in a shadow and is more of a lacy light. If I am going to create a shadow out of my mind, I have to decide where I know a shadow will be. In this case, it is not going to happen:

The next photo we can see has a lower light quality, a very late light. Look at the temperature of this light compared to the one above. We have warm light and cool shadows, and now we have very hot light and cool shadows. Now you are starting to fight not only temperature but contrast and shape too. We have shapes that are created by light and those pieces things fall on. In this situation, we do have some lacy light but we also have some crisp shadows that define some of the bushes:

To create these things shown above out of mere imagination is too big of a leap. You have so many facets to understand and deal with. This is why we need to work from life and work in a specific time frame/ element so you are representing what is really happening. I want to cover this because many people try to combine things. This is fine if the light is going in the same direction, has the same source of light, and has the same contrast. When you start working in and adding things that aren’t there, it changes the way you have to understand what is happening with the light, and changes the relationships between things in the scene.

My advice is not to get ahead of yourself and rather try to focus on a time and an element of light that you can understand, see, and solve problems with. Dealing with light we are already given is hard enough without throwing in an extra curve ball!

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