from Andy Evansen

When it comes to watercolor painting, few elements are as transformative—and as revealing of personal style—as lighting. Whether you're capturing a sun-drenched street or a quiet, shadowed alleyway, how you choose to light your subject can define the mood, structure, and emotional impact of your work.

In this post, we’ll explore three fundamental lighting approaches—backlighting, side lighting, and front lighting—and how they shape your painting decisions.

Backlighting

Backlighting occurs when the sun is behind your subject. This lighting compresses complexity into bold, connected shadow shapes. Details dissolve, allowing you to simplify structures dramatically.

Key advantages:

Creates strong, unified shapes

Great for lost edges and expressive brushwork.

Reduces reliance on accurate local color.

Artists like Skip Lawrence excel with this method. His work often features large, expressive shapes filled with vibrant color, relying on value and shape accuracy rather than intricate detail.

💡 Tip: Backlighting is ideal when you want to simplify complex scenes and lean into color play and abstraction.

Side Lighting

Side lighting, where light sweeps in from one side, gives form to your subject. You get a clear light side and shadow side, which allows you to describe volume and depth more effectively.

Key advantages:

Reveals form and structure.

Ideal for long, connecting shadows.

Great for storytelling and mood.

Joseph Zbukvic is a master of side lighting. His paintings often show light glinting off cars and buildings, while sweeping shadows connect foreground and background. His excellent draftsmanship makes this method particularly effective.

💡 Tip: Maintain strong shape accuracy and reserve detail for the lit areas—shadows should stay soft and simplified.

Front Lighting

With front lighting, the sun is behind you and illuminates everything evenly. This approach can be trickier—local colors are vivid, and shadows are minimal, so simplification becomes harder.

Key challenges:

More visible detail and color variations.

Fewer opportunities for simplification.

Harder to unify areas into large shapes.

John Yardley thrives with front lighting. His staccato, spontaneous brushwork adds sparkle to his scenes, with many small shapes working in harmony. His style embraces the complexity, rather than shying away from it.

💡 Tip: Focus on color harmony, variety of shape, and restraint in detail to avoid clutter.

Andy has always considered himself a side-lighting painter—someone who loved to draw and enjoyed defining form through light and shadow. But after reviewing some of his favorite pieces, he discovered something surprising: many of his strongest works were actually front lit. Paying close attention to lighting doesn’t just influence painting choices—it also uncovers the natural evolution of an artist’s style.

If you’re struggling with complexity or getting lost in detail, try backlighting—it can be a game-changer for simplification. If you want to emphasize form and realism, explore side lighting. And if you enjoy color, texture, and a bit of a challenge, front lighting can create stunning, vibrant results.

No matter your preference, remember this:

In side lighting, keep details in the light and simplify shadows.

In backlighting, focus on shape and color shifts—less is more.

In front lighting, lean into clarity but maintain visual hierarchy.

Explore each lighting type. Observe your favorite artists. And most importantly—notice what excites you to paint. That’s often where your true style is waiting to emerge.

If you found these techniques helpful, you’ll love learning directly from Andy Evansen. He shares his insights through his mentoring course and video series, both designed to help artists grow their skills and confidence:

mentoring course

Video series

Lighting Your Subject