LIGHTING 101 for PAINTERS : connecting to your audience

everybody so I'm about to wrap up a new painting and I often wonder if everybody's gonna enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed creating it and that really begs the question what actually makes something beautiful or interesting now painting on art in general is a very personal thing we all know this so I'm actually gonna kind of tiptoe around the whole subjectivity thing however the notion of art itself is actually very simple art is a connection between the viewer and the audience and today we're going to look at how we can possibly connect to the audience with our lighting now a huge part of creating and consuming art and relating mediums and that is to find establish and enjoy connections especially during these times of quarantine sometimes when I'm watching a movie playing a game or browsing art online I like to stop and think why I find it appealing of all of course we know it can be for a number of reasons like the subject or genre the medium to the technical skill and for many artists we pour our heart and soul into creating portraits landscapes sculptures photographs etc and then we bravely post them online only for no one to even notice a few weeks ago I uploaded a video regarding art portfolios and I mentioned one of my pillars of a great portfolio is in fact lighting and Composition and today I'd like to take a closer look at lighting and some of your work and why it might not be exciting enough to connect to a viewer or your audience perhaps you overlook the importance of planning out your lighting a bit maybe you're painting fails to capture the essence of a scene and as a result of this your staging of your elements lacks a clear and concise message that can potentially dilute any significance that it may contain legging is hands-down one of the most important elements in visual production and has the power to single-handedly alter the mood and perception of an entire scene on a more macro level now the lighting position alone more often then diffusion or tone is probably the most vital aspect to control lighting affects our moods it distorts space and time and it alters our perceptions of what we see the solution here is simple you've got to first think what you want to say before planning out how to say it now there's a lot of ways you can plan out the lighting like my student here he straight-up did some swashes he did some color strings tried the gamut mask he had a very specific type of mood and feeling he was going for you can see kind of develop over the course of a few sessions here until he kind of had it fully realized and that did take a lot of back and planning what you're about to kind of see kind of roll out now and it's one thing for a lot of us is that we do tend get caught up in the narrative and generally just default to the first lighting that comes to mind and for most people honestly that's usually an overhead 3/4 light or some variant on that the lights come in from the left or it's coming from the right it describes form rather well it can be interesting but it always doesn't best serve the story remember things that are easy to visualize may not best serve what your scene actually has to say and again it can therefore flatten it out it can make it less interesting but they do tend to be easier because they are familiar right just general lighting in general as we see it every day is easier because we see it most often but often often enough more creative placement of lighting can give a major boost to drama and when we have that drama will create appeal and we do have that appeal that's where we can start to connect right with the viewer a little bit more and that does take planning so like for example here he had a fairly typical dark drab mundane setting but when I start to really punch in the green I focus on making the silhouettes in the actual comp a little bit more and I drop in a light that doesn't exist like a general like overhead little spot light just hitting the corner of it I'm vignette on light on dark to really bring through the actual form and the subject now I'm adding a lot of balance overall with subtle hints of warms and cools and well there greens and yellows and a little bit of red but it really adds that punch to drama to it and of course each of these are telling their own sort of story and as you can see here this had a hint of nice morning light kind of coming through but we're just playing that up things are a little bit cooler things will feel a little bit more tranquil right it's telling a slightly different story whereas right here it's warm it's a little bit more comfortable overall we can play in some of that bounce light but it's a different angle it's different sets of neutrals so here of course we have the final results of that session you could see we did punch them up overall from the original ones some of them are a little more subtle some are a little bit more forceful the lighting in the first images really invites us to a warm cup of tea while in the second it's completely the opposite the green makes us feeling easy the mist hides what may lurk about now on the bottom of course the bottom left we're comfortable warm harvest season it reflects the passing of time and hard work while on the right that cool light shows a sense of optimism and sets us up for a long day ahead now planning whether that's in color ops sketches or comps is something to put a lot of value in colors do set the mood they tell us a story as much as the drawing does consider what emotions you are aiming for what they make you feel and how the angle of light the softness our harshness of it and of course how the color affects that mood as well [Music] with our art we are always visualizing how something looks how it feels how we use the principles of light can affect our statement how we connect to an audience if we stick too close to the physics of the real world and forgo the artistic side of making decisions our paintings will come off as static stiff and perhaps too derivative one way I commonly summarise this notion is that the work simply does not capture the essence of our subject maybe it is too literal maybe it's just directionless or perhaps static and lacks that personal touch that resonates in us we live in an art directed age photographers marketers cinematographers editors they all curate what we see and then it's artists weekend too we have the power to break the laws of physics to suit our needs where they are purely to make something more entertaining perhaps to express a specific emotion for myself I always try to simplify reality down down to the simple shapes lines or emotions it's beauty and emotion that drives good art and that's the exact feeling that I had when I looked at this student piece originally I just couldn't exactly connect to it yet personally it was just a little too static it was a little too stiff though the lighting wasn't doing enough to kind of capture my own imagination to transport my imagination here to become like part of this image to experience part of this image you know this paint overs are kind of quick and brief I think there's a benefit in that and then I can just quickly kind of put my stamp on it I can express a gesture of what could be a longer kind of formal painting and that I could you know go with my gut instinct on on something like this so I'm trying to of course break down simplify a lot of the shapes I'm trying to create a sense of movement with and I'm doing a little bit more of asymmetrical lighting the original version it was just it was bright it was sunny but it was very flat in the delivery on that it didn't have the dynamic range of a typical overcast image and it did not have the sharpness or interests that a direct lighting can do and that's what I'm doing here I'm bringing them a little bit more of a direct lighting and I'm trying to expand the story so when do we ultimately know when follow the laws of physics and light and when to break them to suit a composition I feel it's really about achieving balance and comes down to the look or feel you prefer I'm personally a fan of embracing realism more at the beginning of the image with the hope that it gives a piece more authenticity and allows the viewer to really feel the weight of a scene it took me years though to learn that I can let go and not be wholly tied to the reference that I can appreciate that sometimes you need to suspend disbelief in service of a story or goal being expressive with our lighting and shapes can open up new styles and different interpretations on the expected now a good artist can take something ugly or mundane like a messy desk or an unkempt backyard and yet capture the subject in an appealing way or conversely they can take something beautiful and downplay it making it feel ugly the light in which we cast on our subjects holds the outmost importance it's one of the most powerful tools for telling visual stories now with staging we're test to arrange all the elements in our paintings and our scenes from the characters to perhaps how they move to the type of lighting often what I do see is students will set up decent enough compositions characters but they'll undersell the whole idea by poorly placing the lighting so how do we effectively stage good lighting for our scenes for me it's always the type of lighting that tells the clearest story especially for complex scenes that often require setting up the lighting scenarios that make the shapes of a scene think of the silhouettes absolutely pop while simultaneously filtering out the needless details that otherwise dilute the whole message as you can see in this example without changing anything major structurally and by simply making a series of subtle shifts in the lighting I can take the viewer on a journey right into this setting and show them a bit of a spectacle here the artist was trying to depict this fantastical place with a really unique visual cues specific to this setting but they were entirely sabotaged because the they staged the lighting and very expected in very grounded places it's just very typical sort of street scene there's not any overly shapes that are jumping out and that's what I'm trying to fix here in this scenario so I'm masking out a hand full of detail in the background I'm making it so we can see the shapes of the houses see the shapes of the people and of course most importantly see the shape of that magic castle in the background usually the best solution in a picture like this and then many pictures is the simplest solution so I'm not trying to in a sense oversell any of these more typical elements that we'll see on any kind of street scene I'm trying to find what's the most important aspect here like in the original I just didn't get a sense that these coils and that these Warriors were coming down it's just with a good staging many elements should flow or highlight a singular focal point in the original that exactly is just was not happening this castle was barely recognizable and it was much harder to sell those coils that were flowing down powering the whole town I didn't even notice that at all so that's what I'm doing here as I'm making these two aspects a lot more obvious a a poorly stage will scene will just often confuse the audience or the viewer and so I'm adding a few more structural support elements to it that's really the only thing I'm actually changing here making sure that's there bright clear we're picking up various types of lighting on the edges and on the curves highlighting a few of the edges of that building with this overhead lighting that I dropped in right above that castle there's no reason for it should exist in moon lighting doesn't function that way but on a scene like this I'm taking that creative Liberty to service the idea the other major thing that I have to start addressing is also start to affect the ground without lighting as well and I can use the light and the direction of it to increase that movement on the bottom edge without going too far of course so I do I punch in a little bit more color in the background I feel like with a painting like this I can subtly start to enrich it with a little bit of color particularly if it's lit or worldly like this I think that'll definitely benefit and so that's where I'm just pushing that last 20% here in the final stages as I wrap this up a little bit more ambience a little bit more fill light coming in obscuring you know the left the least of these important elements here and of course just adding a little bit of texture in regards to the out lighting cascading across the floor you said to make a few shifts and yeah it gives us the sense that that lighting is hitting that floor just a bit better now now this is very safe so far in regards to I'm just muted the entire bottom the original is very warm warmly lit and I don't want to change the original artists idea so what I try to do with a lot of my students is like try to bridge that gap between what my idea is and theirs and see if we can find a good solution that's mutually beneficial here you know for the picture and the artists vision so I'm gonna slightly warm some of the stuff back up here to just kind of cue it to some of the original colour palettes and so lighting in the painting is extremely crucial and takes years if not decades to really comprehend and master its one aspect among many disciplines of art and design that can serve as a bridge between the broad technical skill you have and the emotional level that art resonates with us as we looked at today lighting can help cultivate the viewers imagination and establish a connection between them and our paintings it's just one aspect and why your paintings of course may not be getting the traction that you want hey everybody thank you for watching and of course this month I'd like to give out a shout out to my patron patricia takahashi it's vivid its colorful and it's quite engaging so check out her work at deviants net board slash Patricia Kelly those wonderful characters vivid worlds and wonderful stories here guys head over my patron of course if you want to help continue to support content like this it keeps me out of the freelance scene and more content creating for you guys take it easy guys thanks for watching please hit the subscribe if you want to see more you can check me out on Facebook art station and Instagram if you want more in-depth content for me I teach two courses at the cg master academy architecture design and fundamentals of design if you want even more learning you can go to brush sauce academy comm and sign up for one-on-one mentoring join the hundreds of students around the world and start improving your art in design today if you want to be part of a community where you have brush sauce on discord we have monthly challenges and hangouts there are links below for everything I mentioned thanks again for watching and take care

Channel: Tyler Edlin

Views: 31,179

Keywords: art, design, illustration, digital art, concept art, landscape art, tutorial, how to, art fundamentals, lighting, art school, art mentor, fantasy art, sci-fi art

Id: Ia2XLpMBvBE

Length: 17min 55sec (1075 seconds)

Published: Sat May 16 2020