Nov, 16: Color and Light-Atmospheric Effects Chapters 10-11

Sky Blue:

The Sky is not a flat, even blue. There are two overlapping systems of color gradations in  a daytime sky.

Solar Glare: governed by the proximity to the sun.

Horizon Glare: The angle above the horizon.

Near the sun clouds have darker centers and light edges. (Left)

(right) Lightest at the tops or centers.

Darker at the sides and the bases

Smaller clouds are not as white because there is not as much vapor to reflect light. 

- Sky color gradates in value, hue, and chroma. These two systems interact with each other causing every patch of sky to gradate in two different directions at once. 

- As we move from the zenith to the horizon, the sky generally tends to get lighter, because we’re looking through more atmosphere. 

- As we approach the sun, the color gets lighter and warmer because a great volume of white light is scattered at shallow angles by large particles in the atmosphere. 

- The point of the darkest, deepest blue, which I call the “well of the sky,” is at the zenith only at sunset and sunrise. To be precise, the well of the sky is actually 95 degrees away from the setting sun across the top of the sky. At other times in the day, the well of the sky is about 65 degrees away from the sun.

Shift the Blue from top to bottom as well as side to side. 

Atmospheric Perspective:

The way the appearance of objects changes as they are viewed at a distance through layers of illuminated air.

- Illuminated sides of objects generally lose their color saturation and become grayer as they go back in space. 

-Warm colors in particular grow duller and cooler. 

-White objects become warmer. 

- Atmospheric perspective only occurs if the patch of air that you are looking through is illuminated. 

- This effect is enhanced by the presence of dust, moisture, haze or smog.

Reverse Atmospheric perspective:

The opposite of the above effect. Warm colors recede and cool colors advance.

This happens when moist vapors or dust clouds hover in the air near the sun, especially at sunrise or sunset. 

Golden Hour Lighting:

At dawn and dusk.When colors become bold and dramatic.

This is caused when the sunlight has to travel through more atmopshere thus allowing more blue light to be scattered.

The light is intersecting the earth at a tangent to its surface.

Sunsets:

These provide an infinite variety of colors because the sun is passing through so many layers of dust, air, and clouds. 

- There will be more red and yellow clouds of there is more moisture and dust in the air. 

- With multiple layers of clouds the top will be whiter and the lower will have more red and yellow.

- premix the colors before they arrive. 

- The earth bellow a sunset is dark but not black like a photograph. 

Fog, Mist, Smoke, Dust:

The sun can't penetrate a deep fog layer, so the light reaching the ground seems to come from all directions. 

This painting show how the mist of the waterfall disperse the light that comes form the upper left. There are bright lights on the roof of the building, but as the light falls into the mist the crisp edges fade and blur. 

Rainbows:

It is good to keep both mythology and meteorology in mind as you paint them.

Formed when sunlight ifs reflected off the inside of water droplets in the air. 

- Rainbows do not occupy a geographical space but rather an angel that is in relation to the viewer. 

- Primary rainbows form about 180 degrees away from the sun along the horizon.

-All shadows lean toward the anti-solar point and the middle of a rainbow. 

- Colors of the rainbow should always be lighter than the background, because the rainbow is added to the light of the scene.

   - You can achieve this by painting a semitransparent soft edge white arc first, letting it dry, and then glazing over it with the color. 

Skyholes and Foliage:

 You cannot paint all 200,000 leaves on every tree.

Question!!!!!

Should you paint the sky first and then render the tree and leaves over it, or  paint the tree and then add the skyholes later?

Should you paint a skyhole with the same exact color note as the sky behind it. 

If you look closely, most sky-holes are filled with small branches and leaf bunches.  Therefore the color of the sky should be adjusted to show that there is more in them than just sky. 

There is a variety in the transparency of a tree:

- Early spring leaves are thinner and only partially veil the sky.

-Leaves with more chlorophyll are thicker and darken the as they become more numerous. 

Sunbeams and Shadow-beams:

They occur in rare conditions.

1. A high screen of clouds, foliage, or architecture is punctured by a few openings. 

2. Air is filled with dust, vapor, smoke, or smog.

3. the viewer is toward the sun.

- The farther away from the aperture the beam is the more the edges are softened. 

- You wont see a beam from a far cloud make a small spot on someone's lawn.

-The shadows beyond the beam are influenced.

-Looking at this picture you can see that the colors behind the beams are painted with two different hues even thought they are part of the same object.

Shadow-beams occur when a jet contrail lines up with the line of sight. 

Both should be used sparingly because they tend to attract the attention of the viewer a lot. 

Dappled Light:

Dappled light is a projection of the sun through the upper leaves of a tree. IT covers the ground in a hodgepodge of circular or elliptical spots. 

They are circular because they are mimicking the sun. 

Cloud Shadows:

Cloud Shadows are a tool you can use to control the viewer's attention. 

This is because the eye is attracted to spot lit areas. Like sunbeams. 

Three Rules:

1. The space between light and shadow must have a soft edge. aka. Half a city block.

2. The size and spacing of shadows must match the clouds visible in the sky.

3. Shadow area is darker and bluer then sunlit areas but doesn't have as much blue cast as cast shadows on a clear day.

3 ways to do it:

- Cool gray wash/glaze across the whole region.

- Make separate colors for shadow and light regions. 

- Paint the whole scene as if in shadow and then add the light areas. 

Illuminated Foreground:

Tradition:

Paint the foreground in shadow.

Option:

load the immediate foreground with detail and paint in in light, 

- This invites the viewer to step into the painting. 

Snow and Ice:

Snow is denser than clouds or foam, therefore it is whiter, and it picks up the colors of everything around it. 

-The edges of smaller cast shadows on snow will be softer and lighter.

- the Whiteness of the snow makes a stream running through it look almost black by comparison. AKA it makes it darker. 

-As snow ages and compacts it becomes darker. 

-pay attention to subsurface scattering. 

Water: Reflection and Transparency:

When light rays angle down toward the surface of still water, some rays bounce off the surface (reflection) and some travel down into it (refraction). If the water is shallow and clear then we are able to see the bottom thanks to refracted light. 

the way that trees reflect on water depends on two things:

1. the amount of silt/sediment

2. The amount of light shining into the water. 

Any amount of wind breaks up the reflection.

- horizontal lines get broken up

-vertical lines are usually preserved. 

(Water reflections always emphasis verticals more than horizontals.)

Edges with hard edges break up n a loose painterly way.   

Mountain Streams:

Mountain streams act differently from lowland streams and lakes, but they are clearer. They move with a velocity and turbulence of the rocks. This forms rapids, ripples, eddies, and haystacks. 

-Stones shift to a warmer color of the local color above the water. 

-Deeper than three feet=bluer tones and indistinct features.

- Shallows have a warmer color. 

Make the foam ride the surface of the water by painting it last. 

Color Underwater:

WAter is selective in the colors that are allowed to pass through it. 

-Red is mostly gone at 10 feet. 

-Orange and yellow disappear at 20feet.

A bright red object 50 feet away in shallow water is just as dull as the same object up close 50 feet underwater.

AS seen in this painting, you can use a flash to add color to the foreground features. However, the color quickly disappears.

SERIAL PAINTING:

The creation of multiple plein-air studies of the same subject in different light. 

-The paintings that you mix usually have more to do with the lighting nd weather conditions than the actual local color. 

Tips:

1. Choose a motif that has a piece of sky, some distant reaches of space or mountains, and ideally a house or other white object with planes facing in different directions, because white is the best register of colored light.
2. You can paint the images either on a set of separate panels, or tape off a larger board into equal size increments. But as you work on each study, don’t look at the previous ones.
3. Keep the drawing consistent each time, so that the only variable is the light and color. Spend the first day working out the drawing for all the panels, or do one careful line drawing, photocopy it, and glue identical copies down on each separate panel.
4. Paint the subject in different times of day, and if you can, different seasons of the year.

AT THE END OF DAY:

1. COlor and light are not seperate topics, but rather closely related.

2. Viewers see the subject, but feel the color and light.

3. Choose a lighting plan and stick to it. 

4. Know your wheel

5. Know your gaumet.

6. Vision is an active process

7. There is not a single brand of realism

8. Compare, compare, compare

9. The outer eye fuels the inner eye.

10. We are fortunate to be living today.