Color of Light

• The strongest area of light on an object will be in the place closest to the light source. Use warm colors like yellow, gold, light pink and yellow-orange to create the effects of sunlight. Although you can't see sunlight radiating from the sun, objects in sunlight will often appear to have a yellow or golden cast. Mix yellow and gold into the base color used to paint objects in sunlight, in order to give these objects a warmer tone. In artificial light settings, use cooler colors like powder blue, light gray and white. Mix these cooler colors into the base color of paint used to paint the objects in the path of this light. Study the works of the Impressionists for ideas and examples of the effective use of color to create the effect of light in a painting. In particular, the works of Claude Monet are an excellent example of the types and variety of colors that can be used to create a sense of light.
  
  

Use of Contrast

• The sense of light in your painting will be stronger if you have a wide range of values from very dark to very light, all contained within the same painting. The stronger the light in your painting, the more intense the shadows. Place emphasis on the areas of light by strengthening the areas of shadow. To strengthen the shadow, build up layers of dark paint. For complex shadows, use dark blues, greens and browns. The color of the shadow itself will depend on the object that is in the shadow--for example, flesh tones turn to brown in shadows, while blue jeans will be a darker shade of blue. If possible, avoid using black for your shadows, because black can muddy your painting. Another way to emphasize the lightest areas of the painting is to include a lot of mid-tones (areas where the painting seems neither light nor dark). This will draw attention to the points of the painting that are meant to be the lightest.
  
  

Oil, Acrylic and Watercolor Techniques

• Watercolor is a transparent medium, which means that each layer of paint builds upon itself. If using water colors, the lightest areas will be left virtually untouched, or only very lightly painted. Acrylic paint and oil paint are opaque mediums, so that a new layer of paint will cover up the previous layer of paint. If painting with acrylic or oil paint, paint the areas of light over the areas of shadow.
  
  

Painting Directionally Appropriate Shadows

• Demonstrate the direction of the light by painting shadows at an angle that corresponds to the source of the light. For example, if the source of the light is a flashlight, the shadows cast by the light point away from the source of the light. For a painting with multiple light sources, there may be shadows pointing in multiple directions, and objects that cast shadows may cast more than one shadow. Whenever possible, set up real-life scenarios involving light sources and objects that cast shadows in order to paint the most realistic light and shadow relationships.