Theater gel for dramatic lighting

[Vianna Szabo]

I treated myself to the purchase of theater gel over the holidays and this is my first attempt at working with it. Theater gel is a sheet of colored transparent material that you place between the light source and the subject. It casts very dramatic colors and causes the shadows to become equally rich and exciting. I enjoy it because it gives me a chance to experiment with unusually saturated colors rather than extremes of value.

I used orange gel for this sketch. I also have violet which I think will go well with darker skin tones and red which is reallydramatic.

[Chris Saper]

Vianna,

I love the way this painting has turned out! How exciting and fun! I plan to go some gel and play, thanks for the inspiration

I remember using red filters for my black and white photography way back when, and the values were thrilling.

Please most more colors!

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Is theatre gel a filter? I am not familiar with it - would you please explain what it is.

[Vianna Szabo]

Thanks Chris, it was a lot of fun and I am hoping to really utilize it in the near future. Enzie, I am not certain what the material is but I have included a photo of the studio set up. It comes in a large sheet that I keep rolled up in a tube to protect it. To use I duct tape a dowel to a tripod and then hang the gel from the dowel using artists tape. You can see that I placed the light behind the gel and the model's chair in front. The major problem is setting it up so that the model is lit but I am not staring into the light source.

I did this skecth as practice because I have a great model coming to the art center who will be dressed as a voyager. I thought it would be a fun challenge for the students to paint him in costume using the gel.

I would love to see how others use this.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Vianna, I have a sheet of blue gel which I use when I need to paint after dark.
I have set it in a similar way to yours- I taped it onto a wire hanger folded into a square- as a cheaper solution instead of special daylight bulbs. It's in front of a 500w halogen that would otherwise make a very yellow light.
Ilaria

[Vianna Szabo]

Ilaria, I never thought of using it for correcting light temperature. That would have saved me from some bad night painting experiences I had before I got my wonderful lunichrome lights.

I am going to try making some different hangers. The duct tape and dowel contraption is OK, but too hard to set up for different classes.