Painting in low light

Morris Darby · 01-03-2002, 10:38 AM

I would like to know of a low lighting technique that will allow me to see my painting while the model resides in low light. If I have a brighter light at my easel, it dispels the light on my model. If I paint in the low light, the painting doesn't "work" when viewed in the light.

Thanks.

Karin Wells · 08-22-2002, 04:04 PM

This is an interesting question and I wish that someone would answer it...or maybe you have already resolved it.

Anyhow, in one of my rare still life paintings (when I did not use a camera), I went to the trouble to build a box to "trap the light." By doing this, the strong light surrounding my easel didn't affect the still life setup very much.

But to build a box big enough for a model????

Chris Saper · 08-22-2002, 05:33 PM

In the thread, http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...&threadid=212, Peggy Baumgaertner writes:

Quote:

You should paint your paintings in the environment in which they will be displayed. Since most people do not have the natural balanced lighting systems in their living rooms, your painting will only look worse than where it was painted. Even museums do not have natural balanced lighting systems. If I paint a portrait in my studio (ambient north light and a very few supplemental regular bulb flourescents ... sometimes very low ambient light, I basically paint in the dark), it will only look better if placed in a well lit room, and never needs to have artificial lights because I painted it to look good in the corner of a dark room without supplemental lighting.

We're chasing the wrong goal trying to paint in only optimum conditions. One of the biggest problems I see in present day studios is that they have TOO MUCH LIGHT!

Patt Legg · 08-23-2002, 08:50 PM

Chris, I would like to "second" some comments you quoted

Quote:

We're chasing the wrong goal trying to paint in only optimum conditions. One of the biggest problems I see in present day studios is that they have TOO MUCH LIGHT!

I built my first studio 3 years ago, thinking that I needed to light it all over. First, I put in track lighting as I also wanted to use this as a gallery to display my artwork and use it for painting and teaching. Then I called in a lighting person (of course his job was selling the natural light bulbs etc.) I went with several florescent fixtures with the true/natural light elongated bulbs in them instead of the florescent. I have 2 small windows, sort of facing southwest and 4 ceiling to floor 8 ft. tall slender windows on the opposite wall or northeast, sort of. Anyway, WOW AND DOUBLE WOW. Too, too much. I must add that I had read some about this, but was so thrilled to finally have a studio my own that I was afraid that I was not doing it correctly. The glare was constantly a problem. All I ever read was "north" light (but I could not turn my building in such a way) so I tried to compensate, fearing that I would not have enough lighting as I also taught evening classes.

Since then, I completed yet another renovation of an existing building and decided to use no overhead lighting. I have strategically placed 4 floor lights with capabilities of low lighting to high light + an eastern window. But, I have blinds to adjust accordingly. I found that I need emotionally soft, cozy atmosphere to paint comfortably and that now I have more control over my environment. I also use an extra light on my easel sometimes in the evening, to paint with only lighting on my still life set-up and most all other lighting off.

This is surely a personal thing as I have found that there are no sure set rules and one must find what works for them. I agree that the paintings sold to others usually have no special lighting for them.

By the way,

I now have unhooked the huge lighting fixtures in my "gallery" and use only the track lighting on my artwork as I have transferred all my painting supplies, easels, props, etc. into my new working studio, where I work and teach. The eallery is only to sit and discuss with my clients, etc.

Morris Darby · 08-26-2002, 10:46 AM

Thanks, Karin, for helping to address this issue.
I had almost forgotten I posted it, however, always trying to solve this problem.

Peggy,
I think you said it just right. The evironment in which the painting will reside is the environment in which you should paint it. I have remodeled my studio to include track lighting (with dimmers and color lenses)above the model, with a blind between my easel and the lights hanging from the ceiling. The covers on the lights keep the light from "spraying" over the room. I paint under a set of similar tracks on a dimmer switch. Works OK for now.

Pat,
Redoing almost the entire studio....what fun, huh?

Michael Fournier · 10-07-2002, 12:35 PM

See this post http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...&threadid=1425
That is a example of a professional studio and proper lighting.

There is no reason to fight bad lighting, either on our canvas or your subject. Since it is my understanding that this is a Forum for the professional portrait artist, or those who want to be, I will make no apologies for the sake of the hobbyist painters who may read this.

If you are going to be a professional portrait painter you should have a professional studio space to work in. If you were going to start your own business doing auto service you would not try and work in a small garage with no lift and with only a small set of tools. No, you would either build or buy or lease a garage space to suit your business needs and equip it with all the necessary tools.

Now we all start in our homes as a work space and as I see it most homes just are not planned with the artist's needs in mind.

Rooms in homes I see as two types.

In one type, the room is plenty large enough but the room is designed to flood the room with light with windows on all sides. This is too much light from too many directions.

The second is the small room with a single small windows or maybe two windows, but neither one making it possible to have both good light on your subject and on your canvas.

I have tried to work in both of these and neither one is ideal or what I would consider a suitable for a professional artist.

Another problem, at least in my northern area, is homes are built with the most windows on the south and east side to get the most passive solar heat and light during the winter months. Now, this is wonderful to make pleasant rooms to live in with a lot of glowing light. But these are horrible rooms to paint in as the direction, intensity and color of this light is constantly changing through out the day.

Now what should you do if you have no room large enough with good north light? Well as I do, you make do. You find the room in the house that is the least bad and make it do, until you can either modify an existing room or build or rent new space.

It may be that the large room with too much light has north facing windows on one side; block off all the other windows (at least when you are working) and you are in business.

Or, if you have room large enough on the north side of our home but the window is too small to allow both light on your subject and your canvas, a trip to your local home center and order a larger window. Cut a hole in your wall and put it in. It is a lot of work but not beyond the skill of a even the basic handy man. You can find the knowledge of framing and carpentry needed at you local library or the book section of your home improvement center. Now this may sound extreme but is it? Are you serious about this career as an artist or not?

And don