The Importance of Light in a Painting

As our current contest is focused on painting light, I thought i could add some more details on the subject. Here are a couple of examples from 19th century classic paintings by artists who were popular for their achievement in the said domain.

Lady writing a Letter with her Maid, Dutch Golden Age

Johannes Vermeer is known for his stunning work on the realism of light entering the room and touching the painting’s characters. His most popular painting may be Girl with a Pearl Earring, I felt as though this one was probably the best example because of it’s fierce contrast. The details are so fine and perfect you could feel as though the characters could come to life in an instant. **Places to stare at: the window’s border, the floor, the tablecloth.

Seascape in Moonlight & Fog Rising on the Mountain, German Romantism

Caspar David Firedrich was one crazy painter who always symbolised his scenic elements as Catholic signs, light being God himself.
And so his use of lighting has always a very “holy” feel to it. Notice how half of the mountain, representing human faith (usually the farthest in the horizon is paradise), is in the dark and the other is illuminated in divine light. Romantism was an artistic current aiming to overwhelm the viewer with emotions when looking at the painting, paintings from this period always achieve to leave us with a little something inside. Unfortunately I couln’t find any good resolution reproduction of those two paintings.

The Swing, French Impressionism

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a leading painter for the impressionist movement which focused on leaving an impression on the viewer after he/she left the painting. And so the brush strokes are not as acurate, and black is never used as a darkening colour for the shadows. This painting is a masterpiece regarding the effect of the light passing through the branches, creating a genuine athmosphere. This is candie’s favorite painting

Claude Monet is very famous for making series of paintings with the same subject at different time of day, studying the effect of sunlight on the environment. Here is a flash site with the whole series of the Rouen cathedral, great ressource.

Some tips by Mickyoko:
Select a main light source first then, when you’ve done that, then that is the only time you add the other ambience lighting like the backlight or reflection of a certain surface. In Photoshop make use of the layer and brush modes most likely the multiply, color dodge, overlay, screen, soft light… etc. I’ll leave the other exploring to you guys/gals. Hope this helps. Oh another hint… effective highlights are not white. So if it is not white then what should it be then? You find that out.