Dominic Melfi 12 Apr 2007

http://www.johnlovett.com/shadows.htm

http://painting.about.com/cs/paintingknowhow/a/shadows.htm

Hope this helps

DJM

Cathy Savels 12 Apr 2007

Hey, those were really helpful. Thanks Dominic.

Rita Ria 15 May 2007

Hi Cathy, I usually never use grey/black for shadows! Most time I just use the complementary color on top of the color. Also consider, when you have warm light (sunshine) the shadow appears cool and when you have cool light (moonlight, artifical light) the shadow appears warm.

That really makes the colors more vivid and not just dull.

Rita

Cathy Savels 16 May 2007

Thanks Rita, that's not something I had considered. Everytime I think I've finished the painting, I get more information and I go and work on it again! At this rate, it will never be finished!

Rita Ria 17 May 2007

Cathy, that is pretty normal. Even Leonardo DaVinci said in his age of 80, he is still a student! So, we artists will never stop learning...

Rita

Peter Beard 18 May 2007

Logically, shadow, shade is a darker form of the existing colour, some people use purple, some the complementary colour but generally if your painting outside or from a colour photo, see for yourself what colour the shadow is and the surrounding colour, this tends to make for a more realistic scene. Of course, photos can make darks too dark to interpret but keeping an observation when your out and about will let you get to know what colours appear like when put in shade. A simple scheme is to choose a coloured item you are familiar with and then place a shadow over it to see how the original colour is affected. It does pay to look for reflected light which can affect shadows. Hope this helps, Regards

Gill Knox 31 May 2007

Hi I have seen elsewhere the comment that you should never use the same colour for both shadow and sunlit areas, in other words don't take your sunlit area and add to it for shadow, mix/take another colour completely. so sunlit green, shadowed blue. sunlit yellow shadowed raw sienna. I too find greys and blacks too much and dead for MOST shadows, though I think you have to use some grey in the shadows with objects of yellow tones, then you don't get green! Here is a still life I did in Coloured pencil, the lemon has greys and siennas(and yes also green) for tonal changes

Katerina Koukiotis 31 May 2007

cathy getting a color wheel may help what i do is when i color skintone that is yellow/orange the opposite color of that on a color wheel is blue-violet and that is what i use for my shadows,it works so well and the shadows look so realistic :)

ken massey 18 Feb 2008

Shadows are not any different, as a painting problem to solve, than any object.

Simply put, whatever you are composing as a painting, it is a shape of color, nothing more, for a painter.

The color within a shadow is a result of diminished direct light, and the color of light bouncing or reflecting into it from surrounding objects and surfaces. It isn't simply a grey version of the local color of the object or surface where the shadow appears.

It comes down to whether or not you can detect a color difference between the shade area and the adjacent sunlit areas. If you can see a difference in hue( not just value contrast) then make the hue distinction between the adjacent areas. That gives you a starting place to develop the color differences between light and shade.

Color painting goes beyond value into chromatic differences, which means, differences in hues have differing chromatic values. For example, yellows when saturated are brighter than blues. So part of the shadow problem is understanding how to control the brightness of reflecting colors into the shade area.

Generally, the edges of shade are different as colors than the central area, and make a transition from the light plane to the shade plane less graphic or sharply defined. Again it is a change in the hue and brightness that makes the visual transition.

Ken

Shane Cutrufello 22 Mar 2008

I have little experience in this, and no art education. but I've found that if youre you're using acrylics this works quite well with practice. Not sure how this method works with oils or anything else.

I use a black colored pencil (a COLORED pencil, not a regular graphite one) and apply a tiny bit of shading where I want the shadows to be (a little goes a long way here). Then I cover the shaded bit with a VERY thin layer of white paint. The pencil shading should dissolve in the paint and the resulting shadow should be transparent. This makes a pretty good shadow for me. I've only discovered this recently, so I'm not sure how it works in every situation.

Minnie Shuler 22 Jul 2009

Andrew Loomis taught cool shadows outside and warm shadows inside. I have found this works well for me. I usually pick a prima donna color for my painting and mix a little of that color into every other color except it's direct compliment and use very little compliment. Some landscape artist will not use black but rather mix their darks from colors. I find that if you plan to have a print made using the 4 color process the print will look better and not looked washed out if your do use black. The print will only have yellow, magenta (fusha), cyan (turquoise) and black. Even the computer with its millions of colors must reduce itself to these four inks to be printed.

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