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Casting some light on the subject
Light is the most basic element of visual perception. Without light, we
see nothing — no shape, no color, no space, no movement. Creating
the illusion of light is one of the primary tasks of any artist,
regardless of period, style, or subject. Artists add light to their
work to give substance to shape and depth to space, to organize shapes
within a space, to direct our perception of shape and color, and to
embody their images with psychological and emotional power. A skilled
artist plays optical tricks on us with light, making us perceive an
image as bright and optimistic or dark and gloomy. This play of light
and dark can be found in both gray scale (achromatic) and color
(chromatic) artworks.
Bright ideas
Our perception of the brightness of an object depends on two factors:
the amount of light reflected from the surface of the object back to
our eyes, and the contrast between the object and the background. To
see how contrast affects perception, look at the two fields below and
notice which seems brighter to you.
The disks in the center of each field are identical in color and
texture. They reflect the same amount of light to our eye. The one on
the right, however, appears brighter, because it is placed on a darker
field. The greater contrast between the circle and ground on the right
makes it seem brighter, and draws our attention. Contrasts emphasize
certain parts of an image and draw our attention to them. Now look at
the two artworks below to see how this theory works in artistic
practice.
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| Beverly Bergman |
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John Drooyan |
Out of the shadows
In the image on the left, Beverly Bergman focuses our attention directly
on her subject by surrounding the woman's glowing skin with dark
fields: her black top and the deeply shadowed walls seem to blend
together, especially under the model's right arm. The deliberate
ambiguity of these shadows draws our attention to the comparative
detail of the model's skin and clothes. In chromatic works like
this one, contrasts also affect how we interpret color; for example,
even the woman's dark blue jeans seem relatively light against the
dark ground.
A study in contrasts
In his photograph shown above right, John Drooyan makes clever use of
contrasts. The row of sticks and the ground immediately around them are
strongly lit. Since the ground and the sticks are almost equally bright
in the lower portion of the picture, it may be difficult for us to
distinguish one from the other. Shape and depth become indistinct in
this ambiguous lower area. But all becomes clear in the upper part of
the image, where we see the sticks emerge in sharp contrast to the dark
mountain in the distance, far away from the light.
There's life in the shadows
The skillful use of light and shadow can describe shape, texture,
volume, and space as well as the emotional tenor of a work of art. In
the examples below, notice how the play of lights and darks creates
drama and intrigue. Click on any image to learn more about that
specific artwork.
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| Mona Kuhn |
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Gwen Hardie |
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Hoang Vu |
Next: Texture
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