Drawing lessons - illustrated lesson notes for teachers and students

Painting glow and light

6-10 PAINTING GLOW AND LIGHT

Glow is essentially a factor of value rather than color. How is this achieved? Paint a black canvas and let it dry.

On your finger place a little white and with small circular smudging motion apply it somewhere to the canvas. It

should now look like a milky smudge. Next take a pinpoint of paint on the end of your finger and touch it once

in the middle of the smudge. The result is the essence of glow, total value differential as well as the milky area

being a transmission area that will discomfort the eye sufficiently to avoid looking to the point of the light. That

is the why we don't want to look directly at the sun. It is discomforting. For great glow or luminosity you must

set out to discomfort the eye, that is the secret. To do that the transition (the halo) is the key.

Fig 1.Here are a series of milky smudges

Fig 2. When we combine them we create our glow. Note how

I have deliberately offset to white center in an effort to further

disturb the eye.

Fig 3. Now I add a little color (any will do) some dark shapes

between the spectator and the light and a halo. The halo and

spike here are artificial - like the ones made by a camera lens

reflection - it is not the same type of halo in the example

below.

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