An awareness of light and its subtle qualities is necessary for artists that wish to make dramatic paintings. Light is the difficult characteristic that separates the delightful from the mundane. It is the different nuances of light that help determine the mood and character of your subject.

There is hardly anything in a painting that matters as much as the light that illuminates it. It is the energy that makes things happen, and it affects every portion of the painting process by making things visible and colorful. If an artist thinks of it like a separate tool to work with, they can use it to intensify the subject matter.

Light is all around us. It is everywhere. However, finding the best light for a subject to paint is challenging. Most of the time, an artist hasn’t the luxury of waiting for the moment when everything comes together at once and works out perfectly. So, understanding the subtleties of light on a subject becomes very important when altering reality to achieve an aesthetic effect.

Because of the transparency of watercolor, it is especially suited to portray luminous surfaces and suggestions of atmosphere and other complex subtleties of light. The technical range of watercolor is exciting, to say the least. With the blending of pigments layered transparently over white paper, an artist can create the most delicate of images. The technical range of the medium is exhilarating.

There is nothing easy about watercolors; however, the challenge they bring can become addictive. This is especially true when portraying light. With it an artist can create dark and powerful moody images, as well as floating pale washes.

There are no strict guidelines for an artist to use when portraying light. One must experiment around until they find their own boundaries and rules. When they feel they have finally discovered the secret of painting light, they realize they have just begun.

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