Lesson on How to Paint Morning Light
- 1). Sketch out your subject, whether it is a still life, landscape or interior, with pencil onto your surface (canvas or other). Notice and lightly sketch in the longer shadows you see in the early morning. The shadows help define the time of day for a viewer.
- 2). Paint in a light sketch, using diluted colors. The thin colors come first. This allows you to build the image slowly. Select colors appropriate to the colors of your subject. Use translucent washes at first.
- 3). Build your painting up. Use beefier paint, thicker and more opaque. Warm your colors as you go. Mix in red-oranges, oranges and yellows. We understand light by what it does to the color of the objects we see. The warmer morning light moves color toward the warm end of the spectrum. An orange will be red-orange; greens will push a bit toward the yellow. Blue moves toward the red, making it purple or mauve.
- 4). Paint in your final layer, using the most opaque paints. This is the time to fill in the shadows. Add blue to the shadows for stark contrast against the warm colors of the scene. Add umber if you prefer less contrast in the shadow. Place a dab of your hottest color (a pure citron yellow or a bright orange) on the point of selected objects in the scene, in the place nearest the light source (the sun).
Source...