How To Create Light In Your Paintings: The Artist's Guide To Using Tone Effectively

by Tony Paul

A professional artist uses his own and others' work to teach painters how to master the all-important aspect of light-how the eye perceives it and how to duplicate its effects. Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of images in six of the most popular media, from oil paint to egg tempera, this essential course demonstrates how to capture the glare of sun on water, the play of shadow on the human form, the soft glow of twilight, and the translucency of flowers. There's a thorough, easy-to-follow explanation of the key concept of "tonal control," and hands-on instruction that comes complete with specialized diagrams (including color wheels, tonal scales, and color temperature charts), technical tips, and inspiring creative ideas.

Genres: Art

128 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 2005

Reviews

[Linda Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book if you are learning how to bring light into your artwork.

Here are some of the things that I learned from reading this:
The importance of a full range of tonal values and contrast.
That local color is the actual color of a surface without shadows or strong light as opposed to observed color which takes these into consideration.
Color temperature can set a mood, cause the foreground to appear closer (warmer colors), or backgrounds to recede into the distance (cooler colors).
Limiting the color palette is helpful. Mixing more than three colors of paint will muddy the color.
Diffused lighting is best for portraits of women. Portraits of men can benefit from the shadows of natural daylight or harsh lighting.
A landscape painting with distinct shadows will give the objects in the work more definition and make it more interesting.
Different kinds of light: Sunset, Lamplight, reflected light, evening light, interior light, contre-jour, dull daylight, Full sunlight, shimmering light (as on water).

[Dawn Herring]

I am loving this book. The explanation of tone with black and white and with color is very understandable. It's a fascinating read so far.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good examples. Deep thoughts about tone and color, and how when and where to use it/them. So much easier to say than do.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like this book was just an excuse to look at his paintings. Didn't learn anything.