Shady Convo

I think just a small post for today about shadows. You may have noticed I have been paying more attention to shadows in my paintings. I must confess that when I began this series in May I avoided a composition that had shadows because it was overwhelming to think of dealing with them. Now as I am cozying into my little painting life, I am ready to begin to think about them.

And Harry is of course making me more aware of shadows. He says that all painters and painting-studiers throughout history have tried to figure out some rules for painting so you can "really make things look real." Don't get me started on how ridiculous I think that is, or this won't be a short post at all.

I will tell you the bottom line first: look at the shapes and colors of shadows. Compare the shapes and colors to the object that casts them. Compare them to the colors of the objects they are cast upon. You would think this would give you a pretty good idea of what color to paint the shadows, but nooooo, then you have to look at the lighting source. Is it outside on a foggy day, rainy day, sunny, even, hmmm cold vs hot? Then inside do you have incandescent or fluorescent lighting? You will really feel like giving up and going to take a nap when you find out you also have to consider reflected light from nearby objects.

Harry gave me some clues that serve as some of the few semi-rules I will probably ever leave concretely in my painting notebook. I have to keep in mind that these are CLUES to consider, NOT RULES to be strictly followed:

1. Objects in sunlight tend to have cooler colored shadows
2. Objects indoors tend to have warmer colored shadows unless there is fluorescent lighting, then they have cool shadows. [ahha, so Wayne Thiebaud's pies usually have cool shadows because they are in a fluorescent-lit dessert display case.]
   
3. The color of a shadow will depend on the color of the object it is falling on, but sometimes you can consider the color of the object casting the shadow to bring in more expressive meaning.
4. The shape of the shadow depends not only on the object casting it, but the object it falls on. You can help describe and express the fallen-on object by how you paint the shadow. So maybe you have to think about both the object and the fallen-on object when you paint that shadow.
   

Here I add my own musing. I like to think of the object casting the shadow as the truth, and the object on which the shadow is cast is like a person hearing the truth. The hearer will only somewhat absorb the truth and mold it to their own reality. This is human and cannot be helped.
As a person I can only live and be the truth that I am and no one can fully comprehend, interpret, or copy me, not even my own shadow. And whatever I am will always be interpreted and modified a bit, shaped, if you will, by whomever I am dealing with. I don't really see this as a bad thing, but as the art of life.

If your head is spinning, go buy a painting @ Etsy. It will make you feel better. Myself am going to take a nap in the warm shadows.