Best Studio Light for Artist -What Makes a Great Studio Light for Painting 

Just found this, 5 years later, and so worth it. Thank you so much, I have looked everywhere for a simple concise clear explanation that I can work with, and your video was it. So much appreciate the time you gave to share this. Thank you!

I was looking for studio lights and you posted a video. 🙌 thank you.

I recently, (four months ago) bought these shop lights: Barrina LED Shop Light, 4FT 40W 5000LM 5000K, Daylight White, V Shape, Clear Cover, Hight Output, Linkable Shop Lights, T8 LED Tube Lights, LED Shop Lights for Garage 4 Foot with Plug (Pack of 10) They were really nice, and I feel I got my money's worth to be sure, but I did not place them correctly behind my work area, where you had recommended, until a few days ago, and it makes a HUGE difference. just two of these light equal 10,000 lumens, so of course I put three strips on the light box I attached to the ceiling, and wow, what a difference good placement makes when you are working! Thank you for sharing this info!

I never realized how important lighting was until I saw my teacher’s painting at a show in VT several years ago. It was gorgeous in the studio, but in the show you wouldn’t believe it was the same painting (not complimentary). I’ve never forgotten the importance of lighting. Thanks for this video!

Thanks so much for this, Mark. I just setup my lighting and what a difference! It's totally eliminated a lot of my frustration with shadows and glare on my canvas. Really appreciate it!

This has come at a great time for me as I am creating a new studio space and the lighting is the most important thing. I’ll be posting the build on RU-vid as well. Thanks again Mark.👍

Thanks! One of the most helpful things I have seen on lighting for painting.

You light up my life, you give me hope... to carry on

You and your video's are amazing Mark. Amazingly generous sharing of the best knowledge available.

I just want to thank you for sharing so much information via your videos. Quite a while ago I tried using burnt umber vice black and it has been a true game changer for me.

Always love your insight and advice... I have 8' ceiling so it is what I have to work with your info helps me set everything up. No white clothes to deal with (South TX, pretty much shorts and Flip Flops) as it happens my Next Door Neighbor sells all different kinds of lighting (mostly Industrial but all the data is available) Thanks again for the numbers...

Hey Mark, thanks for these videos. They have helped me immensely in setting up my studio. Hope you start posting again soon.

I have been searching, and searching for some authoritative answers to the question of how to light my studio. Your advice is very helpful and makes sense for the environment I’ll be painting in. Thank you!

Excellent information. Thank you Mark!

Always great advise and high quality vids!

Thank you so much for this video! I learned so much.

Great video Mark! I'm always revamping the lighting in my painting studio, and this video has given me some great ideas for a new iteration. Loved everything you had to say about evenness, control, and brightness, but one thing I'll add, with regard to LEDs, is the importance of CRI (color rendering index). Most common LED shop lights are rated around 85 on a scale from 0-100 (100 being truly daylight equivalent, not just in terms of temperature, but color accuracy). Lower CRI (90 and below) lights struggle with accurately representing violets, cyans and deep reds. That being said, high CRI LEDS are going be significantly more expensive, but if we're talking about ideal lighting, thought it was worth mentioning.

In an 8 foot ceiling, if you mount your lights near the ceiling, you get uneven light or to correct that, adding massive more light than needed. Once you add way too much light than needed in a small room, you get light bouncing off everything back to your eyes, unless you blacken all the walls to absorb the light such as a photography dark-room. You can set a 5000K light box on each side at approx. 6' at approx 30 degrees out from your canvas. Then you need a dark backdrop behind your easel that extends out almost the distance your lights are. Old dark blue bed sheets will do. I set my easel into a corner and hung black drapes on both sides behind it. Mounted the sides of the 5000K light boxes 4 feet out on each wall. I got my pallet stand up towards the bottom of my canvas and at a slight tilt to grab the same light. This solves a lot of color mixing problems. There are many other ways to achieve it but basically you are making a half of a dark room where you control the light. I went with the corner set up because I would be stumbling over light stands in my little 9.5' x 11.5 studio room. For now, I'm painting a maximum of 4 foot canvas in that room. Any larger canvas, it feels too claustrophobic. I have a large 3car freestanding garage just outside my kitchen door. I have to get rid of my collector car that I never drive. Then there is some cost of building the studio and heating. Except I can achieve 12 foot ceiling. I rarely paint in the hottest part of the summer because I'm traveling and competing in atlatl competitions.

Thanks Mark, this is very informative. I was looking for number of lumens, it's very well captured in the video.

The best artist out there!

So helpful! Thank you!

Dear Mark, Thank you for a very interesting video. I can't seem to paint in any light but daylight. The colors are different with artificial light; I find the natural light is always the right hue. But now seeing your video, if I do move to night painting, I'll follow your advice. Obviously in winter there's less light, so I paint less and having artificial lights would open up working longer. Thanks.

Great video. Looking forward to how to paint water! Bless you and your family Mark.

Shirt looking nice mark.

Well informative 👏🏼 👌🏾 👍

Thank you nice to know

Great advice m8, All in all i have come to the conclusion that a full spectrum grow light T5 (leds) for bext power to lumen results, is the best option, then while painting, your tomatos and squash can now grow in your multipurpose paint studio/grow house and ontop you can allmost paint them while they grow haha

Great stuff, thank you so much! How did you build that light with the 6 lamp bulbs? I'm also wondering if you do wiring yourself or hire and electrician? (Or is that not needed?) I'm very new to this.

spreading the lights long from right to left, help avoiding my own shadows on the canvas,, coating on board can be the white folio for whiteboards

Mark Dear light is important because sometimes when you're painting the color you want becomes too light or too Dark, only due to improper lighting!

Thanks

Thank you Mark for an informative video. Is it ok to use neon lights?

Thanks for this very interesting Vision about the Art light. I want add some very, very important CRI R12 (Blue) and R9 (Red) are crucial.... the only LED light that can do a good job with that colors are the Film Grade Cinema LED Light.

Thanks for the video, Mark. I don't mean to sound disrespectful, but is there any chance you use too much light? Your paintings, at least in your videos seem very dark to me--just being honest. Could that be the result to too much light? I know when I paint Plein Air, if I paint in open bright sunlight, often my paintings look too dark because the sunlight is bleaching out my mixing area and my canvas, and my ability to judge values. And when I paint in dark shade, I have the opposite problem. My paintings look too light because I was having trouble seeing my mixing area and accidentally mixing everything lighter just to be able to see it. Anyway, don't mean to sound negative. I honestly want to know. Again, thank you for your videos. So helpful to the art community.

Just got a new light and was considering where to put it. Now I know it needs to be basically over my head, tan(35)= X/31 or 21.7, basically exactly where I am siting from my work area. Come to think of it, I have seen so many studio lighting tutorials online that have the light above and behind the canvas. I was thinking that there is no way that doesn't create a strong gradient on the canvas.

So I used to be really into the aquarium hobby which got me thinking... I wonder if LED aquarium lights in the proper color temperature would be good to use as studio lighting? Most of the ones I've seen are fully customizable where you can alter the color temp and brightness. Any thoughts about this? I've thought about using an LED/ CFL combo. Plus I like how little energy LED lights use.

Thanks for this video. Would the same lighting type and angles work for painting on a flat table (or with very slight tilt)? I paint watercolours seated at my table. The room is about 8'x11' with 10' ceiling height.

5000 -6000 kelvin lightbulbs can often ve bought in bigger shops, selling indoor plants and shops selling studio light for photography

Thanks, Mark-do you ever bounce light off the ceiling by projecting it from below?

I just measured my ceiling to the center of my canvas and its about 5 feet if measuring 35 degrees. so it would be safe to say the actual light source will be around 4.75 feet away because of the fixture.. so about how many lumens would you suppose i need. been trying to get my painting area set up for days.

OK, Mark, I've a small studio that I actually live in and I like "warm white" tinted light bulbs, simply because if I look at myself in the mirror in true white daylight I look like shit. Now I also produce paintings by the dozen every month or so. Realism and abstract work. Now my own logic came out like this. I paint in warm white, and the finished painting is looked at by the customer in warm white. Now if I discard the lamps I already have and use "cold white" instead, I think I personally will be the only one with a problem, simply cos I look like shit in cold light Every single one of my customers has NEVER ever complained about any of the colours in any of my paintings and as I said, I do realistic work and abstract. Abstract is really a piece of cake to paint, simply because nobody knows what any colour should be, so how could they know if it's right or wrong ? They either like it or they don't like it. So, I'm sticking with what I've got already, and saving myself the job and cost of changing everything Very interesting video nevertheless. Just my two pence - Kind regards Chris in Thailand

Hi, I have a question. I am about to implement this exact setup. I will have two ~4000 Lumens LED panels, 4 foot by 1 foot each. I am now wondering about whether to set them up one behind the other (as per the video), or in one long 8 foot strip instead (as suggested as an alternative). My studio is 12 feet wide, so this would still leave plenty of room on either side. My thinking is that a longer strip may provide more light to fill in shadows cast by my hand and brush. Or would a four foot by 2 foot mass be better? Does anyone have any experience with the longer thinner (8ft by 1ft) setup? My ceiling is 8ft 6inches high. Thanks.

Thanks Mark, that was helpful. But where can I find 8000L/5000K shop lights? I have been all over Amazon for too long now.

Can you please talk about the lighting if you're not working on a easel? I mean when you're working standing, on a table top. PLEASE 🙏🏽

Great advice, thank you so much! Buuuuuuutttt please look into the dangers of LED lights that are now coming to light (pardon the pun ;p )

when painting from home or an apartment, how should you position your easel? My apartment has fairly big windows and my living room gets a lot of natural light…could I face my window and paint or would it be better for the canvas and oil to directly face the light?

How can I learn about ventilation? I wan to start oil painting, but I don't know the minimal ventilation needed. Most people just say, "well ventilated." Will an internal charcoal filter system work? I have a soldering system that I could mount above where I mix my paints. Or do you need external ventilation.

This is a question that is related to lighting - but indirectly, I suppose. When you work with a photo reference, have you ever worked from a digital source ( for example, an iPad) where the source is a transmitted light, not reflected light (like printed on paper)? Or would you always recommend working from a printed (reflective) source?

A good matt white paint might have better light reflection than aluminium tape. Thanks for the great tips though.

How do you avoid shadows cast against your hands...?

Doesn't the size of the room matter ? Surely you won't light a 10" X 12" or 8" X 11" room the same way and intensity as a 10 yard long by 7 yards.... interested in your opinion here.

How about painting with natural daylight? I mean, if there is really good natural light into the studio.

What did the masters use before they had electricity? Just by a window maybe? thats what I do....but id like to paint at night. did the old masters just not paint when it was dark?!

We replaced the fluorescents bulbs with a kit LED's and now we have blue and yellow stripes all over the studio. What have we done wrong? I am so frustrated.

8000 lumens with led measured from what distance from the light, if close to ceiling? There’s an app that, if you have an iPad or iPhone will measure lumens..but, again, at what distance from the light? Near the painting or the light?

In my case, I never paint by night, I always paint with natural light. I have a huge window in my Studio, it takes natural light from left side, and at winter time never hit my easel directly.

Hi .. I'm not finding 5000 kelvin light for my art studio in India , is there any alternative for that , i have 6500 k bulbs but that temperature is slightly cooler side how to fix this problem .plz help

Im surprised youre not mentioning CRI or RA

But what if you can't put it on the ceiling ?!

Well, there goes my circadian rhythm...

Thanks Mark. Question: is white light really best? People buy a painting, take it home, and it is usually viewed quite differently; it probably is seldom viewed in white light.

I have to paint outside.. the glare sucks

Film, Check For Thoroughness, Upload

Hi Mark, check out these lightbulbs that have auto-brightness and adjustable temperature: www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-smart-lightbulb-adjusts-to-you-180952761/ Alternative would be Philips Hue.

I don't think color temperature is that important. I can't tell the difference even if I switch from warm light to blue. The human eye is not that good at detecting colors. Lumen is extremely important but worrying about 3000 kelvin or 6500 is a waste of time.

It would have been more instructive to see the actual light fixtures, etc...

Come on carder get your finger out more videos.

God damn dude I don't have thousands of dollars. Stop making me feel poor

One needs huge windows in his/her studio like I have- 9 feet x 7 feet picture windows- this lets the NATURAL light in beautifully and give the artist TRUE saturation of his/her colors on the palette. Artificial light is just DUMB. ….That is why in all your paintings, one can see an over whelming sense of BLACK in each one, because the lighting is artificial. PERIOD! Monet, Degas and Cassatt didn't go running to purchase artificial light bulbs! :P !!!! Kimberly

Man you put the same color on your dress, on your seat and also on your slides. Please put some colors in your life.