Oil Painting - How I Paint Shadows 

Thank you Susan.

Thanks.

Thank you Deborah! I think it's starting to come alive. It's interesting how light the shadows can be and still have the sunlit sides pop.

Thanks so much. I'm slowly getting there :)

Thank you!!

Your welcome, Jude.

Hi Jeff - I hear and understand your concerns. BUT....if you want to learn to paint, you NEED to practice on surfaces that you will paint on. I paint a lot on MDF panels that I buy at Home Depot. I have a table saw and cut them to whatever size. VERY cheap to do. I then coat them with 2 - 3 layers of gesso...sanded between coats. For canvas, you can by it by the yard from some art shops or online. Tape a piece to some cardboard and practice experiencing the texture of the surface. To be really frugal, you can technically scrap the paint off both surfaces if you fail at a painting and re-use the panel or canvas. Just let it dry well if you do it. In reality failure is only knowledge in disguise. Pay attention when you fail at a painting and try to not repeat the same mistake. Hope all this helps. Feel free to ask more questions...I'll try to help.

Do you mean paints and brushes? If so , there are many places to search online.

Thanks for the input. Sometimes I make the reference pic more available. In this case, I've changed a few things and explored more color than the photo ref., so I wasn't as focused on it.

Hi Gary - Sorry I'm late getting back to you. I don't have a hard and fast rule. Sometimes the scene calls for more of a natural color approach....which is a lot of de-saturated color. Sometimes when we notice the strong light effect on something it is because of the saturation of color of that element, but it's surrounded by grayed down color. So... It seems in contemporary painting there is too much use of an overly colorful approach...color catches attention, etc. The shadow colors....especially.....seem to always be cool, bluish....purplish,etc. It gets tiring. I favor warmer shadows in general and an overall more subdued color palette. Sometimes I play around with over saturation....like some parts in this, but not often.Hope all of this helps.