Not everyone can build a studio with north-facing windows and not everyone wants to. This subscriber's question is answered with tips to make what you already have work for you. www.diannemize.com
Excellent information about the easel position. Thanks so much! You are a great master! Your knowledge and experience are very much appreciated. Blessings and take care.
thanks so much for this information! You "connect the dots" so well on the effect of the wrong lighting on painting - I never realized that. The breadth of your knowledge is amazing.
Thanks for your lighting tips, I struggled with just that and came up with 2 led lights clamped to easel and 2 led lights in fixture above, will diffuse and also tilt my easel a bit forward I also added a cheap LED light strip above my desk so I can see paint when I mix palettes, that made a huge difference! Cost me under $10 on eBay. Also update my glasses cause at 65 my vision changes every few years! Love all your mini courses, haven't been to any classes or life drawing in a while re Covid, your lessons really helping me progress, I like your tips and logic! Thanks!
My trick that worked for me is that I hung black sheets on my walls where my easel will go...from there you can see hot spots, I adjusted my lights until it was even all over the sheets...it took a little bit to get right but was worth it...I also went to several art museums to study how they light paintings and you'll be surprised how dimly lit they actually are...I can take a nap in my studio that's how calmly lit it is...good luck
Your lighting tip was just what the doctor ordered. Are you really an Art Angel come down to earth to help struggling would-be-artists?Whatever the answer, you are an Angel! Thank you for your wonderful ❤️ & Quick Tips!!!
There is an amazing Q.T as am struggling with glare, not on my canvas, but on my palette! I just redid the lighting in my “studio”, which is the furnace room in the basement! ☹️ My light is 5000 K but I think I need to reduce the lumens. I did want to mention, though, that not all bulbs have Kelvin and lumen information on the box, especially the ones from the big box stores. Many still talk about watts, and emphasize how much money you’ll save on your electric bill because the wattage is so low. But this is not helpful at all to artists who need the other kinds of information. As always, thanks Dianne for your quick tip and all your teaching!
Hi Dianne, great video. One thing that you may want to mention is get lights bulbs that have a CRI (color rendering index) greater than 90 or higher in addition to the temperature to get an accurate color.
I do appreciate you bringing in the modern light bulbs... I am just struggling to understand CFLs and LEDs... Thank you for this informative lesson on lighting.
Very good advice, Diane. Another cost effective option to control bounced ambient light is to buy a photography reflector. Sizes range usually from 2 feet to much larger for those with big spaces. Once finished a days painting, dead simple to fold up for storage. They are generally circular or oval in shape. They do not attach to lights as they are meant to be rested on a chair or the ground. Professional studio lighting can be bought with more costly square diffusers attached. But, thats usually for photographers as they invest heavily in expensive lighting.
Bare with me on this, the story lead to my 😉 "ENLIGHTENMENT." My roommate and I moved into a 100 year old cottage. The living room had 2 ceiling lights and one of those had a ceiling fan. The one with the ceiling fan also had a light pull so you could have the fan on and the light off, but the main circuit had to be on at the wall and both ceiling lights were on one switch. You couldn't have both lights off and the ceiling fan on. Desperate, we put smart bulbs in both ceiling lights. The main switch would always be on, but we turn the lights on individually using an app on our phones or talking to ALEXA. (Yes, our light bulbs have names.) The neat thing about this is the bulbs are adjustable not only for brightness, like a dimmer switch, but also for color and temperature. So I put smart bulbs in my desk lamp and studio lights. I can turn them individually from 2% brightness to 100% brightness and I can turn them individually from a warm 2740 Kelvin to a white 9000 Kelvin or anywhere in between. Friggin' great to work with, because no matter how light comes in the window through the day, I can adjust the bulbs to adapt and the light im working with stays the same. I can also see how the painting looks under differ temperatures without moving the painting. And when I stop painting and want to read under a warmer light at a lower brightness easier on my eyes I just switch brightness and temperature. Smart bulbs-the way to go! 🤩
Dianne, this is a very informative video. I'm going to take this opportunity to consult with you about a problem I have and don't know how to solve. Here goes: I rarely get to paint during the day. Since my ground-floor studio faces the street (NE) I can't open up the shutters at night. Since there is no possibility of ventilation -- I'm doing less and less painting. I can't even clean my brushes when necessary during a painting session. You can imagine how frustrating this situation is.There is no other room I can use in this rented apartment for my painting. Actually, I don't what advice there could be in this unchangeable situation -- but, if anyone would come with an idea it would be you. Thanks for your attention, as always, Carol.
One solution might be to switch to water soluble oils. Actually, refined mineral spirits put out very little fumes. If you keep the door open and put a little circulation fan near the door to pull the air out of your painting area, you should be fine.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction That's a great idea about putting a fan near the open door. I don't want to switch to water soluble oils - after all the money I put out for Rembrandts's artists. And I really, really love oil paints. By the way - what is the material you use to clean the particles off the canvas after applying the fine sandpaper? I didn't hear the name properly. Anyway, thanks so much again. It's great to know we can always ount on you!
I have your book "Finding Freedom To Create" and I love it. It seems to re-enforce the concepts of the Series lessons that are on your website. Is it possible to go into examples for what you have called "Generators." The Results Generators are the most illusive for me, while the Worker Generators, are a bit easier to comprehend. I am having difficulty identifying many of these within a piece though. Thank you.
Thanks for plugging my book, G Peachy. I coined the term "generators" to replace the term "principles" because the word "principle" has been so widely interpreted as "rules'. From my viewpoint, it is these principles that are active in a successful painting, not governors of it. They actually generate success. The Results Generators are those that happen as a result of what the Worker Generators do. For example, Repeating is a Worker. Repeating of shapes has the ability to create Unity, a Results Generator. Another example is Isolating (a worker) which has the ability to create Balance (a Results). I hope this helps.
I am currently setting up a studio in one room with one window facing south. I have two questions: Considering that I would be painting during the day, how should I situate the easel? Window on my one side, on my back or behind the easel? Secondly, I am puzzled about which color should I paint the walls. I do like some color but concerned that it would affect the colors of the painting. What do you think?
Seniz, if your easel is in front of the window, the light will be more dispersed, but you'll need a way to block the light from penetrating through the canvas from the back. The better idea would be to place the easel in front of a wall either east or west of the south-facing window. As to the color of your walls, something light and neutral that would reflect a temperature of around 5000 K. If the temperature of the walls are tool cool, you will complensate by making your colors too warm, and the reverse will happen--light too warm, your colors will become too cool.
And for a second question. I have been terrified of starting lesson 2 in your first series, not knowing where or how to start, as the subjects provided seemed a bit complicated. I was so pleasantly surprised when I forced myself to start and by squinting as you have suggested and starting with the "in shadow", it eventually comes together. My question is with the practice photo of the darkest several daisy's photo, how do you decide what the focal point is and is there much of it that you would "blur" out as a background rather than having it "in focus" as you did in the lesson? There are leaves over flowers and flowers over leaves. I decided to push through the fear of it all. Thank you.
The artist decides. That's you. Use the photo as purely a reference, then decide where you want the emphasis. No photo is gospel, rather just a source from which we use images for creating a painting.
Thank you for this recommendation. Maybe you would consider doing a quick tip using these or a similar photo and show us what you, as a professional artist and teacher, would leave in verses take out.
Those days, LED lighting is the most popular light, and my room LED light, it can control light color and its brightness from day lighting to dark and sunshine lighting color to afternoon lighting color. Could you please describe under the those lighting functions ?
Mickey, I'm not sure what you're asking for, but regardless of whether we are using LED lighting or other kinds, it's the number of lumens and the temperature of the light that make a good lighting environment to paint under. If the temperature is too warm, your colors will result too cool, and if too cool, the colors will lean too warm. If the light is too bright, you'll tend to compensate for that by making your painting too dark, and vice versa. Generally, the most desirable temperature is around or slightly below 5000 Kelvin. The lumens depend upon the size of your workspace and the amount of light reflecting from your walls.
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
Hi Sajid. There is much to consider when it comes to lighting. You can try moving the light closer to your art work if it is mobile or using a gel (a colored film) in front of the light to change the color. Here is a website with some lighting information. www.waveformlighting.com/color-matching/top-4-things-to-consider-before-buying-6500k-daylight-led-bulbs Good luck!
