There is a luster to light that we call shimmer, that quality of light that carries a scintillating glow.  It can be found on moving water, on sunlit snow, on clothing, even on animals' fur or the human skin. How does an artist translate that radiance with paint?

     

Let's start here:  Can you describe the similarities and differences within  these two scales of colors?

19th C. Swedish painter, Anders Zorn, is famous for his ability to create a shimmering light.  If you look closely at his two paintings below, you will find within the shimmers of light colors shown in the samples above.

 

       

 

 

Answer to question:  Both strips contain the same hue and same value, but gradate from intense to neutral in saturation (also called chroma). 

 

Here are the same scales respectively in a lower value range.  These are the colors Zorn used and mixed with white to create the background and dress in the portrait above.

 

  

Tip:  The key to creating shimming light is alternating and slightly mixing neutrals with more saturated hues of the same value.

 

It doesn't matter whether the shimmers are in sunlit, low light or shadowed areas.  The key is the alternating and slight mixing while keeping the values similar. 

 

I used this principle In my pastel painting, Dancing Light.  Here's a small section from a shadowed section of the water in that piece, followed by a breakdown of the colors I used in an area where I wanted light to shimmer.

 

I used colors in the upper scale to create the shimmer.  Those in the lower scale are shimmer highlights.

 

Dancing Light    Pastels   2012

 

Happy painting,

Dianne

P.S.  Tip:  If you're working with tube paint, it's a good idea to mix three or four degrees of neutrals of the same value range before beginning.  For pastels, you can choose these from the larger sets, but they can easily be mixed from the with a gray of the same value as your chosen color.  

P.P.S. Why not take a stab at today's tip and share on the Facebook forum?