Skiers at Villars, watercolour, 12” x 16”

Find out how to paint back-lit subjects with top advice from Winston Oh.

During an idle moment recently, I flipped through photographs of paintings completed this year, reflecting on which ingredients contributed most to the successful paintings. These seemed to possess richer colour tones, stronger tonal contrast, crisper centres of focus, and lots of light. Then the penny dropped. It was the shadows!

The advantages of painting contre-jour

A contre-jour composition of subjects in sunlight offers many advantages… stronger tonal contrast, greater colour variation – and useful shadows.

Problems encountered when painting objects lit from the front:

• When the subject or object being painted is lit from the front (from behind the painter) the harsher white sunlight will reflect off most light-coloured surfaces and wipe out subtle tonal differences.
• Darker coloured objects absorb more light, but they too tend to be lightened and brightened. Combined with minimal or absence of shadows, they tend to lack depth and appear flat, owing to the lack of tonal contrast.
• Background or middle distance objects will also catch the light, and unless toned down significantly will compete tonally with the foreground subject.

Advantages of painting objects lit from behind:

• With the light source behind (and to some extent above) the subject, the surfaces being viewed by the painter will be lit by reflected light. Their colour will be more subtle, and sometimes mixed with the colours of nearby surfaces contributing the reflected light.
• The potential for colour variation is far more exciting than the uniform, sometimes bleached colour of surfaces directly lit by sunlight.
• Background buildings, trees or other structures will also be in shadow. Because of their naturally darker tones, and unless there are bright surfaces near them to provide reflected light, they can be even darker than foreground subjects. Try squinting at a middle distance wood against the sun, and you will appreciate how dark the lower half can be.
• Backlit subjects are not uniformly dark, though, as the tops or upper edges, especially where they are rounded as with trees and figures, will catch direct sunlight. Translucent objects such as flowers, thin foliage and fabric will let light through. When such backlit subjects, rich toned and edged with a halo of light, are placed in front of backlit, even darker background, they cannot help but stand out crisply and clearly.

The importance of painting shadows

The subjects, mainly figures in my illustrations, that are backlit will cast shadows towards the viewer.

These are wonderful things to have and use in your compositions. They have colour, they lead the eye in, and they can have interesting shapes.

The shadows of background buildings and trees provide additional contrast for foreground subjects, and so often provide an integrating link between the different elements in a painting.

Using shadows to lead the eye in

Since the sun is the light source, shadows cast by figures radiate from it, as if it were the vanishing point.

In Skiers at Villars, above, these shadows obviously and naturally serve as ‘perspective’ lines, leading the viewer into the middle of the picture. Fortunately, they are more interesting than straight lines because of the variations in shape and colour.

Do not forget that shadows are also essential for anchoring the figures to the ground. In the snow scene the skiers would appear to be floating in air without them.

Another example can be seen in The Red Blazer, Bruges, below, where the shadows of the cyclists serve as a considerably more attractive alternative to a linear road marking for leading the eye into the centre.

Simplifying shadow shapes

Do not be put off by the prospect of having to draw the exact shapes of shadows. Indeed, it is better not to be too accurate or detailed, lest the shadow competes for attention with the subject being portrayed.

The eye does not usually settle for long on shadows, and will accept them as long as inconsistencies do not exist – for instance, if the angle is incorrect, or the shape too distorted. In some instances I invent my shadows.

The length of a figure’s shadow is determined by the angle of the light source.

An example - If you draw a line between the tip of the shadow and the cyclist’s head in The Red Blazer, Bruges and extend it upwards, and do the same for the two pairs of pedestrians, they should all meet at the sun.

Making the most of background shadows

Shadows cast by background buildings, mountains or trees provide dark toned backdrops to throw forward and highlight foreground subjects.

By being cast towards the viewer, these shadows also link the background structures with the foreground subjects, thus integrating the picture satisfactorily. Take a look at the shadows in The Red Blazer, Bruges which link horizontally the buildings on each side of the passage, and the low walls by the bridge.

What colour are shadows?

Wendy’s Tea Break, Dedham Hall, watercolour 13” x 19”

'The bougainvillea in the terracotta urn jumped at me visually when I sat down for a cup of tea with the busy lady who runs this delightful centre for residential art courses. The large magnolia bush and its shadow were lined up exactly right, from where I sat. The urn received some reflected light from the white umbrella, which made it glow. Note how the shadow on the table from the umbrella deflects the eye back into the centre'.

Shadows are the same colour as the lit surface, but several tones darker, depending on the strength of the light source. But they may pick up and be modified by reflected light and colour from adjacent structures.

In Wendy’s Tea Break, Dedham Hall (above), the shadow of the large magnolia bush has the green brown of the dry summer grass (burnt sienna and Winsor blue).

The flagstones in the shade of the archway in Oxford Archway (below) are a mixture of raw sienna, light red and cobalt blue.

On the left-hand wall, where there is more reflected light, raw sienna is the dominant colour. Some of this is reflected onto the ground beneath and the pedestal opposite.

By the right-hand corner at the foot of the archway, there is a cooler blue tone. The shadows in the ceiling are lit by reflected light from the road outside.

Oxford Archway, watercolour, 16” x 12”

This is an example of the use of sunlight, shadows and reflected light. The shadows of the wrought-iron gate and the figures cast on the left-hand wall create a secondary focus of interest, whilst the interior to the archway glows with a variety of tones from reflected light. All the masonry was painted with various mixtures of three colours: light red, raw sienna and cobalt blue. The only exception was some burnt sienna in the arch above the gate.

Painting shadows on roads

The Red Blazer, Bruges, watercolour 12” x 16”

The cyclists caught my eye as they emerged from the shadows in the alley. Their bright jackets and bicycles sparkled in the sun. Their shadow leads the eye in without the need for a central road marking. Note how the shadow of the buildings links the two sides of the passageway and unifies the composition. The v-shaped shaft of sunlight breaks the long shadow of the buildings and also leads the eye in.

I tend to leave road surfaces and light walls unpainted. Admittedly this is an exaggeration, but it helps to convey the brightness of sunlight reflected off light surfaces. That is how it appears when I squint at the backlit view.

Shadows cast on road surfaces are usually a dull grey. They can be enlivened by random highlighting with patches of the component colours. In The Red Blazer, Bruges, above, I used French ultramarine and light red.

Painting shadows on walls

The White Parasol, Loche, watercolour 16” x 12”

This view from the edge of the hilltop chateau (once graced by Joan of Arc) has many interesting features: the unusual angles of the low wall, the houses and their roofs; the patched contour of the road; the reflected light on most of the walls and, of course, the shadows.

The White Parasol, Loche (above) is a good example of reflected light on walls that are in shadow. Tinges of colour are contributed by reflection off opposite walls, buildings and the road. There is a golden glow in the walled garden on the left, provided by the reflection off the sunlit wall opposite.

In this same painting, the shadow in the alley seems awfully dark. I thought about this, and justified it for the following reasons:

• The alley floor was receiving no reflected light
• The low wall opposite the buildings was in shadow
• The far end was obscured by another building
• As the roofs are dark, the darker alley keeps the eye in the middle of the picture

Translucent colours

The Walled Garden, West Dean College, watercolour 13” x 19”

Because the unusual thatched folly was in shadow, it served as an interesting backdrop for the figures, who remain the centre of focus. Conversely, if the folly had been lit from the front, it would have become the centre of focus, or at least competed with the figures, and the consequences would have been less than satisfactory. Likewise, the background trees and the wall are darkened by shadow, so the translucent flowers glow magnificently in front of them.

Translucent objects retain their colour. The flowers in The Walled Garden, West Dean College (above) sparkle against the dark background.

The bougainvillea in the terracotta pot in Wendy’s Tea Break, Dedham Hall (above) is distinctly highlighted by the dark magnolia bush. Note how the umbrella and its shadow help to frame the picture.

Painting shadows on snow

Shadows on snow are bluish, as in Skiers at Villars (below) picked up mostly from the sky colour. In this instance I brightened it with a touch of Indian red.

Skiers at Villars, watercolour, 12” x 16”

An example of shadows leading the eye in, and focusing on the lady in the yellow ski outfit. The swathe of mountains in blue-grey shadow holds the upper half of the picture together. This effect would be lost if the mountains were bathed in sunshine. Shadows on the snow get their blue from the sky, as does the man’s white ski-suit.

Conclusion

I hope that I have made a sufficiently convincing case for backlit composition, especially when painting figures in sunlight. Its virtues are stronger tonal contrast, greater colour variation, crisper subjects, an opportunity to capitalise on the useful shadows cast, and lots of light!

This article was originally published in the September 1999 issue of The Artist

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