This tutorial was originally written for Corel Painter's Official Magazine: Corel Painter Official Magazine, issue #3. I was freelanced to create, write and paint the picture you see. To view the article in its original format, pick up a copy of issue #3 from their website. I have been kindly given permission from the editor to share this tutorial via my website with my own formatting. This is how I wrote the article (they changed many things for publication) and I added some extras too. Note that in their publication, it sites that this sort of work takes 2-3 hours to do. This is inaccurate. A painting like this would easily take me 20-30 hours to do. This is not my best work as it was done under an extreme time crunch, but perhaps it will be insightful.
This tutorial is provided in good faith and may not be reproduced in any way via any means. It is for individual instruction and help. I am not a representitive or connected with Corel Painter in any way.
Painting a full color scene with a sunrise, sunset, or even a spotlight can be tricky! What colors to use, what to highlight, what to shade, where to begin? If you are just beginning to tackle difficult lighting, hopefully this tutorial will get you started in the right direction! Or, if you have tried and are unhappy with the results, you may learn some new tricks.
Strong directional lighting can be intimidating, for sure. It can also be a lot of fun! Low lighting can be very dramatic and visually appealing. It can be the difference between a visually boring painting and one that catches your viewer’s eye and pulls them in. There are countless applications for applying low and/or directional lighting to a piece.
Make no mistake, a single tutorial can’t replace practice and good artistic basics, but I’ll go over some of the key elements that make lighting work in a painting. Learn why saturation and color are so important to pulling off vibrant, beautiful lighting, and why using white can make a painting lifeless and dull.
Even though in this tutorial I’ll be demonstrating using a sunrise/landscape painting, the basic ideas expressed here can be applied to any painting with low or strong directional lighting. If you like to paint sky-scapes and scenery (or want to learn), bonus!
This tutorial is a little image intensive and not for the faint of internet connections. If you want to continue, follow the link..