Tuesday: [All links provided below images]
I’ve been wanting to create a piece which directly draws inspiration from the Luminist painters which I’ve been looking out. I was really inspired by the skies and large scale works. I feel that I could create something large scale because I’ve done it before however I couldn’t create the same green skies that some of the works feature. I didn’t want to just paint the sky green because that wouldn’t have an effect on the global lighting and the shades of the shadows. So I began looking online how oil painters create it traditionally.Â
I began to learn about how to distinguish a luminist from a tonalist from an impressionist and what the relations to each other were. It came down to the way they rendered lighting and sometimes the different tones.
“Luminists (mid 1800's)explored dramatic light with scenic vistas painted realistically and therefore descriptively.
American tonalists (1880 -1890) painted landscapes with soft mysterious edges and dominant tonal treatment in mid key neutrals, especially for atmospheric effects of fog, pearly mists, and sunrises and sunsets.
Impressionists (1880 - 1890) painted variable colors, depending on the minute of the day, and had no qualms about showing brush strokes--which the luminists and tonalists tried to keep unobtrusive-- and tried to paint their color theory instead of tending necessarily to realistic description of objective form.“
- AndyRichardson VIA wwww.wetcanvas.com  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-59083.html
I then wanted to look at how specifically the Luminist painters that I was interested in created their atmospheric lighting and why some of their paintings had green hues in the sky. I found that the reason the skies have a green hue in them is because of the old paints which were used. As the painter mixed the blue of the sky and the yellow of the sunset, it created a green hue which was unintentional. Paintings were often underpainted in umber first which gives the paintings warmth and the glowing light, it can also be achieved by glazing.
Because of this an artist had to consider light and color in separate stages. The painting was underpainted in umber (bistre) or greys (griselle) to get the value and play of light and shadow correct. Then the local color was applied over the value study and the highlights laid in last. Thereafter wonderful effects of luminosity that can be gotten this way, but the original intent was to study the values separately from the color ( you can imagine how this would be necessary if you were designing an imaginary scene
- sasha VIA wwww.wetcanvas.com http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-754.html
While reading it was almost mentioned that another way to simulate lighting was to darken the rest of the image, the painter can paint in different keys from high key, neutral key to low key. By darkening the rest of the image, when your eyes look at the brighter colours and compares it to the darker colours it recognises it as being brighter than it is, much like in colour theory.Â
Where you attempt to show your light, surround it with dark values.
Also use warm oranges and yellows to simulate light.
If you look at Kinkade's paintings he paints low key. In other words, with a tendency of darkening most of the areas and then he pops in highlights using warm colors in windows etc.
- Johannes Instructor VIA wwww.wetcanvas.com  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-754.html
I then wanted to learn what painting in these different keys meant.Â
In a low key painting the  values are usually darker than a mid-gray.  Light values are saved  to highlight the important elements in the painting.
Another painting technique which I learnt about was chiaroscuro, a painting technique used by Renaissance artists to paint the thee dimensional form using light and dark. The principle is that the form is best rendered with light falling against it while surrounded in darkness. This technique of painting can be considered low key as the subjects are often painted in darkness while using light to highlight features or aspects of the painting.
Caravaggio [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACaravaggio_-_The_Incredulity_of_Saint_Thomas.jpg
Georges de La Tour [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGeorges_de_La_Tour_-_The_Magdalen_with_the_Smoking_Flame_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Painting in a high key is the opposite of low key, in a high key painting, the values are lighter than mid-gray. Darkness is used to lead the eye around the important areas of the painting. High key paintings feel more spacious and light.
"Beating the Heat (in Paradise)", 12x16, Oil
Painted during the Carmel Art Festival by Timmon Sloane
http://timonsloane.com/blog/high-key-painting
6/17/10 "Zangle Cove #16", 8" x 10", Oil by Kathryn Townsend
http://kathryntownsend.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/
Middle key paintings are often forgotten as they are not at either extreme of the scale however they still exist.Â
http://www.sensationalcolor.com/understanding-color/theory/high-key-low-key-color#.WRXMtmjyuUk
Mid Tide and Mid Tide (revision) 18x24Â by Mike Rooney
http://mikerooneystudios.blogspot.co.uk/
Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath, with a Boy Sitting on a Bank circa 1825 by John Constable
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/alison-smith-the-sublime-in-crisis-landscape-painting-after-turner-r1109220
http://spencerhallam.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/low-key-vs-high-key-paintings.html
