An Art Blog

someone asked me how to paint leaves being backlit by the sun so here’s a pretty simple process for that.

while i’m painting this i’m looking at a reference, of course, and thinking about the physical properties of light and how they interact with things, specifically leaves:

leaves are translucent; some light passes through and some is bounced off. it’s technically really complicated but basically, when light bounces off of them into your eye, they look… idk, normal? maybe a little glossy. but when light passes directly through them and into your eye, they’re super bright and saturated. here’s what it looks like with a guitar pick.

pretty dull. almost white.

woa. 

i don’t play guitar

anyway, i started with the leaves furthest away. they’re getting hit directly by the sun, and let’s say they’re slightly above us, so light is shining through and they’re bright as hell. then as i add more and more layers of leaves on top, working toward myself, they’re getting hit with less and less light. the leaves in front of them are blocking it all so they get darker. then you have the leaves closest to us which are actually a little lighter than the layer underneath. they’re being hit with some ambient light (the light that’s reflected off of other things in the environment). not enough to be really bright and colorful, so they’re pretty grey, too.

as for the shapes, the whole time i’m really just playing around and seeing if what i come up with looks okay. there’s a balancing act going on regarding how much of the lighter leaves in the back are showing and how/where i place the darker leaves in front to make it look as interesting as possible. it’s a lot of trial and error but you get a sense for it the more you do it. that should also be considered with the entire picture in mind, as opposed to what i have here in this little grey void.