Cool Light/Warm Shadow = Brain Buster

 

3/10/25 Both exercises done with Prismacolors
in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook

Unattributed reference photo

The final assignment in Sarah Bixler’s class was to use reference photos with relatively cool light and warm shadows, which is the reverse of how I usually see and interpret light/shadow. For the first one (above), I used the same reference photo (unattributed) that Sarah had used in her demo.

Per her suggestion, I kept the lighted side fairly saturated while the shaded side was more of a mix of warm/cool and therefore less saturated. While Sarah explained her interpretation and logic as she demo’d, what she said made sense. But when I tried to do it myself, I got confused and befuddled! The light didn’t seem cool at all, nor did the shadow side seem particularly warm.

Feeling frustrated that I didn’t do it right, I tried again, this time with an Earthsworld reference photo (below). I deliberately chose one with a warm shadow side enhanced by a warm light under his chin reflected from his yellow shirt. To avoid the repeat of my confusion, I took a more mechanical approach that had worked for me previously: I determined that the warmest area was under his chin. Relative to that, everything else on his face was cooler. Though my approach feels mechanical, I think the second one’s result is much better. More important, I felt more solidly that I “get it,” even when the logical warm light/cool shadow is reversed.

3/11/25

Earthsworld reference photo

Whew! I took her class because of the brain blowouts I had gotten during her previous workshops . . . and this time, the blowouts continued, all the way to the end! One thing is for sure: I cannot unsee what I have learned to see about color temperature! Portraiture from photos is all fine and good for learning concepts, but we all know what I really want to do: Practice what I’ve learned out in the real world!