How to Light Your Studio for Oil Painting
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- In this tutorial realist painter Alex Tzavaras shows you how to light your studio for oil painting.
For Alex's course on the fundamentals of oil painting visit:
/ simplifydrawingandpain...
When oil painting, we are not actually painting the object placed in front of us. What we are really painting is light. This makes art studio lighting our most important art material.
The best art studio lighting for painting is natural daylight. In the Northern hemisphere this would be from a North facing window. However, we do not all have the luxury of a painting studio with natural light. Also some of us may choose to work outside of daylight hours. If that is case, there are lots of different kinds of art studio lighting setups available using Daylight lamps. But not all daylight lamps are created equal. In this video Alex shows you what he believes to be the best kind of daylight lamps to use, Bi-Colour LED Video light. Using these lights, Alex show you how you can acheive a painting studio lighting set up at home that is comparable with natural daylight.
0:00 Intro
0:57 Natural Daylight
2:57 Bi-Colour LED Video Lights
4:33 Pixapro VNIX1000B
4:46 Neewer 660
5:42 Light Temperature
6:34 Colour Rendering Index
8:35 Adjusting Brightness
9:09 Diffusers and Soft Boxes
9:45 Lighting your Canvas and Palette
10:40 Fluorescent Strip Lights
11:28 Easel Lamps
12:12 Dealing with Glare
The Daylight lamps Alex recommends using, are the following Bi-Colour Dimmable LED Video lights:
www.essentialphoto.co.uk/prod...
neewer.com/collections/bi-col...
Alex Tzavaras is a contemporary realist artist offering portrait painting and alla prima oil painting tutorials. Alex teaches the traditional painting techniques artists used to draw and paint from life up until the start of the 20th century.
Or connect with Alex:
/ alex_tzavaras
/ simplifydrawingandpain...
/ alextzavaras
alextzavaras.com
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this is the best and interesting video about light in general on the internet. Thanks, your work and explainations are very well done, and I don't paint neither!
Thank you very much Giuseppe! Glad you liked it.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting Hi Alex, If I buy the vnix dual ligh and the Manfrotto is all I need to use the light and the tripod?No need of adapters?
I have seen hundreds of videos in the subject of oil painting but your channel Alex is a goldmine. Your explanations are always clear and to the point. Thank you a lot !
Thank you very much Romain!
Always your video knowlegble , this channel is vary vary important for every student and beginer. I recommend this channel No1.
You need english classes before painting
@@europeanroyalty4778 I am asian person brother . If I did mistake then forgive me.
Thank you very much!
@@europeanroyalty4778 and you need classes of "how not to be a moron with a kind person"... "European Royalty" MEH...
Once I painted a still life with candles and it looked pretty cool, the flames of the candles looked almost glowing. Then I placed the painting in the kitchen and in daylight it looked lifeless. Evening come I switched on the warm white kitchen lights and the painting came back alive. So next day obviously replaced the bulb in the room I paint for a cooler one. So yeah colour temperature is really important.
Thanks for the great content again!
Thank you Gergely! Yes Indeed, we often learn this the hard way. If you've ever been landscape painting with warm sunlight shining directly onto their canvas the same thing happens.
Your channel is absolutely one of the most informative and best online sources of information for the beginner oil painter that I have found and I have been watching videos online for over ten years. Thank you for giving young people a solid start who desire to learn to paint portraits and still life work in the classical realist method. I wish I had found you ten years ago. 😔
Thank you very much Marlene. That is exactly the reason I started this channel, because none of this information was available to me back when I was younger and I wish it had been. When I first went to Art school back in the 90's, drawing and painting from life wasn't taught in mainstream Art schools (it still isn't). We didn't have the internet, so unless you were lucky enough to come across an artist who worked from life some other way, it felt like the human race had just lost the knowledge. I ended up leaving Art school and I didn't draw or paint for almost a decade until I started to find out about artists who worked from life from their websites (this was still before social media).
Great timing, I've literally just started looking into better lighting doing your course 😁
you are always kind to me alex thats why you are my favorite painter
Finally, I asked this of you a long time ago, very helpfully, thanks
Thank you, Alex. Very helpful and easy to follow
Thanks Sandra, glad it was helpful.
Your videos are so well done and thought through. Many thanks!
You're welcome. Glad you find them helpful.
Absolutely invaluable information, just when I was looking for studio lights. Thank you!
Thank you Hristiyan! Glad it was helpful.
Thank you so much for taking the time to create this video. Very helpful!
Thank you Kalila! Glad you liked it.
Thanks a lot for taking the time making the video. Is really interesting/important and it helps as always! My best regards Alex!
Thank you Ariel! Glad it was helpful.
Great Video! This is the clearest explanation I've seen what the benefits of a high CRI are to a painter. I knew it was regarding accuracy of a colour temp but didn't know the details regarding the spectrum. Thanks!
Thanks Alex. But do you get my point that while daylight bulbs may supposedly be high CRI i.e 90/95% and above, they still don't have the even spectrum of natural daylight? IMO the best way forward is to use a bi-colour and introduce that little bit of yellow to bring out the warmer colours a little. You can see at 3:53 with both light sources side by side, how you can get pretty close.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting Yes I did. It explained why with my current setup, I still have issues seeing certain colours accurately. To solve this issue, Id gone down the path of adding more light which didnt solve the issue. Im setting up an additional light to test out your advice today. Loving your Patreon BTW! :-)
Super helpful❤🙌🏽Thank you
thank you, easy to follow, simple, thorough :)
Thank you Alex! So so good.
Thank you very much Mel! Glad you liked it.
Very informative and helpful Alex. Thank you for posting.
Thank you Adi! Glad it was helpful.
hello alex like this light is important i also like that painting of you that you have in the background what a masterpice
Thank you very much Kaj. You can see a better version of that painting over on my instagram, if you like?
instagram.com/alex_tzavaras/
Great video alex. Full of very helpfull information. Best
Thank you Sean!
Excellent as always
Thank you Nicholas!
Thanks, very useful info.
Very clear... extremely interesting video....thank you🙏
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
Just found your TH-cam channel, you are clear, direct, informative and much appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you very much Warren! I hope you find my videos useful.
Wow that is the most informative thorough video on this subject I've seen. Well done.
Thank you, glad it was helpful.
Brilliant, thank you for this.
Thanks Mandy! Glad you liked it.
Thank you Alex for your videos that I appreciate, and this one about the light of the studio seems very important to me to work more efficiently and less eye fatigue, very valuable information
Thank you
Thank you Carlos. Glad you found this helpful.
Thanks for the video, I've got lots to adjust in the studio 👍
Thank you Johnny! Glad it was helpful.
no, not less interesting! Very important information.
Thank you.
Thank u for sharing
OK Very good explanation, very interesting the topic you have presented, greetings
Thank you Demetrio! Glad you liked it.
Thanks SO MUCH!!! I've been wondering about this issue. I've just started painting after many years away from it. I know my studio is very poorly lite, and now I have some ideas of how to solve this problem. Well done!
Thank you Roy! Glad this was helpful.
Make a video about mass drowing technic . Another one
I'm on a budget and I use cheap construction led panel. I also made my own diffusor out of tracing paper. Overall cost under about 50 euro. I control intensity by moving light closer or further. I'm happy with my results.
Well done!
Un saluto da Sicilia
Hey Alex great Video as always! I actually have to work from photos most of the time and have very poor daylight in my room. now when setting up my workspace is it better to stay only with lamps and keep the natural light out when i am working or can i leave the windows open to combine daylight and lamplight
Thank you Max, glad this was helpful. When you work from photos do you print them or do you work from a screen? When I work from photos I prefer working from a screen, so that I don't need to worry about lighting the subject. You don't really need this lamps just to see your work. A normal cheap daylight lamp from the hardware store or fluorescent will work fine. As long as you can see your work clearly and you're not using normal warmer indoor lighting.
My neewer came with the panel diffuser and box. Which do you think is better? Use them both? I’m in a very small studio space and can’t put the lights more than a few feet back.
I don't know. I can only compare the panel on the Neewer with the soft box on the Pixapro and they are both fairly similar. If anything, maybe the soft box on the pixapro is slightly a better, but there isn't much in it. Which works better on the Neewer? Does it diffuse the light even more if you use soft box and panel together?
Thanks, Alex, for addressing such a critical topic that is not often enough explained. You are a gifted teacher, my man!!! I am currently using 4000K bulbs and am pretty happy with that temperature, but I am wondering if you have any tips on assessing the intensity of the light on my canvas and pallette. In the past I haven't had a dedicated studio, so I have had various setups with varying light sources. Through the years, the first time I thought I was done with a painting, I would take it outside on a clear day in the shade of a north-facing wall so I have no southern light and only indirect northern light. During the painting process if my source lighting on my canvas has been too "dim," when I view it in northern light, then my painting can look shockingly garish with way bolder colors than I intended to use. Vise versa if my source light has been too strong and the final painting is in a much more muted key than I actually painted it. The lighting intensity on my palette and canvas always looked right to me when I was painting (sometimes during the day with indirect sunlight and sometimes at night with artificial light). As you know, a lot of time and energy goes into choosing the colors and values to key a painting just precisely where you want it. We have recently moved and I have space for a studio. Any thoughts on how to figure the intensity of my pallette and cavas lighting? Is it just going to be trial by fire until I find out what works?
In my experience, as long as your lamp isn't too close to your canvas or your using a warm indoor light, the colours in your painting will remain fairly consistent between natural daylight and daylight lamps. Normal fluorescent lighting strips on the ceiling work fine for lighting your canvas, I do not think they will be too bright. However, the issue with strip lighting on the ceiling is that you may need to block out ambient light when lighting your subject? It will be ok if you're working from photos, but you may need a shadow box if you're working from life , or a dimmable easel lamp can be quite useful.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting Thanks for your thoughts. I hadn't been considering an easel light. Great idea!
I appreciate your thoroughness in covering this subject. I’m primarily a plein air painter, and when I’m outdoors painting, I always turn my canvas so that it’s in the shade because if it’s lit by the sun, I will overcompensate and make everything too dark. I’m trying to learn how to paint indoors, but it’s a real struggle. If I shine a light on my painting, won’t it have the same effect as allowing the sun to illuminate it?
While you need plenty of light on your work, if you place a light source like a lamp to close to your canvas it will be like painting in direct sunlight amd you'll make your colours too dark
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting thank you!
Would it be best to have south facing windows/skylights in the southern hemisphere? I don't get the difference between facing north vs south and vice versa
Yes Indeed! Apologies for forgetting to mention antipodean artists. Which ever hemisphere you want the windows in your studio facing in the opposite direction from the sun. That way the light will be more consistent.
@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting thank you for explaining! Appreciate that and your videos! I still don't get why north light is different than south light in the northern hemisphere and vise versa in the southern hemisphere. Is it a different type of light?
Алекс,спасибо за такие замечательные уроки. Очень прошу Вас подключите пожалуйста,титры!!! Так хочется у Вас подробно учиться рисовать. Спасибо.
Thank you. To watch my videos with subtitles you can use TH-cams auto translate feature. Here is a video on how to set it up:
th-cam.com/video/LZz03myFuWA/w-d-xo.html
I followed the instructions and was able to watch my video with Russian subtitles.
would it be a good idea to invest in a pixapro lamp to light my canvas when painting? I have a LED lamp that changes warmth but I can still see a difference in colours when it's a sunny day :(
No, I only use my pixapro to light my subject. I find a normal daylight light bulb that you can get from the hardware store is fine for lighting my canvas. Though be careful not to place the lamp too close to it, or else it will be too bright and you will mix your colours darker than they need to be in order to compensate.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting thank you so much!
Off topic question here ,have you always been a painter ,or did you get started later in life. I think you were going to talk about it in your video with Susan, I'm just curious if you had a different career before fine art. Thanks for your videos Alex, I find them very informative.
I only started painting seriously in my late twenties. I was into art as a kid and it was my favourite subject at school. I was into comics as a teenager, so I wanted to be an illustrator. When I left school I went to Art College, but this was in the 90's and there was no training in representational art available anywhere here in the UK. There still isn't in main stream art school. Because hardly anyone used the internet back then, I didn't know that there were artists who were still drawing or painting from life. It was like the human race has forgotten how to draw. So after completing my foundation year, I couldn't decide what degree I wanted to do and I left and got a job. First of all I worked in the print industry and then I got a job in event production, hiring out audio equipment for festivals etc. During that period, I did very little drawing or painting. But in the early 2000's, as more artists began building their websites, I eventually found a professional portrait painter who was offering classes. I started attending their classes one evening a week in 2004, while still working full time. I soon realised that if I really wanted to improve, I would need to spend much more time practicing. So in 2006 I started working part time and began attending my teachers school 3 days a week. I trained there until 2009 and then continued teaching there until 2014. Back when I started, it was the only place of its kind in the UK offering traditional training in drawing and painting from life. But these days, more and more of these "atelier" schools have been opening up. Also with social media, it's become a lot easier to find other artists who work from life and teach, like me.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting so fascinating. thanks for sharing your story.
Thanks for the reply, I drew alot as a teenager , i even took some college courses from art instruction school, it was courses through mail, before internet was a thing. I was also into comic books and animation, and wanted to become a animator, but everything started becoming digital which meant I needed to learn the tech side of things. Well needless to say I didn't want to get into college debt. So I became a truck driver, I'm now 41 and truck driving is getting old , I work full time. It's difficult to squeeze time to paint, nor do I have any experience, I am drawing almost everyday for at least a hour. Anyways thanks for your videos I find them very motivating. 👍
In the theater, the illuminators illuminate the actors in 3 directions. It creates volume and not just one side of light and shadow. Interesting to play with it. One from the top diagonally one at the back and one at the front and side. The back is weaker than the front two.
Interesting. They light them from behind too? If one had enough lights it would be cool to pay about with that. Do you know where I might more info on theatre lighting? I know one or two lighting engineers but I think they mainly do stage lighting for music?
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting I learned this from a lighting designer who worked at the Royal Shakespeare Campaign in London.
I suggest you look for a description of traditional theaters.
Lighting to music is very exaggerated and escapes from reality.
And the essence of this theater is to give you an atmosphere of different realities. Maybe cinema lighting designers knew how to do that too.
Basically lighting creates an atmosphere,The answer is in your decision.
Unfortunately painting tends to focus only on one-sided lighting. But she always creates drama. Like Rembrandt and Krugio.
What happens if you want to draw a happy painting?
The questions about light should come from here, what kind of atmosphere I create for those who will experience my painting.
If you decide that, the rest will be very simple. The answers will already be according to this.
@@adayapilo4286 I agree with you about Rembrandt and other old master portraits, But there are also plenty of examples of portraits with softer less dramatic lighting from more recent times. I'm think of Impressionist and later artists. To remove strong shadows Artists will usually facing their subjects directly into the light source, usually a large window, or they place them in a light room with lots of ambient light bouncing around, rather than using multiple lamps.
th-cam.com/video/pBt8qdO03-k/w-d-xo.html - very good 3 point light
Unfortunately I don't have much space for painting & lighting. I usually paint at night. I find "daylight" lamps too cool. I try go for neutral light & a mixture of warm & cool.
The Bi colour LED lamps I talk about in this video are great for that and there are some quite affordable options available these days. Also as well as daylight bulbs, there are also "cool light" bulbs which are around 4000K?
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting yes I have an LED light at around 4000K which I find better than 5000K
I have no any studios or any expensive equipment . I painting in normal room light . Because my room vary small.
Are there any windows in your room? Also, are lightbulbs like the ones shown at 6:20 available where you are? They're are better than nothing and they're really cheap here in the UK? There are also LED daylight work lights (see link below), because LED's don't get hot you can place a white cloth over them to use as a diffuser?
www.amazon.co.uk/Linke-Floodlights-Waterproof-Courtyard-Warehouse/dp/B09JSLN5B5/ref=sr_1_12?crid=1BDUEFTGUSXEU&keywords=Arlec%2B100w%2Bled%2Bworklight&qid=1647854359&smid=A2FRTJQL80ZZPE&sprefix=arlec%2B100w%2Bled%2Bworklight%2Caps%2C50&sr=8-12&th=1
This is so helpful. I'm 50 miles across the water and I pay 20 euro for those same bulbs. Fucking rip off.
Do normal lightbulbs cost that much were you are? LED lightbulbs have only been available in DIY stores in the last few years and the daylight bulbs are the same price as normal bulbs. It used to be that you could only get fluorescent daylight bulbs from specialist photography shops or some larger art shops and they were around £30 each.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting The one's I buy are daylight bulbs from a shop that deals in lights and lamps, not sure when I last bought one of the old bulbs but I can't imagine they would have been 20 euro. I'm living in Ireland, they say we have one of the richest economies, possibly true but it's an expensive country.
@@europeanroyalty4778 They may be better quality with a higher CRI than the ones I bought from Homebase? But Generally thanks to LED technology a lot of lighting has become cheaper. Before LED video lights became available like the ones I'm using in this video, photographic daylight lamps used to be huge things with 5 or more fluorescent bulbs with big umbrella diffusers that were a complete faff to set up. They're really easy to loose bits and get broken (I used to cart them around to my art classes and commissions etc.) The LED video lights are really easy to set up and they pack away into small briefcases.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting It's possible they have a higher CRI, I have to be honest, I don't go into the science of it, I just look for a daylight bulb. I'm still learning the fundamental's of painting so I try not to fill my head with the science aspect's of it just yet. Very appreciative of the feedback and also your video's. Im curios if you've done any podcast's with anyone. I enjoyed your one with Tom Hughe's a couple of years ago, I'm curious if you were on the other side of the mike?
@@europeanroyalty4778 No, I'm yet to be interviewed by anyone.
Blink for crying out loud!
first
𝐩𝓻Ỗ𝓂Ø𝓈Ｍ 👇
Great video! Verry helpful . Thankyou. Really very helpful.
Thanks Michael! Glad it was helpful.