86 Light and Art-Mid

Light and Art FOCUS Question How do artists use light to create works of art?

Color and Light Imagine you are outside on a sunny day painting a scene on a white canvas. Sunlight contains all the wavelengths of color in the visible light spectrum. When sunlight hits your blank canvas, the canvas reflects all the wavelengths to your eyes, and you see white. Each color of paint reflects and absorbs only certain wavelengths of sunlight. Blue paint reflects blue light but absorbs all the other wavelengths of light, so you see blue. Red paint reflects red light. Black paint reflects none of the wavelengths— it absorbs them all. Now imagine the Sun setting. There is less light, and your canvas appears gray and shadowy. Without any light, you would not be able to see the colors, the canvas, or anything at all.

Depth and Shadow Artists understand the relationship between light and color, and for centuries have used that knowledge to create incredibly realistic paintings. They add black or white paint to other colors of paint to give the illusion of depth. Using a slightly darker shade next to a brighter one makes it seem as if there's a shadow. Brightening a color by adding white makes it stand out and seem closer to the viewer. The seventeenth-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer was famous for his skill at using light and shadow. So, too, was Rembrandt, another Dutch artist from that time. Both created extraordinary works of art that showed scenes just as they would appear in real life.

Artistic Trickery Some artists create illusions simply by placing certain colors next to each other. Take a look at the picture of the butterflies. One butterfly looks orange, while the other looks yellow. Yet they are actually the same color! Our perception of how the butterflies look is affected by the colors in the background. The interactions between those colors trick our brain into seeing colors differently than they actually are. Color placement and the shape of objects in an image can also create a sense of motion. This happens because our brain perceives light colors faster than dark colors.

Shadow Art Purposefully blocking light to create shadows is another way to make unique art. Three-dimensional objects have a characteristic known as opacity, which is an object's tendency to obstruct light. Material that has no opacity is transparent— light shines right through. Clear glass and plastic are transparent. Some materials let some, but not all, light shine through. These materials are translucent. Window curtains and pond water are translucent. Artists use this characteristic to create stained-glass windows. Think About It The skylight at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Spain, is one of the most famous stained- glass windows in the world. Is the skylight transparent, translucent, or opaque?

Many solid three-dimensional objects block all light. They are opaque. A wooden desk, a book, and a boulder are all opaque. Artists use this characteristic to create shadow art. Shadow portraits, also called silhouettes, are a simple way to create impressive outlines of a person's profile. To create a silhouette, a person sits between a vertical sheet of heavy paper and a light source. The light source shines on the person. Because light does not pass through the person, a shadow is created on the paper. The artist traces the shadow onto the paper, then cuts it out and traces it onto dark paper. The outline is cut out again and placed in a frame. Silhouettes were very popular during the 1600s and 1700s. Photography had not yet been developed for wide use, and purchasing a painted portrait was quite expensive. Modern artists have taken shadow art to a whole new level.