This document provides instructions for painting and using a chromatic scale to depict light. It recommends: 1) Blocking in the whole composition, including light and shadow, before clarifying details. 2) Painting in transparent layers called "glazing" and letting each layer dry before adding the next. 3) Arranging colors in warm/cool pairs of each hue to create a chromatic scale from light to dark, bright to dull, and warm to cool colors to enhance the illusion of light.

1. Painting Introduction
Glenn Hirsch

2. • Step-by-Step
• Block in the whole composition, including the lighht
• Then let dry and clarify detail

3. • Painting in transparent
layers = “glazing”
• step 1
• let it dry
• then step 2

4. • First do a
thumbnail sketch
on a separate
piece of paper
• No detail – block
in the light &
shadow

5. • A very rough
‘thumbnail’
sketch on a
separate piece of
paper first

6. • Then block in the
whole
composition,
including the
light and shadow

7. • Then let dry and
clarify
• Painting the
background
redefines the
edge of the
shape (eg, the
cheek)

14. Part II
Warm/cool color concept in
“Chromatic Scales”

15. Colors arranged in warm/cool pairs of each hue

16. Colors
a "warm yellow" Cadmium Yellow Medium
a "cool yellow" Cadmium Yellow Light or Pale or Lemon
a "warm red" Cadmium Red Medium or Light
a "cool red" Quinacradone Crimson or Alizarin Crimson
a "warm blue" Ultramarine Blue
a "cool blue" Cobalt Blue or Cerulean Blue or Turquoise Blue
a "warm green" Sap Green or Chromium Oxide Green or Perm Green Light
a "cool green" Pthalocyanine Green or Viridian
a "warm brown" Burnt Sienna or burnt umber
a "cool brown" Raw Sienna or raw umber
a "black" Any black or mix your own: Alizarin Crimson + Pthalo Green
a white Titanium white or "Permalba" brand oil white

17. Chromatic scale in
reds to enhance
the illusion of
“light”
• Lighter b/w value in the light
• Brighter intensity in the light
• Warmer (orangey) red in the
light (vs bluer purplish) red in
the shadow

18. Chromatic scale
• Light to dark
• Bright to dull
• Warm to cool

19. Chromatic scale – light to dark, bright to dull, warm to cool

20. Black and white is the
“value” of the color

21. Chromatic scale – light to dark, bright to dull, warm to cool

22. Chromatic scale – light to dark, bright to dull, warm to cool

23. • This isn’t a ‘rule,’
it’s a ‘recipe’ to
enhance the
illusion of ‘light’

24. David Park, Portrait of S.C. Pepper, 1953

25. • Famous artists
practice apples
• (Paul Cezanne)

26. Georgia O’Keefe

27. • Chromatic scale
• Watercolor
• (Charles
Demuth)

28. • Chromatic scale
• Acrylic
• (Robert
Haemmerling)

29. Chromatic scale – light to dark, bright to dull, warm to cool

30. Apples without glowing ‘light’

31. Dramatically lit apple using the chromatic scale – light to dark, bright to dull,
warm to cool

32. Dramatically lit apples using the chromatic scale – light to dark, bright to dull,
warm to cool