This painting is painted with acrylic on canvas board. I have prepared this pre-primed canvas with an extra layer of gesso for additional brush strokes. The scene is from a Temple in my home town and the girl is my niece. The original picture was too dark, so I used photoshop to lighten up some of the areas like her face, clothes and the glowing lamp on her hand. Though the background lighting was adequate, the lighting for her face was the earthen lamps only. For me, this was the main challenge for this painting.
This is really beautiful work! I love how you play with lights and shadows and bring the girl’s face to the viewer’s focus. The girl is beautifully painted.
Beautifully done, the lighting is so soft and warm, it gives the painting a dramatic effect!
It reminds me of a lesson given in a Camera club workshop a few years ago. The speaker at the workshop was a very accomplished landscape photographer. He asked us how many of us liked to take pictures of landscapes, and we all raised our hands.
Then he shook is head and replied,…”Never , never, never take a picture of a landscape, or any “thing!”… You must take a picture of the light hitting the landscape, or the subject. Then you have a picture!..Without the light you have nothing!”.
Every time that Matt talks about shadow and light, it echos that principle in my mind.
That principle was portrayed very well in your painting!
Thank you for your beautiful observation and appreciation. In fact you have shared a nice lesson about light and shadow. Thanks for sharing. The facial skin tone of the girl was the main challenge for me in this painting. But I have enjoyed doing it.
