Hello! It is officially SUMMER here in the northern hemisphere, the season of light! Coincidentally, today I am experimenting with lighting in my illustrations. Lighting can have a huge impact of the look and feel of an image, but it’s so much more than that: it can change the mood, composition, and even the storytelling of a piece. I have long struggled to create interesting lighting in my own illustration work, and I find that much of the artwork I really admire (be it contemporary or historical), relies heavily on light and shadow. My goal is to find a way of rendering lighting that enhances and gives depth to my established visual style. As usual, when I want to level up in a certain area of my creative process, the answer is always the same: practice. So let’s dive in, shall we?

I’ve had this little drawing sitting in my sketchbook for months now, and I figured it was high time I made it a piece for my portfolio. This image is inspired by growing up with three younger sisters. I cannot confirm that I ever made all three of them braid my hair at once (nor did I ever have this long of hair — just in my dreams!), but I can confirm that I absolutely made them wait on me hand and foot (sorry girls).

I wanted this image to be subtly humorous while also conveying a sense of closeness that comes with sisterhood. Also, hair has always been one of my favorite things to draw.

I made the first iteration of this piece before I knew I was going to write this blog post about lighting. As a result, you can see that my default is to think very little about lighting. I chose my usual approach of a three-color palette with a screenprint-inspired layering method. I really loved this vintage palette that I ended up with.

But! Something was lacking. So I decided this image would be a perfect candidate for some lighting experiments.

My first experiment I decided to make this scene feel like night time, with the main light source coming from a lamp just outside the frame. I darkened the whole image a bit and added a dark background, a warm golden light source layer, and a darker shadow layer.

As I worked on this one I was struck by how much the story of this image was changing. It felt cozier; perhaps these sisters were staying up late together, or on a family vacation sharing a bedroom and listening to the eldest read. It gave me lots of book ideas! At this point I was hooked, I wanted to dive deeper into lighting experiments!

For the next iteration, I decided to include a cast shadow, so I chose a daytime scene, and added a layer of shadow to show afternoon light coming through a window. Here was where the lighting choice started to dictate my composition: I ended up adding more floor because I wanted to show that window light starting on the floor and creeping up over the characters and the bed.

It’s hard to believe I was almost satisfied with that first version of this illustration. This third one is SO much better! In this version, we are getting a sense of time and place, of nostalgia for the long, leisurely summer days of childhood. That first version was cute, but didn’t come close to the feeling I was trying to convey when I drew the sketch.

I took a break from looking at it, and when I came back I realized that the light cast from the window looked like an actual window. So I added a few finishing touches to make it look more like a wall with light shining on it. Voilá! The final version. I could go on tinkering, but I’m pretty happy with it.

Inspirations

A few artists who use light in particularly inspiring ways.

Andrew Wyeth
An absolute master of both subtle and stark lighting.

Jeff Turley
Like many concept artists in the animation industry, Jeff Turly has an incredible grasp on lighting as a means of storytelling.

Jeff Turley, concept art for *Big Hero 6*

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If you made it this far, THANK YOU. As I work through these experiments, I’m continually reminded of the value of pushing past my first idea, my first result. I’m hoping that if I do this long enough, experimentation will just become a permanent part of my practice. It feels good, a way to combat the churn of “producing” work.

Hello! Welcome to the official rebirth of this blog. Is 2024 the perfect year to start a blog? Probably not. But the internet—namely social media—feels like such a black hole these days, that I’d rather cultivate spaces that I feel I have some creative control over, even if I am only yelling into a smaller empty room of my own creation. So if you’re here reading this, thank you! I hope you enjoy. And just a heads up, I talk briefly about some personal health stuff around pregnancy loss in this post, so if that feels hard for you, please skip it, and know that I’m sending you so much compassion.

This new year symbolizes a fresh start for me in a more weighted way than it has in years past. I feel the need to shed a skin, to shake off 2023. It was a tough year, it was an exciting year. My picture book collaboration with Sue Heavenrich The Pie that Molly Grew, came out in August. I got to work with Nickelodeon as an art director, I made a lot of personal work that I am proud of, and I landed the biggest picture book contract of my career (more on that to come). I also suffered two miscarriages, about seven months apart, and a huge chunk of my life became about blood tests, ultrasounds, supplements and hormones. If you know, you know. Luckily, I was never in an emergency-room situation, I’m physically healthy, and mentally I’m doing okay thanks to my incredible husband, friends, family and therapist. Leaning on community has been a real lesson for me this year. They come through for me, every time.

Okay, so now that you know more than you perhaps wanted to know about all that, let’s get to some art stuff! I wanted to include some of that personal stuff because art, for me, is personal, and all the things that I experience change who I am not just as a person but as an artist. The grief and successes from the past year have weirdly landed me in this new year feeling confident and curious. I think part of it is being tired of feeling stuck. And part of it is the sense that last year, with all it’s low lows and incredible highs left me with a lot of new tools that I want to take advantage of. There’s energy here brewing that I don’t want to waste. Thinking about this, and pairing it with the more familiar feeling of wanting to push further and dig deeper in my art, I found my word for 2024: EXPERIMENT.

So welcome to A YEAR OF EXPERIMENTS. Each month, I will be playing with something new in my work, be it a technique or an idea. I will create a new illustration, write a little something about creating the work, what inspired me or why I wanted to try it, and other artists I see who are doing similar things. I will also be posting more in-depth process videos about creating each piece over on my patreon for paid members.

If you’re excited about this and want to be reminded each month about these posts, subscribe to my newsletter here. And thank you for being a curious person who likes art. Thanks for being you!

Love,
Chamisa