Light

What have you good folks found to be the best lighting for producing your work??

I have found that natural light seems to work best for me, but this is not always convenient or available.

Please enlighten me,

I do mostly tabletop work, figurative in 1/3 or 1/2 scale. My tiny studio has lovely northern light all day, but in the evenings I use a halogen touchier bounced off one wall to give a soft wash, and an incandescent arm lamp to move around to show me shadows. The impact of a piece can really change according to the shadows. I like to consider how the piece might be displayed - next to a table lamp, next to a window with sunlight, or even UP in an alcove (I am very interested in architechtural detail pieces such as faces) etc. etc. as I'm working on it, and will frequently let a piece live under various conditions for a week or two in each place as I finish it. The studio I take classes at has no windows and very bright florescent lighting - very flat and uninspiring, but it does illuminate everything. Several of us will take a light on a stand and work on a piece under that for an evening to give some shadow details, to help point out to our eyes what's what.

cheers,

Caris

'It's a drum and arms waving. It's a bonfire at midnight on the top edge of a hill, this meeting here with you.' Rumi

North sunlight, aways wins. Failing that:

The key to good lighting is candlepower. Natural sunlight is so strong that, when from an indirect source, It bounces of the walls and illuminates from all direction. You want to approximate this omnipresent light as best as possible. My best lighting system was a ceiling covered with hanging flourescent fixtures spaced every 3 feet. In the fixtures I put daylight balanced tubes, Not cheap, but brighter and easier on the eye and essential for color work. The walls were painted an absolute matte white.

For putting smooth surfaces on plaster, we would wait until evening and use a direct light like a halogen, aimed so that the light was almost in a plane with the surface. This will make deviations as slight as a thousandth of an inch pop right out. Sometimes, when working on large plaster pieces you can nearly go snowblind working the surface- for these we added a little bluing to the plaster to cut the glare.

Most lighting problems are caused by a combination of insufficient candlepower, and being too directional.

Christopher

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If you can see you can work.I put my figures on turntables so that I can turn them.TV turntables can hold a lot of weight if centered,and then you can really choose what kind of light you want.It is different if you want to smooth or are working on a small detail.I have always prefered a stark light at 90 degrees from me so that I can see it stark and then finish in daylight. Be Comfortable, David Thatcher

Just a thought be careful with halogen lights. They must have a glass lense or plate between the bulb and everything else. Not because of the heat they generate, but because of the tremendous flux of ultraviolet light they give off. Bad UV. It damages the skin- but will also fade paints and prints.

I had three fine art lithos ruined ths way.

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Caris, thanks for the info. Sounds like you have your lighting situation under control.

Later,

Thanks for the input David.

Later,

Thanks for your observations Chris. Good info.

Later,

Rodin said he works the silhouette and then turns the piece to another angle and does the same again. You mentioned shadows. In fact all we see in a sculpture is light and shadow. Give a relief flat illumination, and you see nothing.

- lauri

In addition to lighting, a contrasting background makes a big difference.

I usually use one of those 3-panel foldout project boards as a background when working. For maquettes (in my case really small, perhaps 8' high) I use green poster board cut to size and folded to stand up. The green is a pleasant background for the aluminum wire I use for maquettes.

When forging iron I have a 2x3' panel painted flat white to lay on the dirt floor just beyond the anvil - to serve as a white background. I can hold the iron up to really see what I've just done.

scale. My tiny studio has incandescent arm lamp to move really change according be displayed - next to faces) etc. etc. as I'm studio I take classes at flat and uninspiring, take a light on a stand some shadow details, to

By coincidence, I just saw that this subject was taken up in the most recent issue of The Artist Magazine.

Wouldn't the 'best' would be the light that will be on the piece when it is displayed.