Often, inspiration comes not so much from the subject itself as from the effect light has on the subject. Light tells the viewer what is happening in that moment of time--how the light faded out the leaves and made the shadows reflect the sky, or what time of day it was because of the angle of the shadows. This book shows you how to relay that information to make your viewer see and even feel the lighting effects that inspired you to paint your subject in the first place.

Composing a light-filled painting involves more than just saving the whites of the paper or painting with lighter colors. Inside you'll learn how to:

• Turn up the drama in your reference photos to set the stage for dramatic paintings.
• Compose paintings for stronger visual impact.
• Use a full range of values, from deep darks to bright whites, taking your work from mediocre to powerful.
• Paint shadows in a way that will make your painting much more believable and colorful.
• Exaggerate color to heighten the impact of your painting, and use grays to make your colors sparkle.
• Paint backgrounds that evoke greater depth and excitement.

Eleven mini-demonstrations, each re-creating a section of a painting presented in the book, help you take on the challenges of portraying individual textures. Five full-length demonstrations show how to combine a variety of textures into strong, light-appropriate compositions.