How to Paint the Lit Side and the Shadow Side of a Face in Oil
A real shadow doesn't cover your work. It makes what is already there darker.
When the shadow side of a face comes out too light, most painters do the obvious thing. They take the skin color they already have, mix it darker, and paint over the whole area. That is how most people learn to paint the shadow side of a face. I tried it on my demo portrait so you can see what happens.
In a way, it works. The shadow gets darker. But everything under it disappears: the eye, the edge of the nose, the turn of the cheek, all the work built up layer after layer. And honestly, it looks a little fake.
A real shadow doesn't cover. It just makes the parts we can already see darker.
And here is the surprise. The shadow on that portrait was too light because I painted it that way. On purpose.
I made a video about it: how I mix the lit side and the shadow side from one recipe, and how I make a shadow darker without losing anything underneath it.
One face, one recipe
When the light comes from one side, the face has two sides. One side faces the light and the other turns away from it. The lit side and the shadow side.
A lot of painters mix them as two different things: one skin tone for the light, and something dark for the shadow.
Well, the shadow isn't something else. It's the same skin, just darker and warmer. So I mix both from the same recipe, with the same tubes on my palette.
Value first
Before we even talk about color, there is one thing you have to get right, and that's value. Put simply, value is how light or dark something is.
When I look at a face, I don't ask what color the shadow is. I ask how dark it is. And I always judge that against what's around it, like the lit cheek right next to it or the background behind it.
Then I check it in black and white. Take a photo of your painting, turn it black and white, and the values will tell you the truth.
That's why I always tell my students: value first, then temperature, then hue. Get the value right and the shadow will already work, even before the color is perfect.
The lit side: less white than you think
For the lit side I use my same skin recipe. I mix my skin tone and lighten it with white, but only as much as the value needs.
The brightest light is still the same mix, just with more white. And it's darker than you think. There is no pure white anywhere on a face, so even the brightest light on a face is still skin.
The light side is the same skin with white, and less white than you think.
How to paint the shadow side of a face: darker and warmer
For the shadow side I use the same recipe. To make it darker, I add burnt umber. It brings the value down, and it keeps the color warm.
That's the whole point. A shadow on skin isn't cold and gray. If you cool your shadows down to push them back, the face looks dead. On some faces, the shadow even gets a little redder as it gets darker.
If the shadow comes out too cold, I add Indian red. It brings the warmth back without ruining the value.
What I don't do is paint my darks with black. Look closely at the inside of someone's nostril. It's dark in there, but there are blood vessels in there too. It's a shadow, not just something black. So for that dark I mix burnt umber with vermilion.
The shadow is the same skin, just darker and warmer. Never black.
The transition
Between the lit side and the shadow side there is a transition. That's where the form starts turning away from the light. It is also where most shadows go wrong.
If you paint a hard line there, the face looks like it's been cut in two. So I keep the transition gentle.
The color there is a gray, but it's a gray I mix from colors, never from black and white. Often it's my portrait green. The shadow starts gently, with a gray mixed from colors.
Too light, on purpose
Back to my demo portrait. That shadow side was too light, and I knew it. I planned it that way.
At the end of a painting, I darken some of the shadows with a glaze. A glaze is a thin layer of transparent paint over paint that is already dry. And a glaze can only take light away. It can never add any.
So if I paint the shadow as dark as it should be at the end, there's nowhere left to go. And if it ends up too dark, it's very hard to fix afterwards. So I keep it lighter. Then the glaze takes it down in a more organic way and keeps everything I've done so far.
If you plan to glaze a shadow, you have to leave it lighter.
The glaze, and how long to wait
You already saw the easy way: mix it darker and paint it on. It works. It is darker. But it covers all the work. So on the rest of the shadow side, I did something else. I glazed it.
The paint underneath is dry. For this demo I glazed with perylene violet and quinacridone magenta. Both are completely transparent. I picked them on purpose, so you can really see on camera what the glaze does. In a real portrait I'd glaze with transparent colors that are believable for that specific skin tone.
I add a little Liquin and a touch of turpentine and keep it very thin. It goes on like a stain. You can see right through it to everything underneath. The shadow gets darker and the eye is still there.
In the video I show the same shadow side darkened two different ways. With opaque paint it's darker, but it's just a dark patch, and whatever was underneath is gone. With the glaze it's darker too, but the eye is still there. So are the eyelid, the edge of the nose and every layer underneath.
Someone asked how long a layer takes to dry. Well, it depends. It depends on the room temperature: if it's hot, it dries faster, and if it's cold, it dries much slower. It also depends on the paint itself. On my palette, earth colors dry faster.
The only way to check is to touch the paint. If it's sticky, don't paint, because it's not dry yet. It's completely dry when you touch it and nothing comes off, like touching a wall. Then you can carry on painting. That can take a few hours, a few days or a few weeks.
What to do with this
Take a photo of the painting on your easel today and turn it black and white. Look at the shadow side next to the lit cheek and ask only how dark it is, not what color it is. If you plan to glaze it later, leave it lighter than you want it to end up.
I hope this helped. Do you darken your shadows with paint or with a glaze? Tell me in the comments under the video. I read every one. The next episode is every skin tone, one method. You are welcome to subscribe to the channel.
Visit the Color Mixing Book Library. The recipes behind my own portraits and the old masters' faces, written down recipe by recipe. See the library
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