Painting Bright Light | Woman’s Backlit Silhouette

I continue to be fascinated with light in oil painting. Shadows, reflection, light sources – it’s all so interesting to experiment with. In this portrait, I wanted to paint a bright light behind the subject and attempt some of the blue and yellow highlights that can accent the edges of light sources. I also sought to push my limits a bit in terms of rendering a silhouette, but not a completely dark one without details or color differences.

I definitely think this one is better than some of my earlier experiments with light and heavy contrast. In older attempts, I often muddied the piece and overdid it with raw umber. It certainly takes practice, and although this one is an improvement, I can see there is much room to grow. This portrait study was painted on 12 X 12 oil paper and was my 251st overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.

Shop link related to this piece:

• 
  Woman’s Silhouette with Backlight, Giclee Art
  $85
  Buy via Etsy

I try not to dwell too much on completed paintings – typically my mind has already moved to something else almost as soon as my paint brushes are at rest. But I find it’s nice to at least consider a couple of basic points on the “what I did right” and “how could I improve next time” ledgers. With this one, the good is certainly freehanding the figure post and rendering the subject details. It’s a fine portrait overall, just looking at the subject. And I think creating a high contrast silhouette while still maintaining distinct color hues is a victory. On the other side, I may have needed a bit more subtly on the highlights, particularly around the light itself. And I should have taken more time to actually create a round circle! It’s very uneven in terms of shape. Overall, I like this one a lot though.

Some other topics explored in the embedded video: This one features a discussion of some of the concepts I already introduced, like those blue and yellow edges to bright lights. I also talk about contrast challenges, which I’ve explored in other videos and posts. And I share some thoughts on fabric and trying to depict light shining through, which is also something that I find fascinating. In a sense, this is a part two (or even part 3) exploration of these topics – I’ll link some of those prior videos below.

Here are some additional details of the video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms. The main video I’ve embedded is around the usual amount, and is similar in format and presentation to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).