Painting Dark to Light: A Secret Revealed with Helen Van Wyk

The Secret to Still Life Painting: Starting Against a Dark Background
The Academic Rule: Darks must be thin, lights must be thick
How to Paint Silver: Using highlights to define anatomy
Painting Red Roses and Using Poetic License

Helen Van Wyk, a teacher and a painter, shares one of her "secrets" to still life painting: the use of a dark background. She explains that starting with dark tones allows the artist to "sneak up on the light," which is much easier and automatically satisfies the academic rule of keeping darks thin and lights thick, as white makes paint cover better.

Overview

This lesson focuses on painting a still life featuring a silver coffee pot, red roses, and a light tablecloth against an off-black background.

The Secret: Dark Backgrounds. Helen advocates for using dark backgrounds because they are easier and more readily showcase the colors of the subject. Starting dark ensures that as you build to the light, you automatically go thicker, satisfying the dark-thin/light-thick principle of oil painting.
Still Life Composition. She emphasizes planning the arrangement (composition) rather than letting it happen accidentally, suggesting the golden proportion (1 to 3 to 5 to 8) and using poetic license to change subjects (like artificial flowers) for the sake of the picture.
Painting Silver. Metals are best approached by laying in the overall tone first, then adding the **highlights** to expose the object's anatomy. Silver reflects its dark environment, so it will contain dark colors like purple and reflections of the red roses.
Light and Planes. When painting the tablecloth, she uses different tones and directions of stroke for the top plane (lighter, horizontal stroke) and the down plane (darker, vertical stroke) to represent the difference in light exposure.
Final Advice. Borrowing from her mother's cooking advice: "start on time and keep the flame low." Start carefully, not making too much of a statement, and let the excitement build as you get closer to the finish, saving the "little goodies" (tiny lights and corrections) for last.

Transcript

Hello, I'm Helen Van Wyk, and welcome to my studio. As you know, I'm a teacher. I'm also a painter, so I'm two people. I have to talk to you and tell you all the things that are so wonderful about painting, and yet, as a painter, I'm really kind of secretive. But I'm going to let you in on my secrets today, and one of the secrets that I have is that I really use dark backgrounds a lot. Why? Because it's easier. Notice my still life. I'm going to paint silver with red roses, and the black background—off black—is going to show off those colors nicely and a little easier for me. Notice I used a dark background on these flowers. This dark background is aiding, is helping, this pictorial presentation. And that's what still life is all about. It's a pictorial presentation of a mood. Let me see if I can put that mood on this little canvas. It isn't very big, by the way, and my first job is to think about its size and how big I can make the subject on it. So, why don't I place it first and see if I can make it fit? I do want to show the cloth hanging off of the table, and so that's going to be the lowest thing. I like that rose hanging off and then this rose over here. We're really taught not to paint even numbers—2, 4, 6, 8. We're supposed to deal with the more elegant and natural golden proportion of 1 to 3 to 5 to 8. And I'll tell you about that someday, but right now I'm kind of busy. So, I think I'll be able to get away with four roses by the fact that I have one here and three there. So I have one to three. Don't let your picture happen accidentally. Think out. Be intrigued with the whole process to justify the process and say, "Well, this is what I think looks nice." And so this makes your picture creative, and it makes it yours. It makes it original. We learn all the rules, as I've said before, so that we can take some license with them because we know just how far we can deviate away from the security of the rules. And the rules, by the way, come to us from nature. Nature has a pattern, and we just have to capitulate to it. It's a wonderful pattern. Can't fool with Mother Nature. Now let's start in a very direct, bold way and lay in the masses of color: dark, medium red, and off-white. And I'm going to do that all in tones that are darker than I really see them so that I have a foundation, so I can sneak up on the light. Well, that's not even showing; that shouldn't—it doesn't show enough either. Oh, that's better. And you can see, instead of starting approaching this as a drawing, I'm approaching it as a painting, starting with the putting in the tone of the silver by painting stuff running from the inside out to make an edge. How can that brush make a line? You draw a drawing, but you paint a painting. They are two different actions. I think that spout looks very English. Very English. Looks Tudor. I don't know why. I don't even know whether this thing is English. I found it in an antique store. I don't use it. Our house is full of stuff because I'm a still life painter. I have a philosophy: if I dust one thing, I have to dust it all, so I don't dust that often. Yes, twice a year, whether it needs it or not. And then this flower, and maybe—I think, uh, what do you think, everyone? Do you think it would be nice to group them together a little? I think so. I'm going to have this touch, maybe not that one. You can see that they're artificial, and they're all exactly alike. So, I'm going to take the poetic license of changing them. I wish that the phrase "poetic license"—well, it's used to describe making a change for the sake of the picture—I wish it were not as flamboyant a phrase. "Poetic license" would rather have the phrase describe the practicality of it more. And then this is going to be a cast shadow and a cast shadow. And all these cast shadows set the subject down. Here, with a nice big brush, I'm going to suggest the light cloth. It's not just that funny old towel. It's a light cloth that maybe will look like linen. Ooh, really, I find that that's a much too—a value to start with—that would be better. And this is the down plane, the part that's hanging down, and this is the top plane. Two different directions of stroke: this down, and this across. But more importantly, two different tones because the light, this wonderful light that's coming from my window flashing over on it, from the right, is coming from above. Hallelujah, as usual. And so, top planes are lighter than up and down planes. This is down here, is going to suggest the table that is still showing. And while I have that nice big brush in my hand, I'm going to lay in the dark background. Beginnings of paintings look like beginnings. They're the start of this wonderful adventure of trying to turn it into something. Also, right from the start, to make the composition a little nicer. Composition is so important. It's the mold. You never really get a magnificent statue from a poor mold. It's its heart. And so, I want to include this little fold. I can't stress enough how important it is to start dark because going lighter is easier. Going lighter means going thicker because white makes all these paints cover better. So, if you start dark, you go lighter and lighter and thicker and thicker automatically. There are art books that say you have to keep your darks thin and your lights thick. Well, you don't have to do it. It's going to automatically get that way if you approach oil painting the academic way. And that is that you start darker and come to the light. So, let me start lightening the silver, and I'm going to make the highlight first. I always find that metals are almost better painted after you get the general overall shape to start right with the highlight. And these highlights start to present, in a pictorial way, the anatomy made up of each element. So I had one, two, three, four elements already of the knob. Inspect your subjects from the top down so that you can ...appreciate each part of its shape and make a painted rendition of that shape. So I see, oh, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight parts of that silver’s shape. Its basic shape, of course. The handle and its spout are additions. I think the guy who made it did it that way too. I think, too, that you see a lot more shines on it than I do. I see them too, but I'm only painting in the ones that I know are going to expose the solidity, and that’s the highlights. Why don't I suggest a little bit more? Your brush strokes look and memorize a whole form. Transfer that memory of the form to a brush stroke because the brush is your painting's handwriting. I'm editorializing on this. With more time, my strokes would—I'd be looking at the same things but doing each thing a little bit more carefully, a lot more carefully. Don't let my programs and our meetings together mislead you. Don't get to your easel and say you have to go as fast as I do. Take your own pace, but don't linger either. Figure out a way to do it, and just then do it. Don't be afraid. Don't think you've got to make it wonderful. Just make it the best you can. That’s all you can do. So that starts the feeling of silver. Let me start the feeling of the anatomy of the roses by adding light bright Alizarin Crimson, Grumbacher Red, and white. Notice how I take time to saturate that brush. Which is the most important one? This one. Why don't I start with it? I want it to face this way, and so I'm adding my lights on the right because the light’s coming from the right. Now it’s so tempting to say, "Oh wow, doesn’t that look snazzy?" and you do the same thing again. No, don’t do that. Make sure that when you have to paint many objects that are the same, try to give a different little twist, a different personality to each one. So now this is going to be darker because it’s in shadow from the pot, and just one or two little flicks back there. And this one’s a little different too. I'm going to try to make it a little different. I contrive these still lifes for you to open up the door to a picture possibility for you—not just like this, but one thing I do think you could try is to set your subject matter up against a dark background and experience what a nice color experience it is. These mixtures are only working because they’re working against this tone background. They would be entirely different against white. You can see how far I’ve gotten with a pictorial illusion of my subject by adding lights. Now I'm going to see how I can further the picture by adding darks. Since I started with the pot, why don't I start putting in the darks that I see on it? I actually see myself reflected in it. Why don’t I put that in just for fun? My purple—that’s what silver is all about. It reflects its environment, and since this is in a dark environment of the dark background, I have a lot of darks. Against white, it would be different. And this is why calling out my mixtures today would not be helpful unless you’re going to follow my advice and say it’s easier to paint subjects against the dark background. Look what it did for Rembrandt. And I should employ or introduce the red of the flowers into the silver. It’s affecting it here, affecting it here, and here. When painting silver and you see an absolute mirror image of the subject in the silver, don’t do it that way. I actually see this rose repeated here, but to do that would look like a spot. I like to introduce the color in a stroke that conforms to the rhythm of the object’s anatomy. When I first put that black or off-black in, it was colorless. Now I need to sparkle it by adding into the black some blue and Alizarin. Never use black alone. It’s a dead color. It’s not a color—it’s a wonderful asset to color. It helps you get tones of colors, dark tones of colors. Look at this red and Phthalo Blue. I even put some Phthalo Green in it, so I’ve got a colorful black. I hope that shows up to you. You’re constantly drawing when you paint. Don’t draw it all in and then fill it in. Look at how darkening the background is helping to shape that rose. Why don’t I put some darks in the rose too, in their little centers? Along with liking to cook, I like flowers too. I have a little greenhouse right off the dining room. It helps me with my centerpieces through the winter. Even though the leaves over there are dark green, I think that I would rather make mine in my picture bright green. And I’m going to clean up—I’m going to launder—the white cloth now in tribute to one of my mother-in-laws. She’s in heaven, and if I know her, she’s cleaning the place. Nothing delighted her more. And now that fold is coming down. I’m sure she’d take her hand and smooth it out. I’ll have to tell you about another one of my mother-in-laws someday. As I said, I think a couple of programs ago, someday you’re going to meet the whole family because we are friends now. We share something. We share a love of painting. And since painting is so vast and touches on so many things about life, we’re good friends. Oh boy, yeah, Mom, you’re right—it does look better clean. And since I cleaned it, I have to clean this a little. From a distance, I noticed I have a chance to add more light. Oh, tiny ones, little, little spots. Appreciating what Sargent said, "Start with a broom and finish with a needle. Save the little goodies for last." And corrections. I’d like to tell you again my mother’s version of a practical way to start a problem. When I said, “Gee, Mom, I don’t know how to cook,” she said, “Don’t worry about it, Helen. Just start on time and keep the flame low.” Well, don’t I paint that way? Don’t I start very carefully, not making too much of a statement, and then it gets a little bit more exciting as I get closer to the finish? I’m going to add a little bit more reflection in this little bottom section. Every stage is crucial. You should do each stage as carefully as possible, more carefully as you get toward the end. I hope you’ve enjoyed our visit with this silver coffee pot. And the next time we meet, I’m going to do a landscape, or I may teach you how to make soup. She’s in heaven, and if I know her, she’s cleaning the place. Shine it twice a year. Looks very English. That English looks Tudor. I don’t know why. I don’t even know whether this thing is English—I found it in an antique store. I don’t use it. Hello, I’m Helen Van Wyk, and welcome to my studio. Our house is full of stuff because I’m a still life painter. And in tribute to one of my mother-in-laws...

Key Takeaways

The Secret:
Use a dark background to make painting lights easier and improve color contrast.
Automatic Action:
Painting dark to light automatically makes your dark colors thin and your light colors thick, which is the correct academic approach.
Plan:
Always plan your composition; don't let it happen accidentally.
Silver Hint:
When painting silver, use highlights to expose the anatomy of the object, and remember it reflects its environment (in this case, containing purples and red reflections).
Start Broad:
You must approach the canvas with mass tones, not lines.
Be Unique:
Use poetic license to change the subject matter if it improves the picture.
Old Master Advice:
Follow Sargent's advice: "Start with a broom and finish with a needle." Save the tiny, bright details for the very end.

Related Lessons

The Beginner's 1-2-3 Approach to Oil Painting (On planning/staging)
Painting White on White (A contrasting lesson on light backgrounds)
Online Lessons Index