What colour are shadows?

Shadows can be tricky to paint. It’s not so much their shape, which is often clearly defined. The problem comes with mixing the right colour. After all, what colour is a shadow?

I’ve come across several ways of mixing a shadow colour, bearing in mind that the best way to paint a shadow is to also vary the colours within it. This in itself makes the shaded area more interesting, and more closely resembles what is actually happening within the shadow.

For instance any reflected colour bouncing into the shadow from nearby objects will alter the colours within that shadow.

You get more reflected light from objects near the beginning of the shadow, and this effect lessens as it moves away from the object that casts the shadow. The shadow also becomes bluer as more of the sky colour is incorporated in it.

The shadow will also be more distinct with sharper edges near the object that casts the shadow, and softer and slightly lighter as it moves away. Cast shadows in the distance are greyer and lighter than shadows in the foreground.

So, what colour are shadows?

One way to mix a shadow colour is to use the local colour (the ochre of a wall, the grey of a road, the green of grass) make a darker mix of this and add a little purple (the opposite of the sun’s yellow rays). Then modify this with any reflected or bounced light from nearby objects.

Another formula is to neutralise the local colour with either gray or a  complimentary colour (choose something from the other side of the colour wheel).

Finally, if you are painting in watercolour, then you can also simply paint a wash of shadow purple (ultramarine blue with a touch of cadmium red makes a good purple for this) over your local colour.

For the sunshine, add white to the local colour mix. As Colley Whisson says: “For light you need white.” In my oil painting I tend to use my “sunshine colour” (Naples Yellow Light), in place of or in addition to white. Pure white can cool colours down when what you want to do is warm them up.

In my plein air oil painting I used plenty of white to create the sunshine. My local colours were mixed with lots of white and naples yellow light to contrast with the shadow areas.

Just go for it!

And then of course you can just go for it and supercharge your shadow colours. I have always loved these paintings by John Singer Sergeant, really because of the wonderful colourful shadows. See how he uses intense colours for the shadows on the white walls of the building and on the ground! The same can be seen in the hull of the boat.

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And how about this inspiration from the master of light and shade, Joaquin Sorolla. Look at the intense reflected light in the horse’s belly (that ochre from the sand and the blue of the water) and the way he handles the shadows in the girls’ dresses.

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Well, I hope you have found this helpful. There is so much to learn about this tricky subject, but maybe some of this will help you in your painting.

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