How to Unlock Vibrant Colors with Sari Shryack
Color is a hallmark of Ep. 40 guest Sari Shryack’s paintings.
But that vibrant work begins long before she pull out her highly saturated pigments.
It begins in finding the right reference. Here’s the most important thing she needs.
Strong lighting.
Shryack is always on the lookout for strong light.
Maybe it’s how a window backlights her family’s laundry pile or it’s the way shadows from candy spill across a table.
But strong light is a springboard for playful color later.
Why?
Strong light means that Shryack’s objects will have warm sides (the lit side) and cool sides (shadow side).
Strong light also creates great shadow shapes not to mention all the color she can play around within the shadows themselves.
She doesn’t have to make any of that up. It’s there in front of her. Then she can get creative in how she translates it through color.
The same reference image with and without strong light are two totally different painting opportunities. And she’s going to choose the one with interesting light every time.
Put it to Practice:
You absolutely can still make colorful paintings without a reference with a strong lightsource. But it’ll be much easier if you do.
Keep an eye out for good references on the internet (on sites that give you permission to use them) that have good light as part of them.
You can also begin building your own reference library.
If you work in still life, set up scenes next to a window. Make sure sunlight is hitting your objects and creating shadows.
If you’re looking to capture landscape references, head out in the early morning or later afternoon when the sun will be coming from the side.
Now you have photos that are going to let you play with all the things that help make Shyrack’s work so vibrant and fun.