Monthly Painting Project: Changing Light
Capturing the changing light on a subject during the day. All Painting Projects

The aim of this painting project is to do a series of paintings to capture how the light on a subject changes depending on the time of day. The ideal would be to do them as plein air paintings. This may mean you produce a series of studies rather than finished paintings, unless you've the time to return to the subject several days in a row, or work quickly and can finish a painting before the light changes.

The most famous series paintings are by Monet, who painted several series paintings. Take a look at these four of the parliament buildings in London:
• Houses of Parliament 1903
• Houses of Parliament, sunset
• Houses of Parliament through the fog, 1904
• Houses of Parliament, 1905

If time (or the weather) make plein air painting tricky, an alternative would be to take photographs to work up back in the studio, but make some sketches on site to get a good feel for the subtleties of the light and to increase your observation of the subject.

If this isn't feasible either, you could set up a still life and use a lamp to shed strong, directional light on it from various angles, say from the back and from one side. This will give quite different shadows, rather than the changes in colour one gets with the sun, but will still be an interesting exercise in how light influences a subject.

If you complete this project, why not post a photo of your painting in the Painting Forum for feedback? (Note: Unlike most of the other monthly painting projects, this one is not currently accepting entries for the submissions gallery.)