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| ©2013 Titus Castanza |
Though, I'm sure you can quickly make a complicated matter of it and drive yourself batty in the process--keep in mind, when your paintings find their way to their final destination, chances are the lighting is not going to be perfectly balanced or anything like the unique environment of your studio. (In the case of a portrait commission, it may be worth finding out what light conditions the client intends hanging your piece.) This is why I am a proponent of doing what is simple, flexible and finding a compromise . Yes, we want balanced light and no glare, but let's not go overboard.
-Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) 5000k, 23w
-Designer fluorescent tubes, Phillips TL950; (4 foot long, T8 tubes; 98% CRI rating) for background areas, dark corners of studio and above windows. (described below)
-Clamp light housings (simple and cheap; clamp just about anywhere or on tripod extensions) for CFL's, LED's, incandescent and/or Halogen flood bulbs.
-Bounce light off ceiling and walls: Halogen flood lamps, incandescent bulbs, LED's and CFL's; in clamp light housings to slightly warm things up (try to use bulbs that are 5,500k )
-Natural light coming through North-facing window during the day; turn on T8 tubes mounted above windows at night.
If you're willing to spend a lot more money, LED bulbs are very good these days. They are low energy, do not put off heat and the color balance technology is good. Your local energy company provides rebate programs that can sometimes cut in-half the cost of the bulbs. LED's generally last about 20 years. Maybe something to look into for your professional art space.
Museums and galleries commonly use Solux bulbs which are a kind of expensive Halogen flood lamp. They suck up energy and put-off a lot of heat. Because of this, many galleries are switching to LED technology. LED's nowadays are much acceptable in terms of color correctness.
I find that quality fluorescent T8 tubes work great for me and don't run nearly as hot: Phillips TL950, GE Chroma 50, or Sylvania Designer 5000k are industry standard for designers, artists, printers, jewelers, etc. They provide cool balanced light. I have the 4ft long T8 versions and they work great for additional ambient light in the studio. I have a tendancy to turn all of them on during the night when the natural light no longer is coming through the window. This best emulates cool natural light. So I make sure to hang one about the window, inside my studio.
Here's what I did. First, my main objective was to brighten my entire studio with balanced light, from morning to well into night. During the day I have natural light coming in through a good sized North-facing window... but it's not enough. I also wanted to continue lighting my studio long after the sun had gone down and to not deal with a huge temperature shift from the loss of natural daylight.
-My studio was overall TOO dark.
-I was getting glare on my painting (b/c I was pointing a spot light on it)
-The lights I had were too warm (I was using incandescent bulbs only)
-The temperature and the brightness of the overall light in my studio changed dramatically after the sun went down, making it very difficult to continue painting thru the night.
-The light shining on my palette was brighter than the light shining on my painting. (I had a separate light source shining directly on my palette! This was a bad idea.)
-I had difficulty mixing color--it was honestly difficult to judge the true color I was mixing.
Tip: Lighting your palette with a separate light source than your painting is a bad idea. This will make it nearly impossible to accurately mix colors within the context of your painting. Make sure your palette is receiving the same light as your painting AND do not directly point a bulb on your painting or palette! This will create a spot-lighting effect and will also increase chances of glare.
Try it. You just may like it!
Here's what I did after recognizing my issues:
First off, I did away with any lights directly shining on my ease (bad!).
Then, using a mix of cool and warm bulbs (compact fluorescent bulbs, LED's, incandescent bulbs and Halogen bulbs), I hung an array of them sprinkled throughout my studio. I paid close attention to group together lights that there were warm and cool and pointed them at the ceiling, walls and any dark corners of my studio.
I hoped that by mixing cool and warm bulbs together throughout my studio that it would emulate a more balanced light condition and make everything overall much brighter. It worked. And, I have the option to turn on a (cool) fluorescent mounted above the window at night, to help emulate natural light.
Note: I hung the T8 fluorescent tubes above my studio window to emulate day light. These are to be turned-on after the sun goes down. This helped dramatically to continue painting well into the night! I recommend hanging these above any window in your studio.
This took care of my lighting issues. I made my entire studio brighter (not just my painting that was on my easel). And, there's no glare. When I'm painting at night my brain thinks it's daytime.
Tip: Try putting a white piece of mat board (or other) underneath your glass palette. If you don't like white, try light gray, then medium gray.
Hope this helps and good luck!
Read more about how to light an art studio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzo86whyS9c
http://www.westerberg-fineart.com/2011/05/studio-lighting/
http://www.stanprokopenko.com/blog/2009/06/choosing-light-bulb-art-studio/
http://willkempartschool.com/art-studio-lighting-design/
http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/art-demos-techniques/how-to-choose-studio-lighting
http://stereopsis.com/fullspectrum/
