Shiny Happy Apples

 

Click Here to Bid - 6x6in. - Oil - bid starts at $100

The other day someone wrote and asked me how I make things look glossy. I decided to share my answer:

I think there are two things to focus on to make things look glossy.

First is highlights. Whatever a highlight sits on needs to be darker than the highlight. This isn't to say you need to darken that bit more than what you see, just to make sure that value relationship is accurate. We have a tendency to look at the "light side" of an object and paint it lighter than it really is. Especially when it comes to white objects, because our brain thinks "white". But in order for the highlight to pop, it has to be lighter than that light side. Hopefully that makes sense.

Second is reflected light. This is the light that is reflected back onto the object from anything around it. The value of the reflected light is hard to get right. It is (almost) never as light as what it's reflecting from. But it's also usually a little lighter than the darkest part of the form shadow (the shadow ON the object). It can help to take a black and white picture of your scene to better see the value relationships. And to squint.

BTW, getting accurate value relationships is the THE biggest thing I help students with in my workshops. It is the KEY to creating realistic work.