Light Taxonomy

Any artist who deals with physical reality uses light to enhance the effect of the art. Lighting is a specialty in moviemaking, photography and any visual art. Architectural illustrators are no different. The choice of lighting, both natural and artificial, is central to directing the viewer’s attention. It is also the most powerful tool illustrators have for eliciting emotional response. 

During my career in architectural illustration, I was often directed by the client to give them a “happy” rendering: a bright light, a clear sky and a warm atmosphere. When the client was willing to take a different approach, I would often suggest something more unusual to catch the eye and sell the project. 

I developed the following categories of types of light through my own work. It is not a complete list and is not scientific in any way, but will perhaps be useful to other illustrators in their own work.

BEAUX ART LIGHTING

Munich Theatre Project by L Lange 1864

This is the go-to approach used for more than 200 years. Traditionally, it uses a midday sun coming over the observer’s left shoulder and casting a 45-degree shadow on any orthographic projection (plan, section or elevation) or one-point perspective. Of course, light coming over the right shoulder works just as well.

Rockcreek Building, Wash. DC, Ehrenkranz Eckstut Arch.

Fallingwater by FL Wright 1935

In a two-point perspective view, the light may strike one side of the building more directly than the other side, but the shapes of the building form are always strongly presented without ambiguity.

FRONTAL LIGHTING

This is a first cousin of Beaux Art lighting, albeit visually less clear and readable. It is essentially a sun directly above and behind the viewer, like a flash bulb held above the camera. It shows off the horizontal forms of a building, but often obscures the vertical elements.

US Post Office, Helena, MO 1898

Florida State Univ. Life Science Bldg. EMI Arch

Applied to a two-point perspective, the source of the light must be adjusted to help differentiate the major sides of a building. The building in Helena above has the sunlight slightly off to downplay the right façade.

DUSK LIGHTING

The Mysterious Stranger by NC Wyeth 1916

L Sullivan Building Detail, Pastel

The “golden hour” near sunset is a favorite time for many people because of its dramatic atmosphere. The warm horizontal rays of the sun create an emotional magic that is hard to beat. In my opinion it is a combination of Beaux Art and Saarinen lighting.

The Parthenon by F Church 1871

What dusk gains in drama, it loses in clarity and detail. While a freestanding building will tend to catch the sideways light over its entire façade, dusk in the city can provide an opportunity to emphasize one or another part of the building. The mystery inherent in this type of light is partly a matter of being vague in delineation; and details are often lost in the emotional flood.

SAARINEN LIGHTING

Woman with a Parasol by C Monet 1875

Helsinki Station Sketch by E Saarinen 1910

Named after the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, this approach is problematic but wonderfully dramatic. The viewer is practically looking into the sun. The building itself is mainly in silhouette, its details (doors, windows and ornament) delineated in a limited range of values, and color very subdued. 

Rockefeller Center by J Wenrich 1931

Algae Harvester Plant, Illus. Studio AMD 2010

Although an unusual approach, this has been used regularly since Saarinen made it acceptable. With this light it is best to start with a building that has an interesting silhouette, but as the Wenrich rendering above shows, the compositional possibilities can be quite interesting.

AMBIENT LIGHTING

Panama-Pacific Exposition by McKim Mead & White 1915

An overcast day gave the perfect light for the early photography of Beaux Arts buildings. The diffuse, scattered light rays softly modeled the building’s forms without extreme glare or dark shadows. 

Casa Italia Proposal by BBW Arch

Marino Pedestrian Bridge

Today ambient light is used less because of photographic limitations, and more to emphasize the building’s design. A colorful building may present well in diffuse light, or the atmosphere of mistiness may sell the idea in context. Indeed, the most radical ambient light idea might be a foggy-day view finished in pastel. 

FERRISS LIGHTING

Chicago Tribune Bldg. by H Ferriss 1925

Chapel in the Woods by E Fay Jones Arch. 1980

Hugh Ferriss was best known for his drawings of tall buildings lit by the new electric streetlights. The use of artificial lighting has the obvious advantage of flexibility. You can light up the area of the façade you want from any angle you want. During my career I used this lighting whenever I could get away with it.

Union Square South, NYC, oil pastel

Glass Cage Night View, computer tablet

There are several disadvantages and pitfalls in working with this type of light. Ferriss worked in charcoal, avoiding the problem of exaggerated color. He was a master craftsman, but sometimes fell into overdramatization. I myself occasionally allowed the illustration to slip into Halloween mode: ending up with a jack-o’-lantern. 

SPOT LIGHTING

Sherry Netherland Hotel, NYC

The Star by E Degas 1878

A variation on both Ferriss and Saarinen lighting is the spot light. An afternoon shower can often produce an opening in the clouds that lets a beam of sunlight fall onto the ground. A beam of light striking a tall building at the end of a stormy day is even more common. The artificial spot light needs no explanation.

laCledes Landing, St. Louis by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut Arch

A spot light suggests a rather small lit area, such as a building or part of a building. However, it can be used quite reasonably to light up a neighborhood or a large section of a city. 

CONFETTI LIGHTING

Yellow Umbrella Cafe, computer tablet

Finally, I have to note a type of lighting that crops up in a more limited context but is nevertheless a powerful image that is found in both urban and rural areas. Confetti (name stolen from James Gurney’s blog) lighting is a scattering of small light sources such as Times Square at night or the ground under a canopy of tree leaves. 

Mending the Sail by J Sorolla 1896

Confetti light can be found all around us. After all, the world is astonishingly diverse. In spite of this, confetti is of very limited use to architectural illustrators, and I include it out of personal fascination.

 

I could point out many more types of light, but this list covers the most common and the ones that I have used. Hopefully it will spark discussion and exploration in young illustrators.

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Addendum:

The idea for a taxonomy of light came from 2 pages in a book I've had for some time: The Photographer's Handbook, by John Hedgecoe. The two pages are shown below.

FOCUS DEMONSTRATION

When you paint or draw an object, you can direct the viewer’s eye to whatever part of the object you want. The building owner may have asked you to highlight one aspect of the project, or the building may have several owners/investors with different goals.

Focus may not matter much when the object is compact, like a face or a small house, but it becomes important when illustrating a sprawling object, such as a long, low building or a tall, thin building. The following illustration of a glass and steel skyscraper is a good example of the problems and opportunities of focus. 

Throughout the process, focus was considered. 

The building was to be located in downtown Tampa, so most of its sides would be closely blocked by other, existing buildings. 

I tried several sketches, including the two above. The aerial view seemed to lose the new building in the crowd of existing buildings. The second view offered a wider range of ways to handle light without obscuring the building entirely. 

So I tried a couple of extra sketches, first a dark building on light background, and second a light building on dark background. Neither sketch was meant to suggest a final solution.

Next I built a computer model, including surrounding buildings and cars. On a print of the view, I added trees and people, and scanned the result.

Just to check my earlier sketches, I repeated my dark-on-light sketch, then added a study that placed a middle-value building between dark foreground buildings and grey background buildings. These are all rather pedestrian; in fact, at this point I was disappointed with the possibilities.

However, the visual properties of glass and steel provide opportunities to play with light and atmosphere and, of course, focus.

The four pastel sketches above try out lighting schemes that shift the focus on the building. At the top is a fairly standard approach emphasizing the building’s vertical unity, while the other three sketches focus on the top, the bottom, and both top and bottom. Any one of these sketches might lead to an interesting rendering, but in the end I just had to develop the last one. The ethereal idea of emphasizing the top and bottom of the building, while “losing” the middle of the shaft, has always fascinated me.

Here is the pastel color study developing that idea. I decided on a scenario after sundown, with artificial lighting providing most of the effect. Therefore you can see a muted reflection of the evening sky in the reflective glass of the top half of the building, and a warm glow of the street lighting at the base. Meanwhile, the steel mullions and interior walls and ceiling reflect the building’s floodlighting at the top and bottom, and interior lighting scatters a counterpoint up the entire shaft.

I felt confident enough in that sketch to go straight to final art. I figured I could do it best in Photoshop, since it has many layers and masks and is adjustable in a range of ways.

I took the final line drawing, which would provide plenty of detail, and began rendering each obvious area on a separate layer. 

First, the building’s vision and spandrel panels (both reflective).

Add the vertical stainless-steel ribs.

And finally, the building’s interior lighting at various floor levels.

Next, the basic blocks of the distant surrounding buildings are colored in various cool shades.

And the overcast sky.

The foreground context buildings take shape.

Finish covering the board with the streets, sidewalks and nearby park.

Bring the surrounding buildings up to reality with interior lighting and lighted signage.

At this point I had a passable rendering: realistic, accurate and dramatic. But hey, this was for my own enjoyment, and I had unlimited time. So I printed out that last image and started working it over in pastel. I changed the sky so the top of the building was obscured by the low clouds. I pushed all the far buildings into a uniform middle value. And I added to and loosened up the street-level light.

I thought the pastel was an improvement in overall impact and abstract composition. The focus was also stronger, although there was now a secondary focus of the light blue sky near the horizon.

So, finally, I pushed into the final in Photoshop. The result was more crisp and less strident but did have a stronger contrast at top and bottom, compared to the pastel. The center of the rendering became more homogeneous, with less contrast between the existing buildings and the sky. Squinting, I see a warm slash at the bottom of the image and a cool cloud at the top. At first glance you might not be sure what you are looking at, but on closer inspection the building comes clear.

...and there is plenty of interesting detail to draw you even closer.

I have addressed focus in a number of blog posts, but I’m going to round up a batch of examples soon.