Tip: Creating the Illusion of Light in Middle Values

By increasing the intensity of a mid-value color you can create the illusion of light. The higher saturation makes the color glow and appear as if the object has direct sunlight shining on it. This can be done even without raising the value of the color using white or some other lighter pigment. For example, if you add cadmium yellow to yellow ochre it will make the color appear more brilliant than if you added white to lighten the ochre.

Take the following painting for example. The first image is in black and white so it is easy to see that the artist used medium values to represent the foreground trees. The sunny side of the trees are no lighter than the background mountains.

 

Now look at the full color version of the same painting. The trees seem to glow with light! The trees appear much lighter than they are because of the intensity of the color, not because the value has been increased.