Tutorial 1C

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A Study in Sunlight and Shadow

Here is a photograph of a footbridge on Grandview Drive in Peoria, Illinois.

The time was late afternoon when the sun is lower in the sky and casts shadows almost parallel to the ground.

Let's examine the color families of sunlight and shadow as well as the color temperatures of each.

Here you see the seven colors we'll study. 

A B C are colors of the grass.

D and E are colors of the shadowed side of the footbridge.

F and G are colors of the sunny side of the footbridge.

C is in the sunniest area of the grass where the line points to.  This green is lightest and it is found in the yellow green family.

B is just under those little flowers beneath the bridge.  It is in the green family and is a little darker than green C.

A is farther away from the light source and thereby is cooler.  This is a blue green color. 

D is on the shaded side of the footbridge along the bottom edge where the line is pointing to. This is a grayed purple hue.

E is still on the shaded side but not as close to the ground, thereby able to receive a bit more light.  This is a grayed blue because it receives its light from the sky, not the direct sunlight. 

F is on the front of the pillar where it receives light but is not the  plane that directly faces the light source, so the sunlight is not able to wash the color from this area and the result is a richer warm color, that of grayed red. 

G is on the plane that faces direct sunlight and is the lightest brightest color on the footbridge. This color is in the orange family, thus has more yellow in it than color F. 

Thus we have learned that the objects illuminated by direct sunlight are warmer such as orange and red.  The lightest contains yellow, the color of sunshine. 

The grass is a cooler color to begin with but in the area of ground that receives direct sunlight the grass green contains a lot of yellow, thus producing a yellow green.  Whereas that part of the green grass that does not receive direct sunlight is lighted with the clear blue sky, so that flavors the green, thus producing a blue green hue. 

Now notice that the value of each color is progressively darker the farther away from the sunlight.  This is seen on both the bridge and the grassy lawn.

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