One of the most difficult things to talk about with regards to lighting design is composition. Part of this is due to the fact that light is so ephemeral that even with pictures and illustrations the ideas are slippery. As a result, most discussions of composition fall into explorations of lighting angles and their effect on the human figure. While this is necessary information, its utility is limited. Composition is more than knowing what backlight does or what red does. It is knowing what and how these fit together into a larger whole. I approached issues of composition indirectly in my series on color theory but again, this was looking exclusively at color rather than taking an integrated approach and extracting a theory. What I will be looking at in this brief series is a general approach, or orientation, to thinking about composition.
Many of my ideas about composition stem from my earliest artistic endeavors. When I was a child I loved the game Dungeons and Dragons. I played regularly, read over the rule books incessantly, but of import to this post, I painted lead figures with the zeal of a fanatic. By the time I was a teenager I had become good enough at painting these 1″ fantasy figures that I was selling them at the local games shop to fund my painting habit (I was an early entrepreneur). I painted countless hundreds of these figures. Self taught in that realm, I developed a system for approaching their painting which maps almost perfectly to lighting design and has guided my thinking as a designer, in some form or another, since I started.
The figures themselves are made of lead, or some other soft metal. The first step is to prime the metal for the application of paint. Either a grey or black primer would be used, typically black, as it would help to deepen the shadows. Once primed and dry, the first layers of paint would be applied. These would be the broad, general, colors of each main area, perhaps a dark brown for the tunic and leggings, a green for the cape, medium blue for the skin (these are fantasy figures after all), and yellow for the hair. This would be the first phase. It gives a basic outline of the look of the figure.
Phase two deals with shadow and tone. Once the basic colors are dry I would apply a toning wash to the different areas. This would be a similar hue as the base color but often darker and slightly cooler. The paint itself would be greatly watered down, to allow it to concentrate in the valleys and folds of the figure, and have less of an impact on the areas of highlight. The brown for the clothes might have a little black added to it. The green for the cape would get some blue. To the blue of the skin I would add some red. For the yellow hair, orange.
Once all the shadow washes were dry, I would go back over the various areas with the original color using a drybrush technique to bring that color back. I would then go over that with progressively lighter drybrush layers to really make the highlights and shadows have a strong contrast. As I was highlighting, I would use split compliments to heighten the contrast. So if the toning for the green cape added blue, then I would add yellow to the base color for the highlights. This general outline yields strongly contrasting shadows and highlights, and gives the figure a distinctive look.
The final touch would be detail elements like belts and belt buckles, eyes, fingernails, jewelry, and other small items. Once all that was complete, the whole figure would get sprayed with a clear sealant to protect the paint.
Lighting for the stage follows the exact same structure. First, we prime the space by turning off all the lights and creating a darkened stage. Second we turn on our primary visibility lights. Depending on your approach these may be frontlight or they may be sidelight. Or something else entirely. Once we can see our performer, we address the shadows. This is typically done through a low front position, a backlight position, or a high sidelight position. When the shadows are complete, we turn to highlights. These might be low sidelights for example. The result is a composition rich in texture and a figure that is fully dimensional.
Depending on the tone of the show, the treatment of shadows and highlights will vary. In a musical comedy, the visibility light might be diagonal front lights in R53. The shadow/toning lights an L079 from the balcony rail and an L180 backlight. The highlights, a high side in L152 and R302 Head hi booms. In a dark minimalist opera, the visibility light might be clear head his, the shadows darkness, and the highlights L201 shins.
While the specifics of color and angle will vary depending upon the needs of the production, the general approach remains constant. As lighting designers for live performance, we are concerned with visibility, shadow, and highlight. Having a clear framework to approach composition is a powerful tool that allows the designer to clearly and directly approach a work.
In my next post I will continue with part two of this series, Lighting the Scenery.
What did you think of this post? Please let me know in comments.
