Using Light in Rug Hooking

Using Light in Rug Hooking

Using light in your rug is what brings it to life and helps make it have realism. Light can be broken down into its component parts: direct light, reflected light, and light from the sky. When implementing light direction, it's important to keep in mind the following guidelines. The values are softer and the light is dimmer when you're in the shade or when it's early in the morning. Although this illumination narrows the tonal spectrum overall, it highlights the gradations of tone found in the middle of the spectrum. The sun's rays can cast a chilly blue light in the morning and a warm golden or pink light at night, respectively, which will define any color they fall upon. At sunset, even brightly lit things take on vague contours, while those in the shadows appear virtually black. During these periods of the day, highlights and shadows are more gradually transitioned, and colors tend to be more muted. Colors seem more pronounced and there are fewer tonal transitions between the highlights and shadows when viewed in direct sunshine. Light intensity decreases the sharpness of an object's outline. In areas where direct sunlight falls on an object, sharp shadows are cast along the edges. Because direct sunlight is the most striking, I increase light values of the areas where it strikes the high point of most planes.

 Remember that shadows cast by strong light are deep and sharp, while those cast by weak light are light and fuzzy. The color of the object or surface onto which a shadow is cast is reflected in the shadow; shadows are rarely completely gray. In the shadows, you can sometimes see hints of the opposite hue, or a darker version of the main color. Shadows can be made more interesting by adding splashes of reflected color from the item casting the shadow.

 Reviewing your pattern in its entirety can help you maintain the appropriate frame of mind. A pattern of an indoor scene should look colder in the areas that are in the light, and warmer in the areas that are in the shadows. Shadows in landscapes and outdoor situations will seem and feel colder than those in direct sunlight.

 Shadows push an object or scene back, while lights draw the viewer's attention to the foreground. The absence of light, as represented by a shadow, can tell us a great deal about a solid item, including its shape, size, and position in relation to other objects and the surrounding environment. Furthermore, they show where the source of illumination is located. An object's shadow will be different sizes and densities depending on the intensity of the light and the angle at which it is shining on the object. 

Knowledge of how light is absorbed and reflected by various materials is essential in rug hooking. Water behaves substantially differently from cloth in terms of light absorption and refraction. Cotton, silk, wool, and so on will all absorb and reflect light in quite distinctive ways.