Artificial Vs. Natural Light
I mainly paint landscape, so when I am outdoors I am amongst the natural light. It is the most beautiful and balanced light. When I move into the studio, I am using reference photos and also my studies from the field, so I do not need natural light in my studio. Now, if you paint the figure, that could be a different story. If you want to paint a figure from life then I would say natural and north light is amongst the best. It is really good to have in this situation because it does give the most beautiful light you will find. It depends on what you are painting, but you could paint both figures and still life from artificial light also. The advantage of artificial light is it is constant, it does not change.
As a landscape painter, It would not make sense for me to have natural light flowing in my studio. When I step in the studio, I would not want to be controlled by natural light. I don’t want to get controlled by the daylight and the shorter days of winter or long days of summer. Nowadays, we have artificial light that gives us a choice. Most paintings artists paint are from artificial light. It is great to have both options. I am saying this from a landscape artist’s view so I would obviously urge you to paint from natural light as much as you can. Once you learn to paint from natural light and master that, it will be an easy transition to go to artificial light. There is nothing wrong with artificial light, but if you are just learning, you should paint as much from natural light as you can.
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