How to Light Your Art Studio: The Complete Guide to Lighting for Artists

In this video, I'll be going over how to light your art studio, with beginner and budget friendly tips for improving your home studio lighting setup! This complete guide to lighting for artists includes brightness, color temperature, the color rendering index (CRI), working with natural light, how to light timelapses, and so much more. This video was filmed in 4K, so enjoy at full resolution!

Remember: the most important thing is that you keep creating. Your lighting can be improved over time, and in stages. But don't let poor lighting hold you back...just keep making art!

Products mentioned in the video:
*Please note that these are affiliate links and that I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases

My lights: T8 LED 5000K Daylight bulbs from Waveform (I typically just use one or two, but I have up to four that I can use if necessary...but it's rare). I also have two 5000K Waveform bulbs with an E26 base (standard lightbulb base) that I can use in my table lamps if I want to have everything be the exact same, but I usually just have 2700K bulbs dimmed down for ambience.

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Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:18 Key Principle of Lighting: Optical Compensation
01:59 Element 1: Brightness
03:39 My Personal Levels of Brightness
04:13 How I Adjust the Brightness of a Table Lamp
04:39 Proximity of Lighting
05:00 Proximity Demonstration
06:28 Diffusion of Lighting
06:47 Diffusion Demonstration
07:13 Main Takeaways of Brightness
07:39 Element 2: Color Temperature
08:39 Why Artists Need Daylight Bulbs
09:30 Color Temperature Demonstration
11:29 Color Rendering Index (CRI)
12:44 My Personal Studio Lightbulbs - Waveform
13:10 CRI Demonstration
14:01 Do You Need a Fancy Light Just for Artists?
14:24 Working with Natural Light
14:51 How Window Direction Impacts Light
16:08 Supplementing Natural Light with Artificial
16:56 Timelapse Lighting: How to Light for a Timelapse
17:47 Final Takeaways and Summary

If you're new to my channel, hi! I'm Marianne, self-taught artist and trained educator, and I make painting fun and accessible regardless of skill level. I teach in acrylic and oil, and I'm currently learning watercolor and gouache. My favourite subjects are flowers, landscapes and birds, and I adore working in my sketchbooks. I'm also a mom of beautiful twin six year old boys, which keeps me busy off camera.

[kendraclarke]

Another incredibly educational video!
“Art made in poor light is still better than not creating any art!” 😍

[nrthrnscpe]

Some really great tips in here Marianne! Content is eloquently delivered, as always! Love watching your videos!

[Classicartist]

Hi my wonder teacher Marianne,
don't give up because you are a great artist

[stephanieregal]

I’m about to move into a new art space and needed this so much!!!❤

[ArtistMysh]

3:10 definitely true I've experienced that 😂😂

[francineh.]

This video was extremely helpful, especially with our Canadian winter approaching! I'll have to stop in at Home Depot tomorrow. I loved your canoe painting and what a great view you have out of your studio window!!

[ArtistMysh]

Hi Marianne your paintings are
Super realistic and your videos are so much fun to watch I really wanna see more sketchbooks and landscape paintings 😊😊can I get a pin 📌 please 😅

[ArtistMysh]

Why don't you try water colour they are so much fun 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊