Understanding Light and Form in Representational Mosaics with Donna Van Hooser

Are you eager to improve your ability to capture light and shadows in your mosaic art? Does the thought of creating realistic depth and form seem daunting? Where do you start? How do you choose values that bring highlights and shadows to life? And how do you cut stained glass to achieve the best shapes for the natural flow of andamento?

If these questions and more have been swirling around in your mind, you are in the right place!

Renowned mosaic artist Donna Van Hooser brings her deep dive into Understanding Light and Form in Representational Mosaics to Mosaic Arts Online.

Light and shadow are essential for creating depth, volume, and realism in mosaic art. In this course, Donna breaks down the interaction of light with surfaces, helping you understand how it defines shape and structure.

The course begins with a lecture-style presentation designed to sharpen your observational skills. You'll learn how to analyze complex visual information and simplify it into manageable pieces by observing Donna’s photographic examples.

From there, you’ll dive in, watching Donna demonstrate her techniques on two separate mosaics, a still-life lime, and a dog’s eye, in her Color Freedom style.

Donna will demonstrate the dog's eye in an enlarged version to help you better see each color value and shape she chooses. There will be a PDF for download so you can follow along with creating your enlarged dog's eye for learning purposes.

In this course, you will also learn:

• How to choose stained glass colors based on the values that correspond with the image.
• Advanced cutting techniques to create precise tesserae for realistic shapes and shading.
• Strategic use of small tesserae to refine intricate details and subtle value shifts.
• The power of andamento—the movement of mosaic lines—to direct the viewer’s eye and enhance depth.
• Material selection strategies that incorporate different textures and values for shading and form.
• How to create a shadow in still life using stained glass

By the end of this course, you’ll have a deeper understanding of how to use mosaic tesserae to master light, shadow, and andamento, bringing depth and realism to your work.

Donna has provided a curated list of tools, materials, reference images, and handouts to support your learning.