Chiaroscuro

“It needs more light on the front to make it shiny. I keep adding white and yellow, but that only washes everything out.
'You need to add a bit of shadow back here.' Miss Moore dips a brush in sepia and paints a curve along the outside edge of my apple. Immediately, the shine on the apple is apparent, and it looks much better.
'The Italians call this chiaroscuro. It means the play of light and dark within a picture.'
'Why couldn’t Gemma simply add the white to make the apple shine?' Pippa asks.
'Because you don’t notice the light without a bit of shadow. Everything has both dark and light. You have to play with it till you get it exactly right.'

 –Art class conversation between Miss Moore and the First Class, page 266, A Great and Terrible Beauty