NOTE  -   this is a transcript of material covered in a class I taught last week, with a group of members of the Sackville Art Association, in Sackville, NB.     Here's some of the group members hard at work, planning and creating their landscape paintings. 

The world we live in, the “real world”, has 3 dimensions - we call it 3-D.  We have Height, Width, and Depth. Our binocular vision (looking at the world with 2 eyes) is the primary factor in our ability to see “depth” when we look around us, for each eye sees a slightly different version of the same scene, and these two images then overlap in our brains, giving us our sense of 'depth perception'.

Without this binocular vision, as in someone who has lost the sight in one eye, this depth perception is compromised. It's like looking through a camera lens, which has only one 'perspective' on the scene in front of it - just Height and Width, which we refer to as 2-D. Similarily, this lack of depth perception in the camera lens presents challenges when we use our photos as reference sources for paintings.

Then, whether working from life or from photos, we are further limited by the very paper or canvas we are using. These supports have only two dimensions - Height and Width. There is no depth in a flat piece of paper, and so we need to use specific techniques in order to fool the viewer's eye into believing that it is actually there.   In short, to keep a landscape painting from looking like just a flat design on paper, we need to use 'tricks' to create an illusion of depth.  But before we get to the techniques, let's review a few basics first.

LANDSCAPE COMPOSITION

We can think of a landscape painting as a jigsaw puzzle - we take various parts, or elements, and fit them together to form an image which is interesting to look at, and which conveys a mood or tells a story. This “composition” involves many different aspects, all of which are important, and all of which work together to create a pleasing visual effect.

FORMAT - We start out by deciding on the size and format (shape) of the painting-to-be. The format itself has an effect on the overall impact of the completed image. It's easier to create a sense of distance in a horizontal format than in a vertical one. This is due to the fact that our natural 'field of vision' is a wide horizontal band.

You can test this for yourself .. stare straight ahead, then without moving your eyes, and using just your peripheral vision, hold one hand above your eyes and one below your eyes, and move them until both 'just disappear' from your peripheral view. This marks the 'height' of what you can see.    Then do the same thing to mark the side boundaries of your visual field, to find the 'width'. You'll discover you've defined a horizontal swatch of space - that is your natural visual field.

Because of this natural visual 'preference', horizontal landscapes are in general more successful, since the viewer's eye is able to relax and wander around the painting comfortably. You could say a horizontal landscape gives a restful feeling.

By contrast, a vertical format is more energetic, since the eye has further to travel from bottom to top of the image. This type of painting can be very effective to emphasize certain subject matter, like waterfalls, tall trees, etc. While such a vertical landscape can be very dramatic, it's much trickier to obtain the illusion of depth, and requires careful attention to technique.

FOCAL POINT - Remember the 'rule of thirds' when determining where the main area of interest will be in your landscape composition. Also, bear in mind that the main focus shouldn't be too far in the distance, or it loses its impact - crop as much as necessary in order to zero in on the main focal area. It's equally important to remember that everything in the painting should relate somehow to the main area of interest ... avoid secondary elements which distract too much from the main focus.

ENTRY POINT - Aim for a natural-looking visual entry point into the foreground of the painting (remember the rule of thirds again), and build a natural-looking path for the eye to follow in the painting. Be conscious of this goal when you first sketch your basic composition plan.

This entry point and visual path need not be actual objects, but can be accomplished by the use of strategically placed shadows etc. This is also where moving items around can benefit the overall impact ... partly by adding directional cues, and partly by eliminating distractions. If there is no obvious entry point in what you are painting, feel free to invent one. It's the painting that matters, not whether you paint only exactly what is there.

The most natural path for the eye to follow is bottom left to top right. This is influenced by nature, in the fact that when we look at scenery outdoors it spreads out in front of us from foreground to background, which is from the bottom to the top of our visual field. Then, in our culture we learn to read from left to right, and so this becomes our 'normal' eye movement direction for looking at most things.

LINES - Make the most of lines in your composition, both defined ones and suggested ones. A 'defined' line might be a row of fenceposts, or a riverbank, etc. A 'suggested' line might be a seroes of shadows, or grass blades bending in one direction from the wind, etc.

Also remember how different types of lines can impart different effects in a painting. While horizontal lines are restful, vertical lines suggest more energy or grandness. Curved lines are soothing, while converging lines deepen the sense of distance.

A FEW LANDSCAPE TIPS

- Don't include everything you see in front of you - be selective, focus on the main elements which give the feeling of the scene.

- Use your imagination, feel free to move things around if it makes a better painting ... if a tree is growing on the right side of your view, but it would make a better composition if it were on the left side, go ahead and paint it there.

- Include foreground interest ... the foreground should show more detail than the background - this helps develop the distance perspective, or depth.

- Make use of 'framing' elements for added unity - archways, doorways, windows, a gap in dense foliage, overhanging tree branches, bridges, shadows, etc

- Do the same scene more than once ... do a series of paintings, based on the same scene ... each time you do it you will see something different and find a different way to interpret what you see.

TECHNIQUES FOR ADDING DEPTH TO LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS

LAYERS - Think of landscape paintings as being made up of 4 separate layers, which overlap each other ...

1. sky - can help frame a painting, or set the mood, or provide an 'exit point' for the eye

2. background - provides a 'backdrop' against which the other layers rest

3. middle-ground - usually contains the main area of interest ...

4. foregound - provides an 'entry point' into the scene, gives a 'starting point' for the eye to follow

HORIZON LINE - The horizon is the line where the land or sea 'appears' to meet the sky. The position of the horizon line can influence the focus of a landscape painting ... it's a vital clue to the overall relationship of all parts of the landscape to each other.

• low horizon - emphasizes distance, sky ... indicates viewer is at ground level

• high horizon - emphasizes importance of foreground & middle-ground .. indicates viewer is looking down from a higher vantage point

If the horizon line is either too high or too low, the overall impact of the painting can feel awkward to the viewer. Not necessary to stick rigidly to the 'Rule of Thirds', but good to remember to have enough space both above and below the horizon line to make a pleasing arrangement of space.

LINEAR PERSPECTIVE - Objects appear smaller as they recede into the distance. This can readily be seen in a road which runs from the foreground to the background ... the sides of the road converge as they recede into the distance,  and this serves to pull the viewer's eye into the painting.

One easy and effective way to create an illusion of distance is to include an element of a known size which gets smaller as it recedes into the distance. Roads, railway lines, trees, fenceposts, etc, all can work in this manner..   Adding a figure (or figures) to a landscape is another easy technique to show distance, and a sense of scale as well. Our eyes tend to gravitate toward figures (either people or animals), and our brains then can automatically determine the scale of everything else in the painting.

AERIAL PERSPECTIVE - The atmosphere itself has an effect on how easy it is to see details in objects as they recede into the background. The further away an object is, the more vertical 'layers' of atmosphere there are to interfere with our ability to see the details of the object.

Objects in the foreground show clearly defined edges, and details are apparent. The same object located in the middle ground is less clear, and details become less discernible. And, the same object located in the background loses much of the detail, and it may be difficult to determine the actual identity of the object. Objects in the background are therefore best rendered as just a 'suggestion' of the basic shape and colour.

One simple technique to add depth is to adjust the tonal values in different parts of the painting, depending on whether they are closer to the foreground or set in the background. In general, using a lighter tone, or value, will push an area further into the background, and this immediately gives a sense of depth.

As objects recede from foreground to background, the contrast between tonal values also becomes less obvious. Dark values in the foreground quickly change to medium values in the middle ground, while light values in the foreground remain as light values in the middle ground, so the contrast between the lightest and darkest values in middle ground is reduced. In the background this contrast narrows even further, so there is very little difference between darkest and lightest values.

COLOUR PERSPECTIVE - The atmosphere also has an effect on the appearance of colours. Particles in the air act as a filter for light waves, and blue light passes through the 'filter' more easily than other colours, so things in the distance appear blue. The warmest colours are the most affected by this filtering effect. For this reason we say that 'Warm colours advance, while Cool colours recede'. As objects move from foreground to middle ground to background, the colours appear lighter and bluer.

Colours become less intense as they recede into the distance as well, and become closer in tone to the background colour (usually blue). So a red object will become lighter and more purple as it goes further back, and eventually will appear light blue. There is less contrast between colours.   Dark tones are altered more than light tones,  while pure white maintains its tone even as it recedes into the background.

As a basic 'recipe' for applying colour perspective to your landscape paintings, think :

• Foreground = 'Normal' tones

• Middle Distance = A Little Lighter in Tone, and Bluer

• Far Distance = Much Lighter, and Bluer

EDGES - Here we're talking about Hard and Soft edges. Foreground edges will be 'harder' and more defined, while those in the middle ground will be 'softer', and in the background some edges may be blurred, or 'lost'. This creates visual depth as well.

So there we have it. Some 'tricks of the trade' to fool the eye into 'seeing' depth in a flat painting. It's all sleight of hand, folks. Magic.

*****