Creating Depth in a Painting
by Linda Hammons
Make your paintings look more 3
dimensional, not flat!
These techniques can be used to
create depth in a painting whether it is
a landscape or a still life.
1) Layering objects….
2. Fading of colors….
3) Size of objects - get smaller in
distance
4) Bluer, cooler in distance, but skies
warmer toward horizon
5)Less detail on distant things and lots of
detail on close things
6) Exaggerated perspective, like making a pathway or
road very narrow in the distance and wide in the
forefront, more so than it would really be
7) Warm colors come toward you and cool recede
(surround warm center of interest color with cool color)
8) Edges less defined (lost) in the distance and
very crisp and sharp in area near to you
9) Dark recedes, light comes toward you (dark
around light, cool around warm, make painting
look 3D)
Lets use these general principles to
create a ‘Torn Landscape’…..
This is a great idea for paintings that just never
reached their potential! But remember…..just
because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean
someone else wouldn’t love it! It might ‘speak
to them’ from across a crowded room…..(I
know I hear music in the background)
1) First, you have the choice of a ‘vertical’
composition or a ‘horizontal’ one. We usually
think of landscapes as horizontal, but vertical
is very effective as well. In torn landscapes it
gives us the opportunity to use wider layers
and
more layers.
Note the use of
‘letters’ sideways
as the texture in
this strip!
Rice paper
The horizontal lines divide the scene into layers
and produce a restful effect. The eye normally
travels from left to right, and steadily upwards
through the scene.
• Don’t put your horizon in the middle of the
page, above or below ok.
• Don’t forget….a center of interest (or area of
interest) on a sweet spot
Before we continue lets look at some other
examples of torn landscapes….then we’ll build
our own!
Note this example is
a created with many
small torn pieces
placed in random
angles. It seems to
incorporate pieces,
the flowers, torn from
a magazine or a
photograph as well.
These could easily
have been painted
flowers torn into
various shapes and
placed in the desired
arrangement.
This painting,
‘Seascape’, was created
by tearing the paper in a
way that left a white edge
of various thicknesses
and shapes to simulate
wave tops.
‘The Hills are Alive with Color’
This is one of my painting (or parts
of a number of my paintings!) that I
created several years ago.
I painted the underlying paper
before placing the strips I had torn
on it. Notice that I tried to create a
rather zig zaggy pattern in the strips
to give you eye a path to follow up
the painting.
I put the tearings with the most
texture nearest the bottom, closest
to me in the landscape. I positioned
the sun to match the yellows and
golds in the upper tearings.
This is about 14” high so you can see
how wide the strips are.
Where I didn’t have a white line I
wanted, I added it.
This is another torn
landscape of mine, but in this
one I painted tissue and when
dry torn it into the shapes I
wanted.
You take artists’ tissue (acid
free) and place a sheet on an
opened garbage bag.
Then you can paint with a
brush gently, or stamp and
watercolor, or spray, drip,
throw, sand color pencils or
any other way.
Be careful not to tear the
tissue. It is VERY fragile when
wet. When dry remove from
garbage bag.
This one by an
unknown artist
incorporates the
white edges in the
background sky area
and gently added
pen work to the land
area and the details
closest to us.
Very simple and yet
very effective and
beautiful!
• So first, decide on vertical or horizontal
• You may already have a picture in mind and
will tear your papers with that in mind.
• Usually you will tear without a specific picture
in mind and as you arrange and rearrange
your tearings, you will develop a painting in
your mind.
• Generally you are creating tearings in strips to
start. Don’t make them too thin! At least a
couple of inches wide. You can tear later into
smaller or thinner strips or reshape them.
• If you want a White Edge….hold the dry paper
flat with your left hand and tear the paper
with your right hand, pulling up, you will leave
a white edge on the flat paper.
• We are making a landscape, but you can create any
kind of painting you want even a portrait!
• For a landscape, start laying out your strips.
Remember, warmer land or water closer to
you, cooler as it moves back away from you.
Details are close to you, smoother, fewer
details farther away. For your skies, cooler at
top and warmer close to horizon. Look back
over the principles we talked about at the
beginning. Remember, everything is relative
to everything! A cool yellow is cooler than a
warm yellow! Warms come toward you, cool
away.
• Step back when you think you are done and
look at the collage painting you have created.
You need to lay it on the floor to get a look at
it if it is not tacked down with masking tape.
Look over the principles we discussed one last
time. Ask yourself, do you have a center or
area of interest that the viewer will return to?
Remember, you can add texture with your
paints, watercolor pencils, pens, or stencils.
You might also need to add another tearing to
get the look right.
My start!
(With collages papers)
When you are
satisfied with yours,
glue it down, put
something heavy
on it until dry, and
sign it! You have
created a
watercolor collage!
Please, take a
handout!