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. Where I didn’t have a white line I wanted, I added it. This is about 14” high so you can see how wide the strips are.

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!