The Artist’s Problem Solver. The Magazine Artist
point – you could shorten a tree, for instance, if it is exactly the same size as the church, your focal point.
SUMMING UP
In his book Composing your Paintings, Bernard Dunstan says: ‘It is dangerous, although tempting, to isolate the different aspects of painting from one another … everything in a picture that looks as if it could be taken out and examined as a subject by itself turns out to be dependant upon, and modified by, many other factors’. So although I have offered you a few basic ideas here about the focal point in relation to the composition of a picture, please be aware that it is only a small, if important, part of the whole painting.
TWO GARDEN CHAIRS
pastel on paper, 51 × 61 cm (20 × 24 in)
It is obvious that the foreground chair is the focal point of the picture. The shadows on the ground lead us in from the bottom edge of the rectangle to the chair, and the light tones of the chair contrast strongly with the dark surroundings. The second chair, repeating the angles of the first, provides an effective pictorial echo.
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CREATING DEPTH
I have difficulty in creating a sense of depth in my paintings. How can I achieve the effect of depth so that they appear more realistic?
Answered by: John Mitchell
There are several ways in which you can suggest depth: perspective, tone, overlapping, and weight of texture or line. In practice any picture will use a combination of these.
Perspective is probably the most obvious way to suggest depth. Unfortunately, it can become confusing with expressions like ‘vanishing points’ and ‘height lines’. So let us try to keep it simple.
These drawings demonstrate easy approaches to perspective. Practise by drawing matchboxes seen from different angles and follow this up in thumbnail sketches like these. Perspective is the main method of getting depth into paintings.
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE
Objects appear to get smaller as they get further back in the picture space. So a tree in the foreground will appear higher than a similar tree in the background. We all know about the effect of looking along straight railway lines as they run towards the horizon – they appear to come to a point. You can also get this effect by looking along the length of a table with your eyes at table height. Not only, therefore, do objects get shorter in the distance, they also appear to get narrower.
So far so good, but it gets a bit trickier with roof lines – how do we know when the line should run uphill or downhill? A common mistake is to make part of the drawing or painting look as if it has been seen from eye level and the rest from a helicopter. An obvious example is when a chimney top is drawn from above and the roof from below. Try to imagine yourself standing before the building. Draw the nearest corner, then if the roof line is above your eye level it will appear to run downhill away from you and the ground line will appear to run uphill. If you are drawing on site hold your pencil horizontally in front of one eye, against the building as it were – shut the other, and you will be able to see the correct angle very easily. If you are looking straight on at a building, the top and bottom lines will be parallel with the top and bottom of your page.
MOUNTAIN AND LOCH,
watercolour on thick cartridge paper, 15 × 23 cm (6 × 9 in)
The mountains were painted in increasingly stronger washes of Indigo. The darker areas appear to advance and the lighter areas to recede. Strong tonal contrasts bring the boat and the people ‘forward’ to give depth.
AERIAL PERSPECTIVE
Aerial perspective means that tones and colours will become fainter in the background. We all know about the ‘blueing’ effect in distant hills where sky and land become almost indistinguishable.
TONE
Try painting a picture using one colour. Allow the nearer tones to become stronger by building up one wash on top of another and you will create depth. Strong tonal contrasts in foreground details will develop it further.
OVERLAPPING
If you draw objects separately across the picture surface, you will struggle to create the effect of depth. On the other hand, if you allow some objects to overlap others you will immediately suggest their spatial positions. Make the ones in front bigger and more tonally developed and depth will be reinforced.
WEIGHT OF LINE
Dark, strong lines drawn against a light background will advance into the foreground. So vary your linear quality to exploit this effect in drawings or paintings. It is really the converse of how white chalk works on a blackboard. The contrast between black and white makes the chalk legible, but try using white chalk on white paper and it becomes difficult to see.
Little exercises like these, using overlapping and tonal contrast can be done quickly. It is possible to create all kinds of depth effects using these elements. Invent your own wonderful landscapes and worlds by playing about with viewpoints and eye levels.
HARBOUR WALL
watercolour, pen and ink, 63 × 44 cm (25 × 17 in)
Linear perspective was used in the drawing of the houses and the boat’s cabin. Notice that because the house tops are above us the roof lines slope down into the distance and we cannot see the top surfaces of the chimney supports. Aerial perspective has been suggested by using lighter tones and gentler contrasts in the background, saving the stronger effects for the middle and foregrounds. Overlapping was used extensively.
TEXTURE
Texture is a quality that can be so easily overlooked in painting. Try to develop your skill with it. Perhaps you could use thin washy paint layers in the background and thicker textural layers in the foreground. This is easier in oils or acrylics, but you can create varied textures in watercolours as well, by using dry brush, for example. Do not try using watercolour straight from the tube, however; it may crack as it dries. Respect your medium and work within its limitations.
Take one landscape or still-life subject and work it out in several versions using different depth techniques in each. Then try a combination of methods, in different proportions, to see which is most effective. These do not have to be ‘finished’ pieces; after all, you are hoping to learn from them. Quick, small studies are ideal.
Depth is something most of us try to achieve in our work. By experimenting with these techniques and exercises your skill will increase and your paintings improve.
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SEVEN-MINUTE SKIES
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