A Tip for Creating Depth in a Pastel Painting

'Marsh Music'         8x10         pastel          ©Karen Margulis
available $125

It still amazes me. The idea that we can take a flat piece of paper and create the illusion of a three dimensional reality. Imagine that! All we have are paper and a few sticks of pigment and yet if done properly we can create a painting that has depth. Creating depth is always one of my top goals for a landscape painting. There are some things we can do to help create this illusion of depth. Understanding aerial or atmospheric perspective it the key.

As objects recede into space the atmosphere causes their appearance to change.....things tend to get lighter, color, less intense, less detailed and there is less contrast.

In today's painting I tried to cover a few of these ideas with my focus on the level of detail I used.

The addition of clear gesso to provide more texture. It will dry clear.

In the foreground we can have as much detail as we want. It is in front of us so we can see all of the detail. As we go into the distance the level of detail decreases. Things get fuzzier! In my painting I purposely painted the distant trees as simple cool shapes. There are no details in those trees even though I saw details in my reference photo.

To emphasize the depth I wanted to have more clarity and detail in the foreground. It was a tangle of grasses and brambles at the edge of the creek. I wanted to capture this tangled feeling with some texture. I used my usual technique for creating texture in grass with some workable fixative. It just wasn't enough! I had an idea! A 'what if' moment!

•  I took out some clear gesso which has a slight grit and brushed it allover the foreground. I used random brushstrokes to convey the tangle of grasses. Once the gesso was dry I repainted the foreground. The pastel glided over the grooves leaving a nice 'grassy' texture. Click on the painting to see the detail.

Choosing Good Colors for Distant Trees

'Meadow Light'         12 x 18           pastel           ©Karen Margulis
available $195

It truly is one of the top secrets to a successful landscape painting. Creating the illusion of depth is something I take into serious consideration every time I paint. If I am successful the painting will invite the viewer to explore....to walk into the painting and discover what lies behind the trees and flowers. 

There are several ways to create a feeling of space or depth in a painting and they are the principles of linear and aerial perspective. Understanding and using these principles is important to successful landscapes. One of these tools is adjusting the value and color of objects as they recede. In most circumstances choosing lighter and cooler colors for the distant objects will make them appear farther away. But what colors are good choices for distant objects such as trees?

'Meadow Light Study'      6x8     pastel on Canson      $75

It is important to mention that color is relative. What appears light or dark or warm or cool changes depending on what is put down next to it. So a warm yellow green will appear warm unless something warmer is next to it....then it may actually look cooler.  There are also exceptions to the 'lighter and cooler' rule. For example you might have a shaft of brilliant warm light illuminating the distant trees....these trees would be warm.

 So with this in mind, there are some colors that I find work well most of the time for DISTANT trees, bushes and even hills and mountains. Look at my photo below for some of my 'Go To' distant tree colors.

A selection of effective colors for distant foliage/trees....a variety of pastel  brands

Notice that they are mostly grayed or neutral blues and violet and blue-greens. They are dull and subtle colors. But they are oh so beautiful for VERY distant treelines. There is a variety of pastel brands in my tray but they are mostly well used Terry Ludwig pastels. I find that using several of the distant colors in a tree line makes it more interesting.

NOTE: In addition to using these great colors in the distant trees, notice that I paint them with no detail. I paint them as loose shapes. There would be no visible detail this far back. This is another principle of aerial perspective.

The green pastel on the left is too warm/ yellow to work for far away trees

To illustrate how effective these gray blue pastels are for representing distant trees,  I placed a warm yellow green pastel in the mix (above) You can see how this green jumps forward. I used it in the big trees in the middle ground but it is too warm (yellow) for the distant trees.

TRY THIS: Have a look through your pastels and pick out some gray blues and greens and violets that might work for a very distant treeline. Now use these colors in a painting to test out your selection.

The Importance of Sprinkles

'Summertime in Maine'          8x10         pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $150 

 What would we do without sprinkles? Cupcakes would be boring for one thing. Ice-cream would be missing something. Sprinkles add the finishing touch to dessert.

A painting needs sprinkles too.

 I am preparing for a pastel demo for a local elementary school and was trying to find a way to describe the painting process in terms they could relate to. The cupcake and sprinkle analogy makes a lot of sense and not just for children! Today's painting illustrates this idea perfectly.

the painting before the finishing touches

I uncovered this older painting when searching for a painting of Maine for a collector. It was a nice concept and I enjoyed the colors but it was lacking something. The values seemed good and I didn't mind the composition so what was wrong? It was like a nice piece of cake but it wasn't very appealing. It lacked the frosting and the sprinkles. The frosting was needed to add contrast and the sprinkles were needed to bring the painting to life!

Often we stop painting just short of adding the sprinkles. We end up with a nice cupcake but we could make it even better with some well placed sprinkles.

To make this painting come to life I started at the top and added fresh pastel to the sky. I used a lighter green applied with a heavier hand to push the distant grass back. I used heavier marks for my final marks. Next I sprayed fixative on the foreground to darken it. I added more intense blues and purples to the Lupines so that they stood out from the grass. Finally I added a vibrant green to the grass where I wanted the viewer's eye to go.

Now scroll back up to the newly decorated painting. I love adding the sprinkles to a painting!

Stage two...darken the foreground before adding sprinkles

Three Problems Found in Reference Photos

'The Other Side of the Island'             8x10            pastel             ©Karen Margulis
purchase this painting $125

Photos can inspire wonderful paintings. Photos can also lead to bad paintings. They are loaded with things that can create problems if they are copied into a painting. Sometimes they are obvious but sometimes they are sneaky. I am always on the lookout for these potential problems.

There are three things that I have found to cause the most problems in a painting. The photo below is a good example of all three!

Bad color, too sharp and needed elements

•  Photos don't always capture true and accurate colors. Often the typical point and shoot camera set on auto doesn't capture the subtleties of the colors in the landscape. Green is a typical example. Often photos of green landscapes show the greens to be the same color and value from the foreground to the background. If we copy this color it can lead to a flat landscape with no depth or atmospheric perspective. Photos also sometimes don't get proper exposure for the darks and lights in the same picture....this leads to overly light skies and shadows that are too dark. My photo has all of these issues...lack of true colors, no change in the greens, darks too dark and lights too light.

• Cameras record things as they are, not how we see them. The resulting photos often have detail and clarity everywhere. In reality our eyes focus on only one thing at a time the rest is out of focus (we don't even realize this unless we stop and focus on one thing and try to see what is around it)  If we paint everything in crisp sharp detail it doesn't feel natural.  If I want to have depth in my paintings I have to over ride the photo and make sure things in the distance have less detail than things in the foreground.

• Photos often include elements that don't translate well in a painting. There are often things that are better left out. I call these things 'half trees'. These are objects that appear unnaturally on the edges of a photo...maybe half or less of a tree or bush, or maybe an overhanging branch.  I ask myself if the element needs to be in the painting (hold my thumb over it) If it does I make sure I put in more than half. Most of the time I leave it out.  My photo has a branch coming in on the left and a big weed sticking up from the bottom. I don't need either element.

first version of the painting

Painting Notes: 8x10 on gray canson. I started the painting with colors close to those in the photo. I found them to be too dull I didn't get as much depth as I wanted. I did leave out the branch and weed! I decided to spray the painting with workable fixative and add another layer of more intense colors.