5 Ways To Create Depth In Your Painting

Painting with depth is not as easy as it seems but no need to worry because we’re going to break it down for you. With these 5 known ways to create depth, you’ll be well on your way to mastering the art and transforming your flat 2-dimensional surface into a captivating and realistic representation of 3-dimensional illusion.

1) Value

Let’s start with value - one of the most integral components to creating the illusion of depth in your artwork. Value is a property of color that signifies how light or dark a colour is and they are best understood as spectrums, scales or gradients.

When following the rules of value, typically you will notice that objects in the foreground are darker and objects in the background are lighter. Artist Susan Jenkins has a wonderfully helpful rule of thumb - vertical elements (for example, trees, mountains, etc.) are usually darker in value; whereas, elements on a flat plane will have lighter values. Essentially, this captures the light play as a result of the direction of the source of light. 

You can start the process by breaking down the objects and compositional elements of your piece into their basic form following which you can map out the values by underpainting. Underpainting refers to the technique in which you begin your painting process by creating a monochrome image. Typically, a thin layer of earth tones such as burnt umber and burnt or raw sienna, diluted with a paint thinner, is applied to the canvas. The term commonly associated with the use of earth tones in your underpainting is ‘Imprimatura’, an Italian word that translates to “the first layer”. Underpainting allows you to clearly identify the tonal values from the start of your process. This technique truly helps with colour placement and understanding the relationship between colour values. In an interview with artist and founder of Boynes Emerging Artist Award, Chantal Boynes, Australian artist and painter, 1st Edition Finalist, Casey Thornton describes her monochromatic underpainting approach after she has finished sketching the most important reference points in her piece. She explains that this vital step allows her to focus on the development of forms and the maintenance of a strong foundation. 

TIP:  In order to achieve a 3-dimensional effect and added depth after you apply colour, the shadows should be transparent and highlights should be opaque. This will also integrate some lovely contrast within your piece. 

Another great painting technique as it relates to colour value is blocking-in. Blocking-in is similar to underpainting as it is one of the primary steps taken in painting and it involves covering the entirety of the canvas with flat shapes or blocks to mark where different components and colours will go. Blocking-in does not focus heavily on detail but rather provides the artist with an opportunity to explore different colour values and the composition of a piece. You want to thin your paint and use a large brush to map out your painting and evaluate the harmony of all the hues you will be using. Once it dries, you can add detail, play around with highlights, shadows and contrast that will result in your finished piece. Start by creating a toned-down version of all the colours that you will be incorporating so that the initial stage can remain subtle. To do this, add a small amount of burnt or raw umber with some clear glaze to abate the hue. The goal is to work your way up to vivid and saturated colours and also to refinement. It might be easier for you to begin with the background and work your way up to the foreground and to make the most of your time, you can use acrylics to block in as they have a faster drying time in comparison to oils. You don’t want to be spending too much time in the blocking-in stage as it’s not about detail and is predominantly there to act as a guide. This technique is a great method for artists that don’t wish to become flustered about and focus on detail from the very beginning and rather have a broad vision that they’d like to make a reality. 

“Tom Petty Mad Hatter 1985 Caricature” //Digital Airbrush and Watercolour// by 2nd Edition Finalist, Paul King

2) Colour Intensity

As it relates to colour, you want to consider the significance of atmospheric perspective meaning that the number of air particles increases with the greater distance between you and an object. Chroma or colour intensity allows you to replicate this in your painting and it’s a useful way to incorporate a wonderful array of depth in your piece. An important aspect to consider regarding the interplay between colour, atmospheric perspective and depth is that colour intensity decreases as distance increases due to the greater quantity of air particles in between you and the object. This in turn means that in order to create depth, colours in the foreground should be more intense than colours in the background. Colours with the most intensity are referred to as hues or the pure colour. To decrease the intensity of the hue, you add white and this will create a tint. When you add grey to the tint, you’re creating a tone which is less intense than a tint. Finally, you have your shade which has the least chroma. To create a shade, you add black to your hue. For visual purposes, we’ve created the chart pictured below.

Chroma/ Colour Intensity

Hue - Pure/ original colour 

(highest chroma/ intensity)

↓ Colour intensity decreases by adding white

Tint

↓ Colour intensity decreases by adding grey

Tone

↓ Colour intensity decreases by adding black

Shade 

(lowest chroma/ intensity)

Basically, what you are doing here is neutralizing the colours. Neutralizing colours simply means that you’re adding either black, grey, an equivalent native color or its complement to your hue with the intent of reducing colour intensity.

“Cowichan Bay” //Watercolour// by 3rd Edition Finalist, Phillip Gagnon

3) Colour Temperature

Colour temperature is another element commonly used to create depth in a piece. It refers to the warmth or coolness of a colour. According to colour temperature rules and as a result of atmospheric perspective, colours that are in the foreground i.e. closer to you are generally warmer and colours in the background i.e further away from you are cooler but please note that this rule is dependent on the subject matter. The colour wheel is your handy guide to colour temperature because as you may have already noticed, warm colours such as red, orange and yellow are located on opposing sides of the colour wheel to cool colours like blue, purple and green. You can mix colours in order to create a warmer or cooler hue. For example, mixing primary red cadmium with primary lemon yellow will produce a warmer hue than mixing it with Byzantium (a dark tone of purple) and each different pairing will produce a different hue and a different level of depth. 

“Tuesdays Gone” //Oil on Canvas// by 3rd Edition Finalist, Nikita Budkov

4) Detail

Understanding detail in relation to depth in your artwork is pretty straightforward. Just like in photography, naturally objects in the foreground tend to have more detail and focus as compared to objects in the background which usually have less focus and detail. This is because it’s easier for the eye to see intricate details at close range. Translating this rule into your work will allow you to avoid the common problem when painting the illusion of detail which is painting detail in every element or object. If you do this, it can become very overwhelming for the viewer and it can also seem quite amateurish on the painter’s behalf. The ideal method to integrate is making use of feature details (pockets of detail that attract the viewer’s attention).

“Hideaway” //Watercolour and Acrylic// by 3rd Edition Finalist, Phillip Gagnon

5) Size Ratio

Another way of creating depth in your artwork is by examining the size ratios. Objects in the foreground should be larger than objects in the background. So, as distance increases, you’ll notice your objects getting smaller. This coincides with the linear perspective which also creates the illusion of depth. Let’s take the example of a road. You will notice that the sections of the road that are closer to you (the viewer) appear larger and as distance increases, the road appears to narrow. This is a result of linear perspective which impacts the relative size of elements. As stated in The Visual Experience, a book written by Hobbs and Salome, “Linear perspective is a way to show three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface using one vanishing point. One object faces the viewer; the lines defining other objects in the artwork recede at an angle to a single vanishing point on the horizon line” and in turn, this all creates the illusion of space, distance and depth. 

Conclusion

As we conclude, to bring everything together, generally to capture the illusion of depth in your paintings, follow these guidelines:

Foreground - warmer hues. higher chroma/ intensity, larger elements, darker values and more detail

Background - cooler hues, lower chroma/ intensity, smaller elements, lighter values and less detail

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Resources

5 Easy Steps to Create Depth in Your Artwork! Beginner Artists Will Love This! (Video) by Susan Jenkins