Learn to draw by Tissa Hewavitarane

A better sense of depth in the sky

The laws of perspective apply to the sky just as they do to the land - yet many perfectly good landscape paintings are ruined by a sky that looks like a limp curtain hanging at the back of the scene. There are a lot of mistakes done when painting the sky. For example, some skies appear vertical.

The clouds are too similar in size and shape and too evenly spaced, destroying the illusion of the sky receding into the distance. Another mistake some artists make is placing the horizon line to high up, so that the land competes with the sky for attention. If you want the sky to be the main feature, lower the horizon line so that the land become subordinate.

When the picture is composed, with a low horizon line, it makes us feel involved in the scene as if we were actually standing in the field looking at the heaped clouds advancing towards us. Clouds usually appear smaller, flatter and closer together as they recede into the distance, often merging into a haze at the far horizon. Perspective can be heightened even further in your painting by making the nearest clouds much larger and taller more clearly defined than the others.

In creating a sense of perspective in the sky, it helps to think of it as a vast dome stretched over the landscape, rather than the mere backdrop to it. Creating this dome like impression means applying the laws of atmospheric perspective as well as linear perspective. As we look into distance, intervening particles of dust and water vapour in the air cast a thin veil over the landscape and sky, making them appear greyer and less distinct.

Reproducing the effects of aerial perspective in your sky paintings will greatly increase the impression of depth and atmosphere. Note how everything is designed to lead the eye to the focal point. Even the clouds are designed to lead the eye down to the mountains and on to the house at the distance.

The impression of depth is much greater, too, because the row of trees take us into the picture.

The whole picture is beautifully choreographed in the interest of making a more balanced and coherent image. I have used 180 lbs Kent drawing paper using soft sable hair brushes Nos. 2, 3, 8 and 12 and three colours used with ultramarine blue, Lemon green with burn Sienna.