Perspective in landscape painting

by Tissa Hewavitarane

The word perspective can be frightening to some who are still learning to paint. Some students at first find it a total mystery. In landscape painting, however, the perspective is less of a problem than it is, for instance, in drawing buildings.

There is less need to worry about linear perspective, rather the need is to concentrate on aerial perspective reading colours and tonal values which create the illusion of space and depth.

The atmosphere through which we view the landscape is filled with particles of dust and water vapour. These will seem to cast a blue-grey veil over distant objects and even over not-so-distant objects. As a result, they dull the colour and also reduce the surface detail. Colour changes, as much as lines and shapes.

Aerial perspective

Aerial perspective is one of the most useful techniques in watercolour which gives the illusion of depth better than anything else. It is based on the basic principle of nature that light tones seem to reduce into distance where as dark tones seem to come forward. The next important thing to realise about the recession is that objects also appear to contain more blue when they get more distant. The greens in grass and trees, for example, are quite pale and bluey at two miles away and they get richer and warmer to the viewer.

One would be surprised how many art students seem to be unaware of it. At any rate they forget it as soon as they start painting. They see what is obviously a dark tree and the horizon about ten fields away so they paint in a strong dark tone, forgetting that they are still about five layers of trees before the foreground is reached.

In other words, they have used up their tonal big guns in the background and have nothing more powerful left to the foreground. The same applies if too rich a green is used for a distant field which should have been held in reserve for a nearer one. I always suggest any student to paint, from the furtherest distance gradually moving forward in planes to the foreground.

Counter change

Counter is the placing of dark shapes against light ones, and light shapes against dark. Basically this is contrasting areas of dark and light areas of dark and light as on a chess board. The principle should be locked in your mind all the time when you're painting almost like a boxer waiting for the opportunity to use his favourite punch.

All the great masters used this principle when they composed their work but unless you're aware of what's going on you probably accept it without appreciating it.

One would only realise how important it is when you see painting done by someone who hasn't yet learnt about counter change. A house may be put next to a tree, but with the same tone, even though they may be of a different colour, and the only way they can be separated is by having a line on top to show up the edges which is incorrect.

What they should be doing instinctively is to darken the tree to show up the edge of the house or darken that bit of the house where it comes in front of the tree.

The most obvious way of stressing the main centre of interest can be achieved very dramatically by putting the darkest dark in the picture against the lightest light, such as the pure white sail of yacht that just happens to be passing in front of a very dark tree.

The same principle should be at work in a less obvious way all over the picture, but these things don't just happen by accident in a painting. They have to be thought out before hand. Put the idea of counter change into your head permanently and use it at all times as part of your armoury.

I have painted a simple landscape with trees to demonstrate the effects of aerial perspective. In the distance the trees are small, a flat cool green is applied with no detail. In the middle ground I have added green with a mixture of light wash of burnt sienna and have painted the trees and bushes in two values, light and dark. By using the aerial perspective I have created an illusion of depth and space on my paper.

Weather

When painting landscape it is vital to consider the weather. It is of no use to paint the sky grey to portray a cloudy wet day and then to paint the rest of the picture in bright colours as if it were a sunny day. The painting demonstrates the effects of light on the landscape. To me it portrays a typical Sri Lankan landscape on a hot summer day. It also demonstrates, as I have described, the aerial perspective. To bring the foreground forward I used a very watery mixture of lemon green with a layer of transparent glaze over the foreground to brighten it. The colours I have used in this painting are lemon green, burnt sienna, sap green, orange and ultramarine blue.