To create a believable space in a painting,
you need to create depth
but how do we do that when we are painting
on a flat piece of paper?
I'm sure you already know how
because you are looking at those things every day.
Hi, this is Eric from Cafe Watercolor.
Recently I went to Cannon Beach in Oregon,
it's the first time I was there.
Even though I've seen countless photo of the place,
seeing it in person was an amazing experience.
I took some photos of the scenery,
even though I think I can never do it justice
I still want to give it a try and painting it.
The most distinct element in this scene is depth.
So I thought it's appropriate for me to talk about
creating depth in a painting today.
Now, when trying to paint a believable scenery painting,
creating depth is very important.
It doesn't matter if it is a cityscape,
nature landscape, or even still life.
Some subjects can feel more obvious than others
but the concept applies to pretty much all of them.
So today I'm going to share with you
how to work with the three basic elements
to create depth in the painting.
These elements are not just for Watercolor,
they are basic principles for every painting.
Most of the time, the depth is created
by at least two of this elements,
and in the case of this scene, all three applied.
Number one, value and contrast.
If a scene doesn't have a direct light source
such as an overcast day, you can see a very clear
that things are much lighter and lower in contrast
in the distant than they are up-close.
That's because there is a lot more atmosphere
in between to cover them up.
This is most obvious during a foggy morning.
Without an atmosphere, we won't be alive
but we also won't be able to perceive depth the same way.
If you ever get to travel to the moon,
this is what you're going to see.
Aside for the scale of the rocks
and the sharpness of the image,
the value is pretty similar throughout
that's due to the lack of atmosphere on the moon surface.
Even on a sunny day, things that are further away
are going to have less contrast than what's up close
because the light on the atmosphere
will make the dark in distance appear to be lighter.
Number two, color.
Similar to value and contrast, things that are further away
are much less saturated because the colors we see
are made of light.
The further things are away from you,
the longer distance light has to travel to reach your eyes.
Some of the colors of light get absorbed into the atmosphere
During a sunny day, the color blue get absorbed the most
by the atmosphere, that's why the sky is blue
and things that are further away are bluer.
The color red can travel longer distance than blue.
That's why as sunrise and sunset
when the sun is further away from us,
we see mostly red and orange.
And by the way is why we should try to eliminate blue light
at night because our body associate blue light to daytime
it will suppress your body produce melatonin
makes it harder to relax and go to sleep.
Anyways, this is not a science channel.
So the simple way to remember
is that things that are further away,
have closer overall color to the sky.
Should have said at first and save you some time, sorry,
and numbers three, sharpness.
Our eyes has a visual range.
Even if you have 2020 perfect eyesight
you are not able to see things that are a mile away
as clearly as they are five feet close to you
unless you are an eagle that has a two-mile of visual range
and can see UV colors, things will look more blurry
and less detailed in a distance.
So sharpness and adding the variance
of less saturated color and contrast into the mix,
you will be able to make things look very far away.
All these elements are what you can see in the real world
because of the atmosphere.
So next time when you are outside, take some time to observe
and what's important is to understand them
and push them in your own painting.
Remember, we are creating optical illusions
on a flat surface.
So dial those elements up a bit to create better depth.
Okay, now let's take a look at a process of this painting.
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Okay, let's get started.
Okay, so let's talk about a process of this painting.
So first of all, I apologize
for the camera set up for the palette.
It was still in a position for my last painting
which is a portrait painting, the pallet was smaller.
So I forgot to adjust that.
Fortunately, the color for this specific painting
is pretty simple.
So I did a pretty simple line drawing.
This scenery is pretty much all organic shapes.
There is no many shapes such as building and stuff.
So as relatively forgiving, you don't need to make
exactly the same as the photo.
The important thing is to get the placement
and a scale relatively close though.
So one of the beauties in this scenery
is the sense of scales.
So if you comparing the figures
to the background rocks, the sense of scale
is really, really nice, really, really beautiful.
Those rocks looks massive comparing to the skeletal figure.
So those are the things there I want to capture.
So I switched to a mechanical pencil
and did some small figures.
The shape language is very important
since they are very, very small.
There's not a lot of detail to make them look more
like figure than just the silhouette.
And watch out for the perspective.
All of the figures are standing on the same flat surface.
So all of the heads of the figures show lining up
pretty nicely since they all the same eye level.
If the figure precision is way off then of whole place
is not going to feel as flat as it should be.
So I'm making some mark for the shoreline, the puddles,
and by the way, this full length demo, the unedited one,
is part of the bonus for my Watercolor Essential course.
I just uploaded it.
So if you're interested, definitely check it out.
If you're already enrolled, look out for my email.
So in my unedited video, I talk while I paint
so I can share every single step of the process.
This is a free bonus content that I continuously update
for the people who enrolled my course.
Anyway, so I pre-make some color for my first watch
which is the sky and some of the sand color.
So the sky is mostly just cobalt blue.
cerulean blue is a little bit of burnt umber
to neutralize the blue.
So it's not going to be as saturated.
And I pre-wet the sky portion of the painting.
There's no need to leave out any white
for this particular painting
because nothing is really that bright.
Everything is kind of foggy
and even the bright in the sky and the reflection puddles,
it doesn't have to be completely white.
So while the paper's still wet,
I start to paint some soft clouds
and also the background mountain
especially the one in the middle,
half of it is cover in fog.
So somewhat wet work for the background
and I clean my brush,
I squeeze all the moisture to keep my brush damp,
and I use that to soften some edges
and lift off some paint
so I can get more foggy effect in the distance.
So I'm mixing a thicker mixture
while the paper's still moist just to get
a little bit more defined shape in the background.
So they're still, in the distant they're still pretty soft
but they're just a little bit more defined
than rests of the background, just so that we have
a little bit more distant varieties in the background.
And at this stage, the sky is done.
So whether you like it or not it's better to leave it alone.
The more you mess with it, the less fresh it's going to look
and you are running into the risk
for getting colorful edges.
So now I add some more burnt umber,
give more thicker mixtures for me to paint the middle ground
so the middle ground mountain obviously is a lot darker.
So I didn't do a value study for this one,
but if I would, the middle ground mountain
is going to be the middle value
while the background and the sky, the puddles,
they are going to be light value.
So here I've finished the middle ground mountain
for the left.
I'm just using a clean water
just to bring that pigment down,
to get it a little bit lighter
And again, as some wet on to wet work,
add just a little bit more mixtures into the background,
get a little bit more varieties.
Some more thickness, a little bit of textures, soft details.
And as soon as I paint the middle ground,
you can immediately see the sense of depth
just by changing the value,
changing a sharpness and adding a little bit more color.
Painting the middle-ground rock on the right.
And again, I soften the bottom with a damp brush
just to get a sense of ground fog.
And I try not to use a brush that is too small
for things like these.
I want a decent sized brush that holds enough mixture
so I can finish a shape was as few brush stroke
as I can to keep things cleaner and look fresher.
And now I continued that wash down,
all the way down with some lighter blue and such.
This will be the color of the water puddles
and the shoreline.
And at the very bottom, I transitioned that into the sand
just to get that transition
from shallow water shoreline to sand.
And this is what makes Watercolor so beautiful
because it can transition from one color to another
so naturally and so effortlessly,
if you have the grasp of the wetness.
Now while that wash is still moist,
I added some color for the sand.
The edges will be somewhat soft
because the paper is still moist, still a little bit damp
but it's going to look defined enough.
So we start to have some separations
between the sand and the water.
So for the sand, I add a little bit of yellow ochre
just to get a little bit more yellow
introduce into the sand, but also add just a little bit
of burnt sienna and even a little bit of alizarin crimson
just to introduce a little bit of purple in it.
And while that wash is still moist,
I add some more dark colors, so I get a little bit
of a transition between the light and the dark sand.
Get a nice clean damp brush, a small brush,
to lift some the paint on the background
to suggest there's a little house back there.
It doesn't really need to be really defined.
It just need to be subtly there, just for people
to kind of make out there might be something there
while it is not really that defined.
So I come back to the middle ground
and add some more rock in the mid ground.
Now the bottom ground fog is dry.
I can paint in front of him that
and try to connect that to the rock on the right.
Again, keep those shapes simple and don't overdo it.
They are at a middle ground
but they are still pretty far away actually.
So we don't need anything really dark and pop out.
There's another rock on the left so I paint that in
just a tiny little bit darker
than the big rock, the hill on the back.
And because Watercolor would try it lighter
so you do come and say a little bit,
and if it ended up to be a little bit too dark,
you might able to go back with clean water
and just press it with paper towel.
So now I'm painting tiny little figures
with a smaller brush.
And again, those are very, very tiny, very little.
They are just dots.
But still try to watch out
for the shape that you have painted
instead of just end up looking like a bunch of little blops
try to make sense out of them.
Maybe give them a little bit of head, some shoulder,
and some straight legs and so on.
So there's two figures on the right.
They are more or less the main figures
and they are pretty dark actually, even in a photo
we don't really see the skin tone or anything else.
So just focus on painting good silhouette and good shape.
I added a dog next to them
because there are some people who bring in dog
and walking along the shore.
So I thought it will be interesting
to have additional scale reference.
So just add a little bit of textures on the sand.
I tried to keep everything as subtle as possible though.
This painting really doesn't scream
for details or textures and things like that.
So making part of the sand a little bit darker.
The previous wash dry a little bit too light
than what I want, so I need to darken some of the areas.
This painting end up look quite a bit like an illustration
just because the simplicity of the value and the textures
but the scenery itself looks like a painting.
So we're just suggesting a little bit of the reflections
on the puddles, and I'm looking at it again
see where else do I need to fill?
Where do I need to define a little bit more?
The house on the left in the distant,
tiny little bit of dark.
And now when I squint my eyes,
I feel the sand and the water puddles
feels a little bit too similar in value.
So I decided to give it a glaze to separate the sand
from the wet puddles, the west surface
just a little bit more.
So, as you can see, as soon as I put down that glaze
the contrast between the sand and the water
is a lot more clear, and this is what we want.
While things in a distance I am not going to touch.
We want it to remain more into the distance.
So just add a little bit more dark,
soft details here and there while it is still damp,
and here is the finished painting.
I actually come back to it
and lighten some of the middle ground rocks
by going over them with clean water
and just pressed him with paper towel
to lift some of the paint up.
So that helps the depth a little bit more.
Hope you like this painting and this quick demo.
Hope that was helpful for you.
Creating believable depth is to help the viewer
to experience the scenery you are seeing.
So keep those three elements in mind
to share your experience visually.
That's it for today's video, you can click here to see more.
Click here to sign up for my Watercolor PDF guide
and bonus video.
Also check out my Watercolor Essential course
where I explain this concept in much more detail.
I am Eric from Cafe Watercolor, see you next time.