Aerial Perspective

We are asked to create a simple landscape using the three devices of aerial perspective:

• Controlled loss of focus and fading outlines
• A loss of colour saturation
• Colour temperature

To use all the devices of aerial perspective, you really need a landscape where you can see a long way into the distance.  As I live in Essex (second flattest county!) there are not that many views where you can really see into the distance.  However, I did find a view whilst walking my dog – from Lincewood in Langdon Hills Country Park over the fields towards the Thames Estuary and London.

The day I did my sketches was very cold and very grey, and so there was very little colour in the scene (basically grey, more grey with hints of dark brown) so I was happy to do pencil sketches as the scene in front of me was basically monochrome anyway.

I found a spot where the woods make way for open farmland, with a large oak tree and smaller shrubs either side, marking the edge of the wood.  I did two quick A5 sketches, one either side of the tree.  I felt the first sketch had more options – the view was more open and there was a clear sense of foreground, middle ground and distance.

I decided to create a larger, A4 sketch in charcoal to check my composition and look at the tonal balance.  Colour wise, as stated above, the view was monochromatic, so I had free rein to create my own colour without being too influenced by the local colour.  Reviewing this, I have the horizon line too high so need to bring this down the canvas further in order to achieve a sense of distance.

I prepared my canvas by first covering with a layer of acrylic texture paste, applied with loose brushstrokes to add texture, followed by a ground of transparent burnt umber (I didn’t want any white to show through the paint so decided a neutral earth tone would work well).

I worked top-down, using a large, rough round brush to dab and scumble the paint onto the canvas (mainly to avoid being too tight and fiddly).  The sky was created using very pale beiges, greys and blue.

I carried on using the same technique as I worked down the canvas – beginning with very blue tones and increasing the colour saturation and temperature as I moved towards the foreground.  Although the twigs and tree were, in fact, a very dark brown, I added Light Red and Cadmium Red to my Burnt Umber to further warm the colour (as well as using the Light Red for the ploughed field and Cadmium Red in the twigs).

The foreground was created using small brushstrokes and a mix of the 3 browns, a dark grey and a little green.  Painting at this stage below (need to allow the paint to dry before finishing tree).

Finished painting:

Reviewing this, a couple of things stood out:

• the colours in the sky seem more discernable after the tree was painted than before.  I think it is because the branches break up the space and so you actually look at the different areas and pick up the colours, rather than seeing the area as a whole.
• The tree is more effective when painted over the sky (i.e. light colour) than the field because I was using transparent paint, the brushstrokes are more visible and glazing comes into play.

Also, using the light brown ground added a hazy atmosphere to the sky where it shows through, and the same goes for the ground showing through on the distant land.  If I had left this white, it would be very jarring and obvious but the brown blends into the fields.

In terms of effectiveness, I do think you need all three devices of aerial perspective to get the greatest sense of distance, although I would focus on colour temperature and controlled loss of focus/contrast the most.  While fading out saturated colours is important, I have seen landscapes where there are brighter and/or darker colours in the background and the loss of focus/scale is used to give the sense of distance (e.g Van Gogh frequently used as bright colours in the background as the foreground but would concentrate on colour temperature, making the distance blue and/or purple).