UART Tip #59: “Capturing Atmospheric Perspective in Your Landscapes” with Jill Stefani Wagner
My favorite place in the world to paint is Tuscany. It might be because I have Italian heritage, but there’s also something absolutely magical about the landscape there. The rolling hills go on forever, and the beautiful light creates breathtaking views.
So how do we capture that feeling of distance with pastel on a two-dimensional surface? Here are some tips I use that might help you along…
When I’m working in the studio, I use photo references to inspire me, but my experience of painting outdoors always guides me. I never want to completely replicate the photo, and I feel free to add or subtract compositional elements as I go.
In this case, I chose to crop the photo quite a bit to simplify the view and position the bright field (my focal point) off center. I quickly photoshopped out the white fence lines and gridded up the 8.25” x 9.65” photo proportionally to fit onto my 17” x 20” UART 400 pastel board.
Here you can see my very light pencil grid lines which will be covered with pastel over time. Because I don’t like working on a white substrate, I covered the whole surface with a light umber pastel and then washed that down with water to give me a warm permanent backdrop to work on. I used a thin vine charcoal to lightly draw in the shapes of the composition with no consideration for their actual values. Then, using a deep warm red Nupastel, I started blocking in the dark and middle value shapes. Why dark red? Because most of the elements in this scene are green and I want my underpainting to be the exact opposite (or complementary hue) of green.
Next, I wash all that dark red down with mineral spirits or isopropyl alcohol to create a permanent under-painted composition that will not smear with the future layers of pastel. Note that the lightest values are created only by the leftover liquid pastel on my brush from the darker areas.
This is a big jump because I forgot to take an in-between photo. Duh! But basically, I have laid down a light layer of local color over all of the shapes in the scene. I tried to stay close to the actual value, knowing that I may have to adjust it both in lightness and darkness AND color. I just need to get some pastel on the paper. At this point (and never again) I spray down the painting with an even coat of workable fixative.
The premise of painting atmospheric perspective is that elements that are close to the viewer appear warmer, darker and more detailed, while elements that are in the distance become cooler, lighter and less defined. Photographs don’t accurately capture that effect. So, keeping that in mind, the rest of the time is spent adjusting. Should this area be lighter or darker, warmer or cooler, detailed or more fuzzy? And how do I make all of the other elements support my focal point?
Where is the light coming from? Where can I harden edges to draw the viewers eye or soften them to imply distance? Which elements can be eliminated because they don’t support my goals? (Notice the background has lost all focus and the fence wires and foreground grape vines have begun to disappear…) The reference photo is not my jailer. I’m free to break away at any time.
At this point I am starting to push the color, and my pastel application is much thicker. I’m trying to draw your attention to a certain area, so I pump up the hues there and soften others. I let some of the underpainting show through in the foreground.
I notice that the nearest fields in the background appear too light at the base, as if they are almost a flat wall of wallpaper that doesn’t fade gently into the horizon. I need to make those middle-distance colors a little stronger so that they appear to gradually go back into space.
Since I’m not trying to recreate the photo, I stop before I think I am finished.
Jill Stefani Wagner, PSA-MP IAPS/MC
View Jill’s website at www.jillwagnerart.com to see her work, upcoming classes and workshops, and to read her newsletters and view painting tips in her blog .
