Landscapes and still life paintings have us instinctively thinking about distance, depth, perspective. But a portrait may need to feel rounded, and abstracts may need “push and pull” to create excitement.
This module explores various ways to bring these attributes to your artwork; make a 2D surface feel like it is 3D.
Each chapter consists of three components:
- meet an artist and explore how they do it,
- a guided exercise to help you apply the theory to your own work,
- a shared studio session via ZOOM.
Chapter 1: Seeing and Using Value Variations
Connect with a Canadian icon and explore her masterful use of perspective in her completely abstract landscapes. Practice seeing her values and then try your own hand at adding value variations to your own paintings.
Chapter 2: Using Colour Intensity to Create Perspective
Colour excites us. Bright or muted, it has a role to play in creating depth in our paintings. This week’s artist uses colour to place people in interiors, it feels very 3D. The work is personal and fascinating.
Chapter 3: Linear Perspective and Vanishing Points
This tool is especially applicable in paintings that have structures, both natural and human made – buildings, roads, rivers, forests, fruit bowls, people, interiors, or even simple abstract shapes. Create stability in your artwork.
Chapter 4: Warm and cool will move you around
Warm feels close, and cool feels far away – until it does the opposite? The element of “heat” is fun to play with, it can very effectively give depth to a painting, but it can do so much more at the same time.