Depth in Art

For those of you who are looking to improve your talents in photography or art, consider applying the technique of depth.

Depth in art can be created in several ways. When we talk about depth, we are talking about creating a 3-Demensional space. We will discuss two ways to do this. First through focus and then through the use of color.

Depth With Focus

Providing a sense of depth draws one into the work rather then having a flat image.

Focus on the foreground and blurring out the back creates depth for both photography and

painting.

Notice in this landscape painting, how the hill behind the tree has a softer look and the tree and foreground is sharper and clearer.

I have highlighted the sharper side of the image so that you can better see the difference.

This gives the painting a sense of depth.

Now lets look at a painting by Van Gogh.

Though this is from the famous Van Gogh, it does not show depth and is equally focused throughout. In other words, the sky and ground have an equal sharpness.

But be careful when painting off of a photograph. Just because a photograph looks good doesn’t mean you should paint it as you see it.

The photo above is an example that has a vivid clarity throughout, but when attempting to paint this as you see it, the effect might not be the same. For something like this a good idea might be to take the trees in the background and give them a soft focus to create better depth. Notice the difference in the photoshopped example I provided.

Depth With Color

The use of color to create depth is through bringing warmer colors in the foreground and placing cooler colors in the background.

Warmer colors are reds and yellows; cooler colors are blues and purple.

This next example shows a good use of color for depth. Notice how the background uses soft tones of blue and purple.

Going back to are previous example, we can see the same exact use of color to show depth. The tree and foreground have yellow and red tone while the hill shows blue and purple colors.

Keeping depth in mind while you create is a great tool to bring to your next work of art.

Rules Can Be Broken

Depth can be a great tool in both photography and art, however once again rules are made to be broken. In this painting you see that the whole composition seems to be in the same focus. It’s equally balanced in intensity and color, yet it works.