Atmospheric Perspective
by Armand Cabrera
Understanding
Atmospheric Perspective is a necessary fact of painting
outdoors. Not to be confused with "Aerial Perspective",
Atmospheric Perspective deals with the effects of the
air on objects at a distance. Many factors can affect
this phenomena including dust, water vapor, or pollution.
The occurrence is also affected by the angle of the sun
in the sky and the elevation of the observer. What the
painter should be concerned about is the translation of
their observations to canvas. Carefully observing this
phenomenon will help you to paint this effect correctly.
To do this there are some generalizations we can make
about atmosphere.
- Objects lose color saturation as they recede.
- Most colors become cooler as they recede except
for white which gets warmer.
- Objects lose detail as they recede.
- The contrast between sunlight and shadow become
less pronounced as objects recede.
- Edges tend to be softer
As in all good painting you learn the general effect
and then tailor it to the specific instance of your experience
while painting. When observing atmosphere it is important
to get all the elements to recede equally. Watch out for
inappropriate darks and saturated colors in your backgrounds
and middle grounds. Make sure all the surrounding colors
and values in a background integrate with all the others
or you will kill the effect.
One way to do this is to paint the background and foreground
before the middle ground. Mix a large amount of paint
for the background and then slightly modify it as you
paint the differences in color in that area of the painting.
Do this with the fore and middle grounds too.
When you lock in the ends of the range of value and saturation
it is easier to see the subtle changes in the transitions.
