by Dan Frenette BS (Art Education), MA
In this series of articles I have been covering information on how to make things look near and far. I have written about placement, overlapping and, diminishing size and color. In my last article I covered the use of color to show near and far. If you have not seen those articles please take a few minutes and look into the archive and take a little look at them. Now I’d like to address the use of detail to make things look like they are closer.
In part three of this series I addressed “placement”. The basic idea of placement is that those items that are drawn closer to the bottom of the page are closer to the viewer and those items that are drawn closer to the top of the page are farther away. The idea of “detail” to show space (near and far) is used together with placement. Any time you add more detail to the items that are closer to the bottom of the page you are adding to the illusion that those items are closer to the viewer. This is due to the fact that the human eye perceives more detail on things that are closer to it.
To practice this idea I suggest a simple landscape drawing (usually landscapes are horizontal but in this case try a vertical orientation of the paper). Start with several hills one in front of the other. On the hill closer to you (the one closer to the bottom of the page) draw detailed flowers and plants. On the hills that are higher up on the page add larger plants like trees but make them get progressively smaller as they get closer to the top of the page.
Though almost all artists use this idea it is prominently featured in the work of some more than others. One artist who uses this idea in an absolutely masterful way is the American painter Andrew Wyeth. It will be extremely helpful to take a few minutes with your student and look at Andrew Wyeth’s landscape paintings and point out how those areas that are closer to the bottom of the picture have more detail.
I hope you spend some time combining the spacial ideas from this series of articles and most importantly HAVE FUN!!
Dan Frenette has over 20 years of experience teaching art to students aged 5 through 16. His main creating situations where children can experiment with and “play” with the ideas found in the elements of are and principles of design. See his lessons here: http://www.youtube.com/dandanart
In this series of articles I have been covering information on how to make things look near and far. I have written about placement, overlapping and, diminishing size and color. In my last article I covered the use of color to show near and far. If you have not seen those articles please take a few minutes and look into the archive and take a little look at them. Now I’d like to address the use of detail to make things look like they are closer.
In part three of this series I addressed “placement”. The basic idea of placement is that those items that are drawn closer to the bottom of the page are closer to the viewer and those items that are drawn closer to the top of the page are farther away. The idea of “detail” to show space (near and far) is used together with placement. Any time you add more detail to the items that are closer to the bottom of the page you are adding to the illusion that those items are closer to the viewer. This is due to the fact that the human eye perceives more detail on things that are closer to it.
To practice this idea I suggest a simple landscape drawing (usually landscapes are horizontal but in this case try a vertical orientation of the paper). Start with several hills one in front of the other. On the hill closer to you (the one closer to the bottom of the page) draw detailed flowers and plants. On the hills that are higher up on the page add larger plants like trees but make them get progressively smaller as they get closer to the top of the page.
Though almost all artists use this idea it is prominently featured in the work of some more than others. One artist who uses this idea in an absolutely masterful way is the American painter Andrew Wyeth. It will be extremely helpful to take a few minutes with your student and look at Andrew Wyeth’s landscape paintings and point out how those areas that are closer to the bottom of the picture have more detail.
I hope you spend some time combining the spacial ideas from this series of articles and most importantly HAVE FUN!!
Dan Frenette has over 20 years of experience teaching art to students aged 5 through 16. His main creating situations where children can experiment with and “play” with the ideas found in the elements of are and principles of design. See his lessons here: http://www.youtube.com/dandanart
