Just realized my digital landscapes looked flat for 6 months because I never bothered with atmospheric perspective

I was comparing a piece from January to one I did last week and it hit me: adding a simple blue haze layer to distant mountains made everything pop. Anyone else miss obvious fundamentals for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa36822d ago

The "adding a simple blue haze layer" part you mentioned really clicked for me too. I had the same problem for almost a year until I started painting a faded sky color over my far background stuff before any details. It made such a huge difference that I felt kind of dumb for not trying it sooner.

zara_hill4622d ago

Oh man, I gotta disagree a bit here. I tried that whole faded sky color thing for months and it never looked right to me. Everything ended up feeling washed out and flat, like the whole painting had this muddy film over it. I think there's a difference between atmospheric depth and just tinting stuff the same color as the sky. For me, what finally worked was keeping my far background objects crisp but making them smaller and using cooler, more greyed blues instead of a haze layer. That way they still feel distant without losing their shape or contrast. But hey, whatever works for you, keep doing it, every artist finds their own weird tricks eventually.