Finding Depth & Distance in a 20 Minute Painting Start

Andy Braitman demonstrates how to find depth and distance in a simple 20 minute oil painting start.

1. Andy demonstrates how in a 20 minute painting start he is already figuring out how to achieve depth and distance in his painting.

2. In this beginning stage, Andy brings the darks of the trees across the lights of the background giving us the illusion of distance, form and space in his painting.

3. Andy always initially lays his paintings out by using the value and shape of the trees to help him describe the environment that he is painting.

4. These trees so effectively describe distance and form because they are random verticals that will let you move up the entire length of the canvas. They also provide the viewer with distance breaks that allude to spatial depth in a painting.