Spatial Relationships in 2-D Art

Phoebe Langham, Hobbittown, New Zealand

Including Atmospheric Perspective (also known as Aerial Perspective)

What comes forward in your artwork?  What recedes into the background?  Artists use value (dark and light), color, contrast, and detail to lead viewers into and around their images.  Here are the tools to create the illusion of depth in your 2-dimensional work, based on the phenomenon of colors and contrasts shifting as things recede into the distance.

Here’s a quick guide to making the position of objects in your art make sense. 

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Advances to Foreground

Warmer Colors (Red Yellow, Orange)

More Detail

Sharper

More contrast in values - more contrast in colors

Clearer, more saturated colors (no grayness)

Front position in overlapping objects

Things are bigger (If you’re sketching, use thicker lineweights.)

Retreats into Background

Cooler Colors (Blue-Green, Blue, Violet) Some painters use a light glaze of cobalt blue over an object to sent it ‘backwards’.

Less Detail

Blurry

Less Contrast

Muted Colors (More grayness)

Rear position in overlapping objects*

Things are smaller (If you’re sketching, use thinner lines.)

*Conversely, you can use this guide to ‘fool the eye’ (no overlap!), as shown in the photo, above.