For most representational landscape painters, a convincing spatial illusion is a primary goal. We want to what’s in the background to feel like it really sits in the background, and what’s in the foreground to really feel like it’s coming forward. There are many factors contributing to the spatial illusion: linear perspective; scale and overlap; the nature of colors to advance and recede, temperature, and edges. One of the most powerful factors involves the paint itself.
How Transparency, Opacity and the Spatial Illusion
Paint can be mixed and applied in varying degrees of opacity, ranging from transparent to semi-transparent to opaque. (Even watercolor and pastel painters can do this, albeit in subtler ways than oil or acrylic.)
Areas with thicker application tend to advance, while areas with thinner, more transparent application tend to recede.
We’ve all heard that “warm colors advance and cool colors recede.” That’s certainly true — but not always. It’s a simplistic guideline that doesn’t take into account other additional factors that may affect how colors advance and recede. In the example below, the warm colors appear to recede and the cool colors that appear to advance — the opposite of what we might expect. Because it is applied transparently, the warm background sky color recedes, while the cool foreground water, applied thickly with opaque paint, appears to advance.
A. Cooler gray clouds, because they are painted semi-opaquely over a transparent sky, feel as if they sit forward of the sky.
B. Because the yellow-orange sky color is applied very transparently, it appears to recede despite being very warm.
C. The blue “water” is a cool color, but appears to advance because of the paint’s thickness and opacity.
D. The red-orange accents were painted very transparently. Surrounded by thick and opaque blue, they appear to recede despite being warm.
What do we mean when we say colors advance and recede?
When we talk about colors advancing or receding, we’re talking about an illusion. The painting is flat, and colors don’t truly come forward or go back. By assigning colors that align with an element’s position in space, we can reinforce the spatial illusion. For example, if an object is meant to recede into the distance, the colors we choose for it should naturally recede. Sky colors should feel as if they sit back in space, not push in front of mountains or trees. And a dark shadow should not feel like a dark pocket or hole in the canvas. When a color contradicts its intended position in space, the illusion breaks down.