Depth by Color - Landscape Painting

• Software: GIMP (or Adobe Photoshop)
• Level: Advanced
• Subject: Rocky Landscape

This would be a short post detailing on the practical application of the theory of Depth by Color.

Lineart and Flats

As we did with the vector application of the theory, the lineart and flat color application is same as you would do for any digital painting.

The subject too is quite simple - a landscape scene depicting the rocky structures up to the vanishing point of horizon.

Color Palette

Applying the depth theory to color in digital painting, unlike the vector method, would require us to decide on the colors before applying them. You could use layers and apply the same techniuqe as vector, but painting by hand gives it a nice painterly feel.

Construct the color palette either on a separate layer or a new file.

Looking at the above color palette, it might look a bit elaborate. But I tried to show how I arrived at each color. I start with the flat (true) colors - at the left top. After making a quick gradation for the sky (A), I take the flat colors of the rocks and create variations of the color by applying a yellow light of the sun.

For most part of the plain, we will need to create a set of colors as variations of the base brown. To do this, first make a patch of the brown color. Next select the blue color of the sky, and decrease the opacity of the brush to 20%. Paint the blue over the brown color to almost 3/4th its length. Let go of the mouse button (or the pen) and then with the same brush settings, paint another layer over it, this time half the lenght. Do the same process once more for a smaller segment. This way, you will be building layer upon layer of the effect of ambient light on the brown color. This gives us the color palette (B) for the background plains.

For the rock structure in the mid ground, we do not need to make variations for the depth - just one 20% tint over the different value effected color is sufficient (D). For the foreground rock structure, keep the colors rich - and hence, do not apply any tint (C).

Detailing

To avoid going back and forth between your painting and the color palette during detailing, you can apply the different colors with a 100% brush first.

Start of by smoothing out the sky and detailing the background.

Finish of by detaling the mid and fore groudn rock structures. Since we have already chosen the color palette considering the depth, we need not worry about color while rendering the rocks. Just make sure that you choose only those colors that you have layed down.

Check the deviantART entry for a slightly larger view of the finished painting.

Please post links of the results of your experiments in the comment section.

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