Exercise 4 Aerial Perspective

This is taken from Wikipedia, which I think sums up the meaning in detail but very clearly: Aerial perspective or atmospheric perspective refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as it is viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any markings or details within the object also decreases. The colours of the object also become less saturated and shift towards the background color, which is usually blue, but under some conditions may be some other color (for example, at sunrise or sunset distant colors may shift towards red).
In addition the colours become gradually  cooler.
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Before putting together the final painting, I tried out some techniques of aerial perspective in two simple acrylic colour studies of nearby moorland. I found in these it was necessary to try and use all three principles - moving into the distance what we should be able to see is: controlled loss of focus, reduction of contrasts and cooler colours.

no 1 - acrylic

I used the same sequence in all three paintings – beginning with the sky, reducing the size of the clouds towards the horizon line. Next I used a slightly darker mixture on the distant mountains and blended the edges into the sky. I continued in this fashion, gradually adding warmer tones ie. from pale cool blue in the far distance to warm purple-reds or dark yellowy greens in the foreground, thicker more textured paint and stronger contrasts.
Colourwise, I used cool blues in one painting and purples in the two colour studies, adding more white to reduce contrasts towards the horizon. In the colour studies I also added more white paint towards the horizon. The ground is cool blue shade so I didn’t need to add any of this.

no 2 - acrylic

I one of them (no 2) I like the small dark blotches of nearer clouds. They really seem to add  a sense of receding space and movement to the sky. This was an idea inspired by the artist Richard Pikesley who is very fond of doing the same thing with the clouds in his paintings, giving them what I would call a distinctive quirky look.
In the final one (no3) I laid a ground of artist's painting medium (linseed oil and petroleum distillate) on the surface beforehand. I found this idea in a book called All About Techniques in Oils by Parramon publishers, various artists. According to the project instructions, painting over a base of oil helps to create hazy atmospheric effects. Certainly the paint went on smoothly and it was very easy to blend, but not too much so. The only drawback was the extra drying time and the resulting very shiny surface - this could always be alleviated by a matt varnish when the painting is fully dry. The brushes were a combination of flats and a new filbert brush size 6 which I found to be very versatile and best for depicting tree tops and texture in the foreground.  I also moved the still wet paint around in places with paint pushers and fingers. When the acrylic colour studies were partly dry I rubbed off some paint to expose the ground of streaky cyan and ultramarine on gessoed paper.
However of all three paintings I would say my preference is for no.2. I prefer the palette and I think the overall paint application is more interesting.

painting (no3) - oil