How Does Create Distance In Your Paintings | Atmospheric Perspective Work?

Creating distance in your paintings using atmospheric perspective is like watching a toy car drive away, it gets smaller and less clear as it goes.

Imagine you’re drawing a mountain in the far distance. If you just draw it small, that’s part of it. But to make it look far away, you can make it a little fuzzy, like when you squint at something through a foggy window. The farther things are, the more they seem hazy and colorful, not because they're magic, but because there's more air between you and them.

Think of your room: if you look at a toy on your desk, it’s sharp and clear. But if that same toy is in the next room, it looks smaller and maybe a bit blurry, especially if there are lights or shadows around. That's atmospheric perspective working just like that.

You can do this with colors too! Distant things often look bluer or lighter because the air scatters light. So adding soft blue tones to faraway hills makes them look further away, just like how your toy looks when it’s in another room.