Adding Depth To Your Paintings

Have you ever wondered how to create depth in your paintings so they don’t look flat? Casey is going to teach you some simple techniques to add depth and movement into your paintings. Casey always teaches that if you use just one color and color blocks your painting, it will not have the depth you are wanting to create. To avoid this, one of the techniques Casey will teach you is to load your paintbrush with multiple colors and then use light pressure and strokes so you do not blend all of these colors together.

Also, Casey will teach you how to look at your painting, and things that are further back are darker. She illustrates this technique by showing how to shadow the bottom of the pumpkin while brightening the top of the pumpkin. The use of lights and darks as well as the pressure of your strokes (lift off, lift off, lift off) helps make your pumpkin look more realistic and curved.

It is also important to remember to use smaller amounts of paint and then build up the color with additional coats. This allows for natural shadows to come through from the darkness of the canvas. You can add brightness by almost dry brushing additional layers on certain portions of your painting. Casey instructs on how to know where the light is coming from and makes sure to highlight those areas with the script liner in those areas at the end.

Adding just a few of these simple techniques to your painting toolbox will really make your paintings pop!!!!

Happy Painting!