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Lesson Plan Image

Color Lifting

Why do we say something appears to be fading into the distance? Explore this visual phenomenon and use the color lifting technique to create a realistic landscape.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

Steps

  • Step 1

    Ask students to describe what they see when they view a landscape. Do they notice that objects in the foreground appear clearer than those in the distance? Do the colors in the distance appear slightly faded compared with the closer ones? Explain that this is called atmospheric perspective. This happens because particles in the atmosphere - dust, humidity, pollution, etc. - obscure the clarity of objects as light becomes scattered.

  • Step 2

    Atmospheric perspective is also a technique used in painting in which the illusion of depth is created by painting distant objects with less clarity and lighter tones. Display images of art using this technique, such as Claude Monet's "Banks of the Seine at Jenfosse" or Caspar David Friedrich's "The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog."

  • Step 3

    Have students create a realistic landscape by drawing a scene that includes a foreground, a middle ground, and a background. Then ask them to erase some of the middle ground and most of the background. They will see how this color-lifting technique helps create realistic definition in artwork.

Standards

ARTS: Explore and invent art-making techniques and approaches.

SCI: Design pictorial or graphic representations/models that are useful in communicating ideas.

SCI: Ask questions about the features of phenomena observed and conclusions drawn from investigations or models.

Adaptations

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was not only one of the world's greatest artists, but also renowned in many scientific fields. As one of the first to explore the subtleties of light and contour and use the atmospheric perspective, he changed the way artists perceived and depicted light. Ask students to view the Mona Lisa, a prime example of this technique, and to learn about some of da Vinci's other contributions to history.

Another way to create a sense of distance in art is by using the linear perspective, wherein all parallel lines in a painting or drawing converge in a single vanishing point on the composition's horizon line. Ask students to view an example such as "The Last Supper" by da Vinci and note how the walls, which would be parallel in real life, angle toward the rear to give the impression of depth and distance.