Episode 151: Why Your Paintings Look Flat (And How to Create Depth Instead)

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1:00Hey, real quick, I've got an amazing offer for you. For a limited time, I'm offering my three most popular programs for one giant discount. So with this bundle, you get the Color Course for Rebels, which is my signature course that thousands of artists have taken from around the world. It totally is a game changer for your art. I'm also offering you my video of the top 10 abstract art techniques to immediately elevate your art. And then finally, I'm offering you the Mother Color bonus course.

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2:03Right now, I am announcing I've got one workshop available in October. It's the Honest Art Workshop and it's the only one I've offered in the U.S. in 2026. It's going to be here in Austin, Texas in October. We'll put more information in the show notes for you. But then in addition to that, I am announcing that we're going to Australia. So I'm hosting a workshop in Australia in February of 2027 with our host, Jody Gere of the House of Gere.

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Creating Depth in Art

2:56Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Honest Art Podcast. I'm your host, Jody King, and we are back in the studio today with some other tips for you. Today, what we're going to be talking about is how we can create depth in our work without necessarily having to add detail. And if you are new here, I just want to tell you, I have been a professional artist for over 22 years. But I never started out that way. I never thought I would ever be an artist at all.

3:26And so all of the things that I bring to you with the podcast or with everything I do really is from the standpoint of what did I have to learn along the way to be able to get to that fine art status. My art is in galleries. It's collected internationally. Super grateful to have had an amazingly successful art career. So that's why I'm bringing you all of these tips. So if you like what you see, would be honored if you could subscribe to the channel. That helps us out a lot.

3:57And if you're listening to this, this would be a good time to maybe hop over to YouTube for this particular episode. But if you do listen to the Honest Art podcast regularly, if you could give us a five-star review, that would be amazing. All right. So let's get into this about how we can create depth within our work. All right. So now there's lots of different ways that we can do this. All of it is very, very exciting.

4:29But the first one I want to talk about is how we are able to create depth simply by using values. Or another way to say that is how can we create depth simply by using darkness and lightness of color. So if you look at this right here, you can see that most of this, these are mostly medium values, right? Mostly medium tones. And I do love it. I love, you know, all of the different colors that are in it.

5:00But the thing is, is that it still feels, it still feels flat. And maybe you have experienced this in your work as well. Sometimes you're looking at it and it's just like, it's just flat. It needs some, needs something to come forward and something to go back. And so one of the ways that we can do that is by creating a different value. So I'm just going to show you how this works simply by, simply by using a dark value so that you can create some depth.

5:33Now, the other thing about this is that when you have different values, it tells your brain where you want it to focus also. Because without any differing values, it'll stay flat and we won't know how to focus, or where to focus rather. So here, I am going to just put a darker value on here. And now you will see what a difference, oh, what, I should probably get a different, different size brush.

6:07Here, let me do that. It's in my hand. That's probably helpful if I use it. Well, it's in my hand. Anyway, so you can see here that simply by having a darker value, then this creates depth. You've got this coming forward, and it's telling us where we want to leave the eye, right? So a great way to do that is to make sure that you have various different values if you are wanting to create depth within your work.

6:49Hey, real quick while I've got you, I just want to tell you I know that being an artist can be a lonely job and filled with self-doubt. So artists need other artists, and we need painting techniques and the skills to sell our art along with it. So that's why I created the best membership group of artists on the planet called the Honest Art Society. And in it, you receive several coaching calls a month with me so that you can get your questions answered on business and on your art.

7:20You get monthly trainings from art techniques to marketing and business. You get exclusive art critiques as well as exclusive discounts on workshops and courses. And all of this is for only $47 a month, and you can cancel at any time. So if you're ready to make your best art ever, along with a great community of amazing artists, I hope you'll join me in the Honest Art Society, and you can find out more at the link in the show notes. Okay, now, another way that we can do this is we can do this by harder lines and softer lines.

7:59And what I'm going to show you is that hard lines will tend to move forward in a painting and soft lines will go back. Now, I'm going to put an image of a couple paintings that Rembrandt did to give you an example of what I'm talking about. So you will see in this image that in the self-portrait of Rembrandt, you'll see that he comes forward within that painting

8:31because there are so many sharp edges within the work. And then the painting that's just right next to that self-portrait, it has softer lines, so that fades into the background more. So just think about how that plays into your own work, whether you're doing any sort of representational. Like, if you want something to fall back a little bit more, then definitely have softer lines. If you want something to come forward more, make sure there's some sharper lines.

9:02And I'm going to show you how this works just on this painting right here. So within this, you could see that we've got these sharper lines like this, and that is going to come forward. But if we want to, let me make sure there's, okay, now I'm going to soften these lines here. And as I soften them, those lines are going to go back.

9:37And this line here is going to come forward. So that's a great way to create depth in your work. Now I'm going to show you one more thing, and I'm going to soften all of this so that you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about. All right, so we've got this. We've got some darker values and everything, but we want to see some things pop even more.

10:08And one of the ways that we can do that is this is, a lot of these colors are not incredibly saturated, and saturated colors come forward, and less saturated colors go backwards. Again, so when we're creating this depth in our work, you're going to be able to see it like that. So we take this fully saturated color, and you can see that when we put it on this less saturated color,

10:39it absolutely comes forward. In fact, it's like the first thing you can really see. It's so beautiful. Let's get another fully saturated color in here, and you'll see what I mean. All of those fully saturated colors are coming forward, whereas these colors are going backwards. Okay, but let me give you even more ways to create depth, all right? So this is really fun. One of the ways that you can create depth is by layering shapes, okay?

11:11So let's say, for instance, we've got this shape right here. Got ourselves a circle, all right. And then we come over here. We've got ourselves another circle. So same kind of medium values, right? But the painting still is rather flat. So one thing that we can do to create depth is to layer another circle on top.

11:43And you can see, so when I go on top with another color, then the circles that are behind it will fall back, and then this one will come forward. So let me do this with a little bit brighter colors just so you can see it a little bit more. So if you're ever just wanting to create depth, especially if you're doing like a landscape painting, right,

12:16and you're trying to keep things, you know, you want everybody to see every little thing, well, if you can actually put like things on top of each other, that in and of itself will be able to create depth in your work. And also this happens a lot with really, really great abstract artists. They'll do the same thing. All right, before I get into showing you like a painting that I've done to kind of demonstrate some of these things, I also want to tell you that another way that we can create depth in our work

12:48is simply with warm and cool colors. And by that, I mean that cool colors are going to go to the back. Here's a cool color here. You know, one of the ways I like to think of warm and cool colors is I think about like a sunset. And if you're looking out over the ocean and think about the colors, so usually the colors that are below the waterline are going to be those blues and greens and turquoise

13:22and some pinks like from a coral reef, but some pinks can also be warm. But if you look at the horizon line above it at the sunset, those are going to be those warm oranges and, you know, all of those warmer colors. So it's a good way to think about it. So, but in the, from the standpoint of creating depth, blues or cool colors will go to the background and warm colors will come to the foreground. So, just something to consider if you are really, really, regardless of whatever type of art you're painting.

14:04But do you see how this is coming forward and this one is going back? All right. Now, let me show you a painting to give you one more tip for how to create depth in your work. All right. So this is a piece that I just finished, just wrap this up in the studio. But it does incorporate a lot of the things that we've talked about that I'm going to point out. But in addition to that, one final way, well, there's probably more, but one final way today that you can create depth in your work,

14:35that is to have some negative space. Okay. So originally when we were talking, you know, there was the one that's got lots of similar values. But the other thing was this didn't have a lot of negative space. Now, for this piece here, I wanted to be sure that there was plenty of space for the eye to rest. And so this in and of itself is a little negative space. And then kind of around the edges, it also has negative space. And that just gives the painting room to breathe so that other things can come forward.

15:07So we talked about soft areas in the work and how soft will go back, like some of these softer things behind here. Can you guys see that? The softer areas are naturally going to go back. And the harsher lines, the harder areas, those are going to come forward. And then in the beginning when I was showing you how just creating that value difference can create depth. As you can see here, just these darker values here, they are what's adding some depth to it.

15:43In addition to that, we talked about how more saturated colors come forward. So see these saturated blues like this and this pink? Those are coming forward, whereas the rest of it is going back. So lots of things to consider. Sharp lines, soft edges, saturation, low saturation, all kinds of things to consider when you're creating your work. So if you found this information helpful, which I hope you did,

16:16just know there is so much more content like this in the color course for Rebels, which is we have a great deal for you right now between May 4th and May 17th when you purchase the color course for Rebels, which is a great value. You also get my mother color bonus material where I take all these, I think it's 10 different paintings, and I show you all of the different color combinations and how I created those colors for those paintings. And then in addition to that, I have created a whole other video on my 10 best abstract painting techniques.

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