The Vanishing Hills
You are in a 90-minute outdoor sketching exam at a hill viewpoint. You have A3 cartridge paper, 2B and 4B graphite, and a limited watercolour set: ultramarine, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and sap green. The distant ridge is about 2 km away and appears pale blue-grey. The middle-ground fields are yellow-green, and a foreground tree trunk is nearly black against a bright overcast sky. After 25 minutes, the candidate has drawn every tree on the far ridge with hard 2B outlines and painted the fields with saturated sap green. The foreground tree and the distant ridge compete equally for attention. The sky is left as bare white paper. Forty minutes remain, and the candidate wants to add more detail to the far ridge.
1. Explain what has gone wrong in terms of aerial perspective, and identify three variables the candidate must change.
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The drawing has no aerial perspective. Distance is not shown by adding detail; it is shown by reducing contrast, softening edges, and cooling/lightening colour.
- Value contrast: The far ridge should sit within two or three close values, not compete with the foreground darks. The foreground trunk should carry the strongest dark-light contrast.
- Edge sharpness: Far edges should be soft or lost. Hard 2B outlines on distant trees pull the ridge forward.
- Colour temperature and saturation: Distant forms shift toward cool blue-grey and lose saturation. Saturated sap green in the middle ground is too strong; it should be muted with ochre or burnt sienna.
The candidate has also left the sky as white paper, which makes the foreground trunk read as a cut-out. A pale grey-blue sky wash would establish the background plane and support the atmospheric effect.
2. Give a time plan for the remaining 40 minutes that prioritises the atmospheric effect over added detail.
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0–5 min: Stop drawing far-ridge detail. Reassess the three planes: far ridge, middle fields, foreground tree.
5–15 min: Glaze the far ridge with pale ultramarine plus a touch of burnt sienna. Soften its edges with clean water while damp. Keep it as a broken silhouette, not individual trees.
15–25 min: Reduce the middle-ground green with yellow ochre and a little burnt sienna. Establish field bands with broader, softer shapes.
25–35 min: Strengthen the foreground trunk with 4B: dark core, textured edge, one or two branch shapes. Add a cast shadow or grass accent to anchor it.
35–40 min: Lay a pale grey-blue sky wash, leaving a lighter area near the horizon. Add final accents only. This sequence builds background-to-foreground atmosphere rather than detail.
3. What should the candidate deliberately omit or simplify, and why?
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Omit individual trees on the far ridge; use a broken, irregular silhouette and two close values. Omit field furrows beyond the middle ground; suggest them with a few directional strokes only. Omit most branches on the foreground tree; keep the trunk structure and two or three characteristic branches.
The reason is attentional economy: the exam tests whether the candidate can create depth, not whether every observed item is recorded. A simplified far ridge with soft edges will read as distant, while a detailed one will read as small and near. Keeping one sharp, dark foreground accent gives the eye a near plane and makes the softer distance believable.