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Why do distant mountains and trees sometimes look like they are sitting right behind the foreground instead of miles away?
In this quick video, I’ll show you how to create believable distance using atmospheric perspective. We’ll focus on the subtle changes that make land and vegetation recede, including lighter values, softer edges, cooler colors, and reduced contrast.
This lesson is a great exercise for anyone who struggles with flat landscapes with hills and trees that feel too dark, sharp, or close.
Have you ever looked at a mostly green landscape and thought, “It’s fine… but it feels kind of flat”?
That happens a lot with green-heavy scenes. Trees, grass, fields, shrubs, distant hills — they can all start blending together into one big blanket of green if we aren’t intentional about our color choices.
In this free lesson, we’re going to use the color wheel as our guide to take a basic green landscape and give it more light, more life, and more visual excitement.
If you’ve ever felt like your results are limited by your supplies, this lesson is going to challenge that in the best way.
In this full painting, I’m using inexpensive Maimoufin pastels and paper to show you what’s actually possible when you understand how to work with your materials—not against them.
This is one of those lessons where everything starts to click—not because of the supplies you’re using, but because of how you’re using them.
I love testing affordable art supplies because every now and then, you find a hidden gem. Something that performs way better than expected. Something that makes you think, “Wait… why are we all paying more?”
This was not one of those times.
In this review, I’ll show you what happened, where the paper failed, and why this is one off-brand “Pastel Mat” I would absolutely not recommend.
If your grass keeps turning into flat green shapes… or stiff vertical lines, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most common struggles in soft pastel—and one of the fastest ways to make a landscape feel lifeless.
In this video, I’ll show you how to paint both manicured lawns and natural, wild grasses using simple strokes, layering, and smarter color choices.
Once you understand how grass actually reads in a painting, everything starts to click.
Loose painting does not come from being careless.
It does not come from rushing.
It does not come from scribbling randomly.
It does not come from pretending you don’t care how the painting turns out.
In fact, that kind of “loose” usually just turns into chaos.
Real loose painting comes from learning what to control — and what to release.
That's what we’re practicing in this lesson.
Popular Lessons
While you're waiting, here are some of my most popular soft pastel lessons...