How to make my painting 3D?

One of the most common questions asked by art enthusiasts is “how to make my painting 3D”. There are many ways to achieve 3D results in a painting. I am going to discuss some ways by using my oil painting “Soliloquy” as an example.

Please note that I have discussed this topic of giving 3D effect in a painting in one of my previous blog as well. In the previous blog, I used my painting “The Goodness” as an example.

The technique that worked really well in bringing 3D effect in “Soliloquy” is pretty simple. To cut the long story short, all I did was placing dark colors near light colors tactfully.

Let’s talk about the common query, “How to make my painting 3D”.

If you closely observe the green blocks, the shades of blocks vary in their shades. Due to these variations in color, it almost seems like some green blocks are above or under other green blocks.

You can also make sure that 3D effect is mainly at some areas. For instance, as the green blocks reach the edges of the canvas, I have deliberately used similar dark shades in the blocks so that there is very less or no 3D effect over there. Hence the focal points were defined as well.

Coming back to the question, “how to make my painting 3D”, you can also use shadows to suggest that one thing is casting shadow on another thing below it.

As you can see in the above image, I tried using shadows to suggest the placements of blocks one above the other. (P.S.: However, I had to remove the shadows in the subsequent layers of oil paints as the shades itself sufficed to suggest 3D effect.)

Another very prominent 3D effect in the painting “Soliloquy” was between the blocks and the maroon background. As you can observe, when the green blocks end in the middle of the painting, I deliberately used darkest maroon on the edges of the blocks. This background color was gradually lightened little bit as it moved away from the blocks. Also note that the green blocks are lightest near the darkest maroon.

This deliberate use of dark and contrasting background (red and green are on opposite sides of color wheel) works well for the painting. It seems as if the green blocks are above and emerge out of the maroon background.

To sum up, some of the answers to the question “how to make my painting 3D” are:

1. Use light and dark shades near each other tactfully.
2. Use shadows to suggest one thing is above or below the other.
3. Use contrasting colors and variations in darkness and lightness to create 3D effect.

I will share more ways to create 3D effects in my subsequent blogs. Till then, go ahead and try these techniques to make your painting stand out with 3D effects.