Three Palettes for Distance

Here is a simple picture. There are three palettes being used. The palette for the distance has less richness and contrast; it has been shifted towards a blue-grey. The mid-ground has more color and more contrast and the foreground has even more color and contrast. It is only in the past few centuries that artists realized that palettes need to change for the objects in the distance to simulate the effect of the atmosphere not really being crystal clear. Ideally, each object would have its own palette representing its specific distance, but artists discovered they really only needed three palettes and the viewer would feel the distance.

You should also notice that most artists separate the fore-, mid-, and backgrounds with the fold of a hill, a shadow, a wall, or some other trick, so they don’t have to blend the palettes. Three changes in contract and richness and the viewer’s eye and mind will feel the distance. A complex world is simulated in the viewer’s mind with multiple simplicities.