Creating the Illusion of Spatial Dimension looks like magic, but really relies on some key ingrediants, among them: applying shadow values. Once students learn how to create form shadows, such as Dawn has done below ( see the black cylinder shapes on the page to her right), the rest of the technical elements involved in this project are very accessible. For more about this exercise, see my book “Painting for the Absolute and Utter Beginner” .

here’s myra working on circles she’s traced, filled in with crescent shadows in black, then overlaid with color

these spheres seem to pop off the page

any color can be applied to the circle once the black form shadow is in place

dana applies black paint in the negative space to set off the spheres