Depicting depth in painting

Just some handy tricks:

• Overlapping
• Diminishing sizes
• Linear perspective
• Parallax
• Aerial perspective (invented by Leonardo Da Vinci, the effect of air: lighter and bluer in the distance)
  
• Less detail in distance
• "Down in back" (This is from Paul Georges: open up the space in your painting by having a vertical intersect with the bottom edge of your canvas. The viewer almost feels that he can 'step in' or 'reach in.'
  

Not every painting needs a lot of depth, and not every painting needs any of these tools, but it is useful to be able to pull them up when you are stuck and trying to analyze what to do with a painting. This lesson was very simple, huh.