Tip 2: Select patterns

As groups of similar subjects or masses of repeating shapes recede from us, they take on an increasingly uniform pattern. Pattern serves as both a practical device for faster recording of the view and a visual device to suggest distance, drawing the attention of the viewer through the space rather than inviting them to dwell on the individual elements of that space.

In this example, I wanted to find a shorthand for grouped subjects in the midground of an image. The individual leaves of the foreground receded into dashes of sanguine conte crayon in the midground. The grass was suggested with a repeated shorthand of marks that speak of overall texture rather than recording specific stems.