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Conté Sticks Landscapes
[2 classes, 80 min each]
Lesson Summary
Lesson Summary
In this lesson, students will paint a landscape using Color Conté sticks, applying the principles of atmospheric perspective to give the scene real depth and distance. Conté sticks are known for their rich pigment and versatility — capable of both broad, soft coverage and sharp, fine detail — which makes them especially well suited to rendering a landscape's foreground, middle ground, and background with distinct levels of contrast, detail, and color intensity.
Lesson Objectives
Lesson Objectives
Understand the techniques and characteristics of using Color Conté sticks for landscape painting.
Understand and apply atmospheric perspective — adjusting contrast, detail, and color saturation across the foreground, middle ground, and background — to create a convincing sense of depth.
Develop skill in blending and layering colors to build texture and dimension in a landscape.
Builds on: Skies and Silhouetted Landscapes
What Are Color Conté Sticks?
What Are Color Conté Sticks?
Color Conté sticks are a type of hard pastel known for their strong pigmentation and their ability to produce both fine lines and broad strokes from the same tool. That versatility — sharp edge for detail, flat side for coverage — makes them especially well suited to landscapes, where a single piece needs to render both a wide, soft sky and the crisp edge of a distant tree line.
What Is Atmospheric Perspective?
What Is Atmospheric Perspective?
Atmospheric perspective is the effect the atmosphere has on how objects appear as they recede into the distance, and it's one of the main tools artists use to create depth in a flat painting. It works through three visual changes:
Contrast — strongest and sharpest in the foreground; softer and less distinct in the background.
Detail — fine textures and small elements are clearest up close, and blur or disappear as objects recede.
Color Saturation — colors are most vivid in the foreground, and fade toward the muted color of the sky in the distance.
This happens because the atmosphere itself contains tiny particles that scatter light, gradually softening and muting anything far away — which is why distant mountains often look hazy and blue, taking on the color of the sky itself.
Discussion Brainstorm
Discussion Brainstorm
What do you find most appealing about landscapes as a subject for painting?
How can color choices affect the mood and atmosphere of a landscape?
Picture a mountain or building far in the distance. How does its color and sharpness compare to something right in front of you?
What challenges might come up using Color Conté sticks compared to other mediums you've tried?
Think of a landscape you know well — a park, a coastline, a mountain view. What sits closest to you, and what fades into the distance?
You'll Need
You'll Need
Color Conté sticks (variety of colors)
Masking Tape
Heavyweight paper or toned paper
Sketchbook and pencil (for preliminary sketches)
Blending stumps (or fingers, for blending colors)
Kneadable eraser (for lifting highlights)
Fixative spray (optional, to preserve the finished artwork)
Reference images of landscapes
What to Do
What to Do
We'll build the landscape in the same order the eye reads distance: loose structure first, then background to foreground, with contrast, detail, and color intensity increasing at every step closer to the viewer.
Preliminary Sketching. Sketch your chosen landscape in your sketchbook, focusing on composition — the placement of key elements like trees, mountains, water, and sky. Keep it light and simple; you're establishing structure, not detail.
Divide Your Scene into Planes. Identify the foreground, middle ground, and background in your sketch. Decide what belongs in each — distant hills or sky in the background, mid-distance trees or structures in the middle ground, and your closest, most prominent elements in the foreground.
Transfer to Final Paper. Once you're happy with your sketch, lightly transfer the composition onto your final paper in pencil. This becomes the foundation for your painting.
Block In the Background. Using your Conté sticks, block in the farthest plane first — sky and distant landscape — with soft, muted color and minimal contrast. Keep this plane the least defined in the whole piece.
Block In the Middle Ground. Add your middle ground with moderately more saturated color and a bit more contrast than the background. Keep detail restrained here too — present, but softer than what you'll add in the foreground.
Block In the Foreground. Add your foreground last, with your boldest, most saturated color and strongest contrast. This is where the eye should land first.
Blending and Layering. Blend your colors using fingers, blending stumps, or additional layers of Conté stick, creating smooth transitions within each plane. Layering different colors builds depth and texture, especially useful in skies and foliage.
Adding Details. Use the sharper edge of your Conté sticks to add fine detail — but concentrate the finest detail in your foreground, keeping the middle ground softer and the background the softest of all.
Enhancing Texture. Experiment with pressure to vary texture: heavier application for bold, rough effects (rocks, bark), lighter application for soft, delicate ones (clouds, water). Use your kneadable eraser to lift out small highlights where light catches a surface directly, especially in the foreground.
Final Touches. Step back and review your piece, double-checking that contrast, detail, and saturation all increase as the eye moves from background to foreground. Once you're satisfied, protect your work with fixative spray.
Terminology
Terminology
Conté Sticks — A type of hard pastel with rich pigmentation, used for drawing and painting.
Kneadable Eraser — A soft, moldable eraser used to lighten areas and lift out highlights.
Blending — Mixing colors together to create smooth transitions or new shades.
Layering — Applying multiple layers of color to build depth, texture, or new tones.
Texture — The perceived surface quality of a work of art — smooth, rough, soft, and so on.
Fixative — A spray used to preserve and protect pastel, charcoal, and pencil artwork from smudging.
Atmospheric Perspective — The technique of using contrast, detail, and color saturation to suggest depth and distance in a landscape.
Foreground / Middle Ground / Background — The three main depth "planes" of a landscape, from nearest to farthest from the viewer.
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