Grade by Grade
B. Drama / D. Visual Arts · Drama and Visual Arts

Visual Arts: Foreground, Middle Ground and Background

D1.1 D1.3 D2.2About 40 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can find the foreground, middle ground and background in a picture.
  • I can show depth (near and far) by changing size, placement, detail and colour.
  • I can make a landscape inspired by nature that has three grounds.
  • I can explain how an artist showed space in an art work.

Words to know

space
The area around and between things in an art work. Artists can make flat paper look deep, as if you could walk into it.
depth
How near or far things seem.
foreground
The part of a picture that seems closest to you. It is usually at the bottom.
middle ground
The part in the middle distance, between near and far.
background
The part that seems farthest away. It is usually higher up, near the horizon.
horizon line
The line where the land or water seems to meet the sky.

Remember from Grade 2

You learned that overlapping (putting one thing in front of another) shows which object is closer. That was your first trick for showing space.

This year you will learn to split a picture into three layers: the foreground, the middle ground and the background.

Near and far

Stand at a window. Hold up your thumb. It looks bigger than a whole house across the street! That's because your thumb is near and the house is far.

Artists use this idea to make a flat piece of paper look deep, as if you could walk right into the picture.

A summer field of wildflowers in front of a red barn, with forested hills far away.
Three grounds in one view: big, detailed flowers in the foreground, a red barn in the middle ground, and small blue hills in the background. AI-generated image
backgroundmiddle groundforeground
A landscape with three grounds: a big tree and a rock in the foreground, a lake with a small canoe in the middle ground, and pale hills with tiny trees in the background.
GroundWhere it is on the pageHow it looks
foreground (closest)near the bottombiggest, most detail, strongest colours, overlaps the others
middle groundin the middlemedium size, some detail
background (farthest)higher up, near the horizonsmallest, little detail, paler and softer colours
The three grounds

Four tricks for showing depth

  1. Size: things far away are drawn smaller. A tree in the background might be as small as your fingernail.
  2. Placement: things far away are placed higher on the page, closer to the horizon line.
  3. Overlapping: things in front cover part of things behind them.
  4. Detail and colour: far things have less detail and paler, softer colours. Close things have more detail and stronger colours. (Look at faraway hills on a hazy day: they look pale and bluish!)
backgroundsmall, high up, palemiddle groundmedium sizeforegroundbig, low on the page,most detail
The same kind of tree in all three grounds. Far trees are drawn smaller, higher on the page and paler, so the picture looks deep.

Space in famous art

  • In The Jack Pine by Tom Thomson (a Canadian painter who worked in Algonquin Park), a single pine tree stands close to us on a rocky shore. Behind it is a lake, and far away are low hills under a glowing sky. The tree is in the foreground, the lake in the middle ground and the hills in the background.
  • In The Great Wave off Kanagawa, a famous woodblock print by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, a giant wave curls over small boats in the foreground. Mount Fuji looks tiny in the background, but it is really a huge mountain! It looks small because it is far away.
  • Emily Carr painted the tall forests of British Columbia. In many of her paintings, big tree trunks fill the foreground and the forest becomes darker and deeper behind them.
Worked example

Example: Finding the grounds in The Jack Pine

Let's analyze how Tom Thomson showed space.

  1. Foreground: the jack pine and the rocks. They are at the bottom, large, with dark, strong colours and detail in the branches.
  2. Middle ground: the lake, stretching across the painting behind the tree. The tree overlaps it.
  3. Background: the low hills along the horizon, small, with little detail.
  4. Meaning: the big tree in front feels strong and alone, and the wide space behind it makes us feel how huge and quiet the northern lake is.

Thomson used size, placement, overlapping and detail to show three grounds, and the deep space helps us feel the peace and size of the northern landscape.

Worked example

Example: Planning a landscape inspired by my neighbourhood

Let's plan a picture of sledding in the park with three grounds.

  1. Background (top, small, pale): a row of tiny houses and bare trees along the horizon, in pale grey and blue tints.
  2. Middle ground (middle, medium): the big sledding hill with three small children sliding down.
  3. Foreground (bottom, big, detailed): me, large, pulling my sled, with a striped scarf and snow on my boots.
  4. Check: Are far things smaller and higher? Yes. Does the foreground overlap the hill? Yes.

A picture with a clear foreground (me), middle ground (the hill) and background (houses and trees) that shows depth and a scene from my community.

Just for fun

Just for fun: Close one eye and hold up your thumb at arm's length. You can "hide" a whole house behind it. Congratulations, you are stronger than a bulldozer (at least in a picture)!

Hands-on activity

Three-layer torn-paper landscape

You need: four pieces of paper (one for the sky, plus three for the layers, or old magazine pages or coloured paper), a glue stick, and crayons or markers.

  1. Choose a nature scene: a lake, a forest, a farm, mountains or a snowy field.
  2. Tear a strip of paper for the background: low hills or mountains. Make it pale. Glue it highest on the sky paper.
  3. Tear a strip for the middle ground (a lake, a field). Glue it lower, overlapping the background.
  4. Tear a strip for the foreground and glue it at the bottom.
  5. Add details with crayon: small, simple trees far away; big, detailed plants, rocks or animals in front.
  6. Hold it at arm's length. Does it look deep?

Tearing instead of cutting means no scissors needed, and it gives a soft, natural edge!

Your turn

1

Name the three grounds from nearest to farthest.

2

Where on the page is the background usually placed?

3

Why should a tree in the background be drawn smaller than a tree in the foreground?

4

What is a horizon line?

5

In The Great Wave off Kanagawa, why does Mount Fuji look small?

6

Name the four tricks for showing depth.

7

Look out a window. Name one thing in the foreground, one in the middle ground and one in the background.

More practice: warm-up

1

Which ground has the most detail?

2

True or false: Faraway hills often look paler.

3

Which ground is usually at the bottom of the page?

4

When one object covers part of another, it's called ___.

5

Who painted The Jack Pine?

More practice: on your own

1

A drawing shows a big moose at the bottom, a lake in the middle, and small mountains at the top. Name each ground.

2

Your drawing looks flat: two houses are the same size, side by side. How can you make one look farther away?

3

Why do artists use paler colours in the background?

4

Describe one way Emily Carr showed depth in her forest paintings.

5

You are drawing a hockey game on an outdoor rink. What would you put in each ground?

Challenge

1

Plan a landscape of Lake Superior's shore with three grounds. Explain how you will use size, placement and colour.

2

Two pictures show the same bird. In one, it is tiny and near the top. In the other, it is big and near the bottom. Which bird seems closer? Explain.

3

How does showing deep space change the feeling of a picture? Use The Jack Pine or your own example.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

The part of a picture that seems closest to you is the ___.

2.

Things in the background are usually drawn ___.

3.

Which picture shows depth best?

4.

Faraway mountains often look ___.

5.

In The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Mount Fuji is in the ___.

6.

The line where the sky seems to meet the land or water is the ___.

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Grade 3 students use foreground, middle ground and background to create the illusion of depth (space) (D1.3), create art inspired by the environment or community (D1.1), and explain how artists show space (D2.2). This builds on Grade 2's overlapping.

How to help:

  • On walks or drives, play "What's in the foreground?" Name things near, in between and far.
  • Look at landscape paintings online or in books by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, Emily Carr or Hokusai.
  • Take a photo from a window and find the three grounds together.

Common difficulties:

  • Lining everything up along the bottom edge. Show how things farther away move up the page.
  • Making faraway things big "so you can see them". Use the thumb-and-house trick to show that far things look smaller.

Materials: tearing paper avoids scissors. If you do use scissors, supervise and use child-safe ones.