DUTCH STYLE SCAPING
- Thread starter OmidNiav
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OK check this out. What is the definition of "depth" anyway? What do we mean by good depth or poor depth? Its the difference between 2D and 3D. In person everything we see has depth, assuming we have two good eyes to look. But pictures are 2D. There's no way around it
What we are trying to do is make a 2D pic look 3D. I'll say again that its a lot easier to accomplish using hardscape material. To do it with just plants is freaking tough! But THAT is the challenge with making a good Dutch. Having depth its one of the core attributes of the style, always has been. Its the WOW factor that a good Dutch brings to the table
I'm about to do you one better than that. Here's Raymond's from '15. The moss logs help bigly by putting a dark space between things. But there's also dramatic contrasts in height where it matters. And he's made sure to create some of those lines of dark shadow between some things
This is the other one I mentioned. He's got those dark lines of separation all over the place, all meticulously created on purpose. And its why the tank has such a strong sense of depth
These lines are the areas Im talking about
Here is a pretty sweet tank. This guy was my friend but its been a few years since we've talked and damn if I can remember what his full name is, or what year this one is from
First thing that jumps out is the dramatic contrasts in colors, right? I mean seriously, wow! But even with the strong contrast, the left half doesnt have much sense of depth, because of how the groups run so evenly into each other. Spots on the right are better, where lobelia meets pantanal, and the tonina under the sunset. Having those dark lines of shadow a makes all the difference in the world
These marks are places where he could've really used more of that. With some shadow lines between all these groups it would've looked positively 3D
But how do you make those lines? It's just a very simple matter of adjusting the heights a little bit
Basically all you have to know is you dont want the tops to be even with each other at the point where they meet. The highest top of the group in front needs to be lower than the shortest top in the group behind it. The dark shadow line appears all by itself automatically when you do that
Notice the yellow circle, how the shadow disappears because the tops meet at the same height
Its one of those things you can do at the last minute, or with the final trim. Just go across and prune the lowest line of tops off on the back group. Or the tallest line of tops off of the group in front. Thats all you gotta do and boom, instant dark shadow
Nntnam's tank above, this could've been completely done everywhere that needs it in about 15 minutes
What we are trying to do is make a 2D pic look 3D. I'll say again that its a lot easier to accomplish using hardscape material. To do it with just plants is freaking tough! But THAT is the challenge with making a good Dutch. Having depth its one of the core attributes of the style, always has been. Its the WOW factor that a good Dutch brings to the table
I'm about to do you one better than that. Here's Raymond's from '15. The moss logs help bigly by putting a dark space between things. But there's also dramatic contrasts in height where it matters. And he's made sure to create some of those lines of dark shadow between some things
This is the other one I mentioned. He's got those dark lines of separation all over the place, all meticulously created on purpose. And its why the tank has such a strong sense of depth
These lines are the areas Im talking about
Here is a pretty sweet tank. This guy was my friend but its been a few years since we've talked and damn if I can remember what his full name is, or what year this one is from
First thing that jumps out is the dramatic contrasts in colors, right? I mean seriously, wow! But even with the strong contrast, the left half doesnt have much sense of depth, because of how the groups run so evenly into each other. Spots on the right are better, where lobelia meets pantanal, and the tonina under the sunset. Having those dark lines of shadow a makes all the difference in the world
These marks are places where he could've really used more of that. With some shadow lines between all these groups it would've looked positively 3D
But how do you make those lines? It's just a very simple matter of adjusting the heights a little bit
Basically all you have to know is you dont want the tops to be even with each other at the point where they meet. The highest top of the group in front needs to be lower than the shortest top in the group behind it. The dark shadow line appears all by itself automatically when you do that
Notice the yellow circle, how the shadow disappears because the tops meet at the same height
Its one of those things you can do at the last minute, or with the final trim. Just go across and prune the lowest line of tops off on the back group. Or the tallest line of tops off of the group in front. Thats all you gotta do and boom, instant dark shadow
Nntnam's tank above, this could've been completely done everywhere that needs it in about 15 minutes
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Unexpected
Well-known Member
Thank you. This is a money shot post.
Something else Bart said in @OmidNiav 's street thread is "Dont cut the tank in half with it." In other words dont put the street dead center in a straight line
My tank was close to doing just that. To begin with it had more curve to it. But as I tweaked things over that last week it got worse and worse. I saw it happening, but kept thinking I could fudge things so it wouldnt look so bad. There wasnt enough time to change the layout enough to fix it properly. Remember Id started from scratch only two weeks from the deadline
Besides the street being too much in the center, there's a lot of unwanted symetry with the groups on either side of it. Notice how all these stem groups are roughly the same size, same shape, and stacked directly one behind the other. Three big no-no's
That is bad, very bad. Ideally, generally speaking its better to stack things more like bricks, offset from on another
Bart's big on symmetry (how there shouldnt be any) And rightfully so. Avoiding symmetry is up there with depth and contrast in terms of importance. Im sure the symmetry here immediately jumped out to him, and probably cost me a ton of points. I cant argue with that
Symmetry is another thing you have to train yourself to see. My first entry in 2017 that came in first had a lot of symmetrical issues. Bart wasnt a judge then but the year before he'd given a talk at the AGA convention where he broke down a couple of tanks explaining the good and the bad. I asked if he'd mind breaking my tank down in the same way to help me know how to get better. Nice guy that he is, he did and went into great detail doing it
Its main problem was symmetry. When I first heard that I was like, What?? Theres no symmetry, look a this and this and this! (thoughts to myself, didnt actually say it)
Well, turns out it was eat up with symmetry. I just didnt have the eyes to see it yet
If you want to read what all those lines mean, the breakdown is in Barts Article on Dutch Aquascapes about halfway down the page. Tremendous content. The whole thing should be required reading for anyone interested in making a Dutch
Also feel like I should clarify what I said earlier about Bart's tank and depth. In no way did I mean his tanks lacked depth, or that there was any mistakes happening or anything like that. His style just doesnt emphasize having that extreme in-your-face depth like the two tanks we were talking about
But what he does, is all done perfectly. There are so many master-level depth moves here. Its what makes him the master that he is
Steets that go all the way to the back, with portions of the back wall itself actually visible. Both of those are highly desireable and extremely effective to demonstrate depth
Then of course he has dramatic contrasts in height between every single group. Plenty of those shadow lines we just talked about, and good space between things in general. Master-level stuff no matter where you look
For the kind of depth those other two tanks have, there needs to be a fairly tall midground with things pulled heavily towards the front. Bart's tank is 10' long! Let that sink in for a minute. If he got too crazy with all that that he'd find himself tending to 13,473 stems. That's hire some help time! lol. So its just a difference in styles really, nothing better or worse about either one
Speaking of midground, I think a lot of folks neglect the midground when making a dutch. There's a lot that happens in the midground area. Literally every plant thats not a curtain or on the back wall interacts with the midground in some way. Its where the most significant transitions actually take place
My tank was close to doing just that. To begin with it had more curve to it. But as I tweaked things over that last week it got worse and worse. I saw it happening, but kept thinking I could fudge things so it wouldnt look so bad. There wasnt enough time to change the layout enough to fix it properly. Remember Id started from scratch only two weeks from the deadline
Besides the street being too much in the center, there's a lot of unwanted symetry with the groups on either side of it. Notice how all these stem groups are roughly the same size, same shape, and stacked directly one behind the other. Three big no-no's
That is bad, very bad. Ideally, generally speaking its better to stack things more like bricks, offset from on another
Bart's big on symmetry (how there shouldnt be any) And rightfully so. Avoiding symmetry is up there with depth and contrast in terms of importance. Im sure the symmetry here immediately jumped out to him, and probably cost me a ton of points. I cant argue with that
Symmetry is another thing you have to train yourself to see. My first entry in 2017 that came in first had a lot of symmetrical issues. Bart wasnt a judge then but the year before he'd given a talk at the AGA convention where he broke down a couple of tanks explaining the good and the bad. I asked if he'd mind breaking my tank down in the same way to help me know how to get better. Nice guy that he is, he did and went into great detail doing it
Its main problem was symmetry. When I first heard that I was like, What?? Theres no symmetry, look a this and this and this! (thoughts to myself, didnt actually say it)
Well, turns out it was eat up with symmetry. I just didnt have the eyes to see it yet
If you want to read what all those lines mean, the breakdown is in Barts Article on Dutch Aquascapes about halfway down the page. Tremendous content. The whole thing should be required reading for anyone interested in making a Dutch
Also feel like I should clarify what I said earlier about Bart's tank and depth. In no way did I mean his tanks lacked depth, or that there was any mistakes happening or anything like that. His style just doesnt emphasize having that extreme in-your-face depth like the two tanks we were talking about
But what he does, is all done perfectly. There are so many master-level depth moves here. Its what makes him the master that he is
Steets that go all the way to the back, with portions of the back wall itself actually visible. Both of those are highly desireable and extremely effective to demonstrate depth
Then of course he has dramatic contrasts in height between every single group. Plenty of those shadow lines we just talked about, and good space between things in general. Master-level stuff no matter where you look
For the kind of depth those other two tanks have, there needs to be a fairly tall midground with things pulled heavily towards the front. Bart's tank is 10' long! Let that sink in for a minute. If he got too crazy with all that that he'd find himself tending to 13,473 stems. That's hire some help time! lol. So its just a difference in styles really, nothing better or worse about either one
Speaking of midground, I think a lot of folks neglect the midground when making a dutch. There's a lot that happens in the midground area. Literally every plant thats not a curtain or on the back wall interacts with the midground in some way. Its where the most significant transitions actually take place
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