--- title: "How to Paint a Sumi-e Landscape: Near, Middle and Far Distance in Ink" description: "How to paint a sumi-e landscape: depth from dark, medium and pale ink, simple distant mountains and a waterfall left as white paper. With a full painting by Tohun Kobayashi." image: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rTkcLsG1eEA/maxresdefault.jpg --- [Ensō円 相](https://www.sumieart.art/) [Article](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog?hsLang=en) [About](https://www.sumieart.art/en/about?hsLang=en) [JA](https://www.sumieart.art/blog/sumi-e-sansui-landscape-how-to) / [EN](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/how-to-paint-landscape-sumi-e) [Article](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog) — Suiboku # How to Paint a Sumi-e Landscape: Near, Middle and Far Distance in Ink How to paint a sumi-e landscape: depth from dark, medium and pale ink, simple distant mountains and a waterfall left as white paper. With a full painting by Tohun Kobayashi. 2026.10.10 ![Sumi-e landscape by Tohun Kobayashi, with rocks and trees in dark ink in the foreground and distant mountains and a waterfall in pale ink](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rTkcLsG1eEA/maxresdefault.jpg) Sumi-e landscape by Tohun Kobayashi, with rocks and trees in dark ink in the foreground and distant mountains and a waterfall in pale ink In a sumi-e landscape, depth does not come from perspective lines. It comes from the tone of the ink. Whatever is near is painted darker and in more detail; whatever is far away is paler and simpler; and the empty paper left between the layers becomes mist, water and sky. Keep that rule consistent and even a crowded view of mountains, trees and water will hold together on one sheet. Paint everything in the same careful tone, and the picture stays flat however long you spend on it. This guide follows a complete landscape by Tohun Kobayashi and turns it into four steps: the near distance, the middle distance, the far distance with its waterfall, and the empty space that holds them apart. Landscape painting, sansuiga (山水画), literally means "mountain and water painting". According to [JAANUS](https://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/jaanus/record/sansuiga), the dictionary of Japanese art terms hosted by Columbia University, it is one of the three major subjects of East Asian painting, alongside figure painting and bird-and-flower painting, and it builds an idealised image of nature mainly from mountains, rivers, clouds, rocks and trees. What you will learn: - How to divide a landscape into near, middle and far distance - How far to change the tone of the ink from one layer to the next - How to show a waterfall without painting the water - How to leave mist, water and sky as empty space ## How to Use This Guide | Watch the Full Landscape, Then Work Through the Steps ### Watch the whole painting once In the video below, published on the Kokusai Bokuyukai channel, Tohun Kobayashi paints one landscape from start to finish. Its Japanese title is 四季山水図, "a landscape of the four seasons", and the channel's description says that it shows how to paint the near, middle and far distance, and a waterfall in the far distance. It is the most-watched demonstration on the channel. The video runs 9 minutes 37 seconds, much longer than the short bamboo and orchid demonstrations. Watch it once without stopping to see how the whole picture comes together across a long horizontal sheet. Then come back to the parts you need as you read each step below. ### Three things to watch for 1. Tone: how clearly the ink changes from one layer of the landscape to the next. 2. Water: how much water goes into the brush when the ink has to be very pale. 3. Detail: where the brush adds detail, and where it boldly leaves things out. In this guide we work from the front of the picture to the back: near, then middle, then far, then a final check of the empty space. The near distance comes first because its tone sets the standard. Until you know how dark the foreground is, you cannot judge how pale everything behind it needs to be. If making different tones of ink still feels uncertain, [How to Practise Sumi-e Brushwork](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/sumi-e-brushwork-practice-drills) covers the basics in five drills. For brushes, ink and paper, see [Sumi-e Tools for Beginners](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/sumi-e-essential-tools); this guide assumes washi, Japanese paper. ## Depth Comes from Ink Tone | Near, Middle and Far Distance ### Prepare three tones before you start Before you paint anything, prepare three tones of ink: dark, medium and pale. Assign them in advance: dark for the near distance, medium for the middle distance, pale for the far distance. Deciding this before you begin means you will not hesitate halfway through. If you adjust the ink as you go instead, the steps between the layers become blurred and the depth collapses. What matters most is a clear difference between neighbouring layers. Making the middle distance only slightly paler than the foreground is not enough for the eye to read it as further away. ### More detail near, less far away Change the amount of detail along with the tone. A tree in the near distance gets the texture of its bark and the shape of its branches. A tree in the middle distance is painted only far enough to be recognised as a tree. In the far distance, a tree may be no more than a few dots, or simply part of the outline of a mountain. If you paint something distant with care, that part of the picture jumps forward. Leaving detail out is not a shortcut; it is how distance is made. ### The three distances: a classical way of looking Classical Chinese painting also describes landscapes in terms of distance. JAANUS records that Guo Xi (after 1000–ca. 1090), a leading Academy landscape painter of the Northern Song dynasty, set out three types of distance for mountains in his treatise The Lofty Message of Forests and Streams (林泉高致). These are the [three distances](https://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/jaanus/record/sanen) (三遠, san-en): - High distance (高遠, kō-en): looking up at a mountain from below - Deep distance (深遠, shin-en): looking from the front of a mountain to the mountains behind it - Level distance (平遠, hei-en): looking out from a mountain across low hills nearby You do not need to memorise the terms. What helps is deciding, before you begin, where your landscape is seen from: are you looking up, looking in, or looking across? Settle that one question and the composition becomes much easier to hold together. ## Step 1 — The Near Distance | Dark Ink and Detail at the Edge of the Picture ### Decide where the foreground sits Place the near distance at the bottom of the picture or towards one side. If you put a large foreground in the centre, there is nowhere left for the middle and far distance to show through. Let the foreground take a corner or an edge, and keep a path open for the eye to travel into the picture. ### Paint rocks and trees in dark ink The near distance uses your darkest ink. It is the darkest and most detailed layer of the whole landscape. For rocks, draw the outline first, then lay the brush against the surface to give them texture. For trees, set up the trunk, divide the branches, and add leaves or pine needles. In the video, tall trees with fine needles are painted in dark ink at the right of the sheet. This is the one layer where you can add as much detail as the picture needs. ### Know when to stop Even so, if the foreground becomes the star of the picture, the distance disappears behind it. Detail is enjoyable to paint, and it is easy to keep going. But the job of the near distance is to be a stepping stone that sends the eye into the picture. Once the shapes are in place, put the brush down and look at the whole sheet before you add more. ## Step 2 — The Middle Distance | Clearly Paler, Offset from the Foreground ### Switch to medium ink and make it clearly paler When you move on to the middle distance, change to your medium ink. Make it clearly paler, not just a little paler. If the near and middle distance are close in tone, the two layers look as if they stand at the same distance, and no depth appears. When in doubt, go paler than you think you should. ### Offset the middle distance from the foreground Place the middle distance in the space you left open in the foreground. If you put it directly behind the trees of the near distance, both shapes become hard to read. Shift it a little to one side so that it shows through the gaps in the foreground. That small offset tells the viewer there is space between the two layers. ### Small houses or bridges for scale The middle distance is a good place for a small house or a bridge. A small sign of human life makes the size of the mountains clear. It does not need to be large: a roof shape that can just be recognised is enough. ## Step 3 — The Far Distance | Pale Ink, Outlines Only, and the Waterfall ### Distant mountains: an outline or a pale wash The far distance uses your palest ink. Paint distant mountains as a ridge line, or as a pale area of ink, and stop there. The shape of the ridge is enough to say "mountain". If you add rock texture or trees, the far distance loses its distance and moves forward to sit with the middle distance. In the video, the misty mountains are laid in pale ink with a wide flat brush. ### The waterfall: paint the rocks, not the water A waterfall is not painted at all. The water is the white of the paper, left untouched. The method works the other way round. Paint the rocks on both sides of the line where the water falls, in a slightly darker ink. Once the sides are dark, the white strip left between them reads as falling water. You are not painting white; you are painting the surroundings so that the white appears. In the video, the waterfall appears between dark cliffs, and the falling water is simply the paper. This idea of showing something by not painting it appears again and again in landscape painting. ### Use your palest ink and start lighter For the far distance, the brush can hold more water than ink. Even if the ink looks too pale, it will dry paler still. You can always darken an area later, but once dark ink is on the paper you cannot make it lighter. If you are unsure, start from the pale side. Read next - [What Is the Difference Between Sumi-e and Suibokuga?](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/suiboku-vs-sumie)Where landscape painting sits in the ink tradition - [Art Beyond Boundaries 2026: Tohun Kobayashi's Live Sumi-e of Mount Fuji and Pine](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/art-beyond-boundaries-2026-live-painting)Near pines and rocks to a distant Mount Fuji, on a folding screen - [How to Practise Sumi-e Brushwork](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/sumi-e-brushwork-practice-drills)Five drills for dark, medium and pale ink ## Step 4 — Empty Space | Mist, Water and Sky Left Unpainted ### Empty space is not unfinished paper The white areas of a landscape are not places you forgot to paint. They are mist, water and sky. Leave a band of white between the near and middle distance, and it reads as mist lying between them. By painting nothing, you show that there is air there. ### Leave bands of white between the layers If you pack the three layers tightly together, the picture feels cramped and the depth disappears. Always leave a band with nothing painted in it between one layer and the next. That band separates the layers and shows that each one stands at a different distance. When you finish and feel there is still room to paint something more, it is usually better to leave that space as it is. ### An idealised landscape, not a copy of a view Landscape painting took shape as a subject in China and was carried on in Japan. JAANUS notes that from the 14th century Song and Yuan paintings were brought to Japan in large numbers, mainly by Zen priests, introducing ink landscapes that painters such as Shūbun and later Sesshū developed in their own way. A landscape of this kind is not a record of one particular view. It is an idealised landscape, put together in the mind from mountains, water, clouds, rocks and trees. From the start, it has been accepted that it may differ from any real place. For more on where landscape belongs in the ink tradition, see [What Is the Difference Between Sumi-e and Suibokuga?](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/suiboku-vs-sumie) ## Putting It All Together: Three Tones → Near → Middle → Far → Empty Space 1. Prepare dark, medium and pale ink before you start. 2. Near distance: dark ink, at the bottom or one side. Paint rocks and trees in detail, and keep a path open into the picture. 3. Middle distance: medium ink, clearly paler. Offset it from the foreground and add a small house or bridge for scale. 4. Far distance: your palest ink, as ridge lines or pale washes only. Show a waterfall by painting the rocks on both sides and leaving the water white. 5. Empty space: leave a band of white between each layer. When you have finished, step back and look at the picture from a distance. Do the three layers seem to stand at three different distances? That is the most important check for any landscape. For a much larger example of the same idea, [Art Beyond Boundaries 2026](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/art-beyond-boundaries-2026-live-painting) follows Tohun Kobayashi painting Mount Fuji and pines live on a folding screen, from pines and rocks in the foreground to the mountain in the distance. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Everything in my landscape looks flat. What am I doing wrong? The three layers are too close in tone. Prepare dark, medium and pale ink before you start instead of adjusting the ink as you go, which tends to blur the differences. Then make each layer clearly paler than the one in front of it, not just slightly paler. [How to Practise Sumi-e Brushwork](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/sumi-e-brushwork-practice-drills) covers how to make the tones. ### How much detail should the distant mountains have? Very little: leaving detail out is what makes them look distant. A ridge line or a pale wash of ink is enough for the eye to recognise a mountain. If you add rock texture or trees, that part of the picture moves forward and the far distance ends up at the same depth as the middle distance. ### How do you paint a waterfall in sumi-e? Do not paint the water. Leave the paper white and paint the rocks on both sides of the falling water in a slightly darker ink. Once the sides are dark, the white between them reads as water. In the video, the waterfall between the dark cliffs is simply the white of the paper. ### What are the three distances in landscape painting? They are three ways of looking at mountains set out by the Northern Song painter Guo Xi, as recorded by JAANUS: high distance, looking up at a mountain from below; deep distance, looking past the front of a mountain to the mountains behind it; and level distance, looking out across low hills. Use them to decide where your landscape is seen from before you begin, rather than as terms to memorise. ### What does sansuiga mean? Sansuiga (山水画) means "mountain and water painting". It is a subject of Chinese origin that builds an idealised landscape mainly from mountains, rivers, clouds, rocks and trees. According to JAANUS, ink landscapes reached Japan with Song and Yuan paintings from the 14th century. ### Is a sumi-e landscape the same as a Western landscape painting? There is no strict line between them, but sansuiga traditionally paints an idealised landscape composed in the mind rather than copying a view in front of the painter. JAANUS notes that it was the arrival of Western realism, in the late 18th century, that moved Japanese landscape painting towards naturalistic views of real places. ### Should I start with landscapes or with single subjects? There is no rule. One approach is to practise tones and strokes with single subjects such as bamboo, orchid or chrysanthemum first, and then put them together in a landscape. A landscape asks you to control several tones on one sheet at once, which is easier once each stroke feels familiar. ## Continue Your Sumi-e Practice Each single subject trains something a landscape needs. Bamboo is about straight lines and pressure ([How to Paint Bamboo in Sumi-e](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/how-to-paint-bamboo-sumi-e-1)); orchid is about the long curve pulled in one breath ([How to Paint Orchid in Sumi-e](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/how-to-paint-orchid-sumi-e)); the chrysanthemum is about layering and the choice between line and area ([How to Paint Chrysanthemums in Sumi-e](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/how-to-paint-chrysanthemum-sumi-e)). To see how these subjects belong together, read [The Four Gentlemen of Ink Painting](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/four-gentlemen-sumi-e). If you are just starting out, [Sumi-e for Beginners](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/sumi-e-for-beginners) covers your first steps, and the [brushwork drills](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/sumi-e-brushwork-practice-drills) will help you control the dark, medium and pale ink that every landscape depends on. ## RelatedArticle ### [![How to Paint Chrysanthemums in Sumi-e: Layered Petals, Leaves & Small Flowers](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v_N5jWnF09E/maxresdefault.jpg) Suiboku / Japanese Art / Sumie How to Paint Chrysanthemums in Sumi-e: Layered Petals, Leaves & Small Flowers](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/how-to-paint-chrysanthemum-sumi-e) ### [![Hokusai's Daily Exorcisms: The Lions He Painted Almost Every Morning in His Eighties](https://www.sumieart.art/hubfs/93744.LL.jpg) Suiboku / Japanese Art / Sumie Hokusai's Daily Exorcisms: The Lions He Painted Almost Every Morning in His Eighties](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/hokusai-daily-exorcisms) ### [![What Is Mōrōtai? Hishida Shunsō and the Hazy Style of Nihonga Without Outlines](https://www.sumieart.art/hubfs/featured_1200x630.jpg) Suiboku / Japanese Art / Sumie What Is Mōrōtai? Hishida Shunsō and the Hazy Style of Nihonga Without Outlines](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/hishida-shunso-morotai) ![Jin](https://www.sumieart.art/hubfs/IMG_3607-2.jpg) Jin Sumi-e Artist Jin is a sumi-e artist and calligrapher whose practice brings Western calligraphy into dialogue with the Japanese tradition of ink painting. In Jin's work, letterforms, brushed lines, and ma — the resonant negative space at the heart of sumi-e — come together in compositions that speak across cultures. This East–West synthesis grounds an ongoing exploration of artistic possibilities that reach beyond cultural boundaries. Jin currently serves as a Director of the International Association of SUMI, and was recently honored with the Special Jury Award — the Arisumi Mitamura Prize — at Art Beyond Boundaries. Rooted in tradition yet attentive to the present, Jin continues to share a contemporary vision of sumi-e with audiences around the world. Ensō A bilingual platform dedicated to the aesthetic sensibility of Japan through the art of ink painting. 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