Composition: Foreground, middle ground, background

For this exercise I was asked to choose a sketch or a photograph and establish the foreground, middle ground and background in my drawing. I chose a photograph I took of Alnwick Castle last August, because I thought I could establish the three grounds clearly.

I used A3 cartridges paper and to decide on the medium I first did a quick sketch in colour to get used to the shapes, in the end settling on a range of pencils from B2 to B6.

I feel the composition works well, the focal point is the bench in the foreground, and I managed to establish the distinction between the three parts of the landscape using graduated tones; darker and clearer for the trees and bench in the foreground, paler for the trees and middle ground, and very faded, lighter shapes for the background. In the second picture below I highlighted with different coloured arrows. Red – foreground, Green – middle ground, and Blue – background