How can I add atmospheric perspective for depth in Procreate landscapes?

[ElizabethC]

I’ve been trying to get better at creating a sense of depth in my digital landscapes, but my distant elements just look flat and pasted on. I’m working in Procreate and struggling with how to adjust the atmospheric perspective effectively—my faraway hills don’t feel like they’re actually far away.

[Elizabeth15]

I feel that. When I try to push distant hills back, I start with a softer edge on the far shapes and cool pale colors. It helps a little, but too often the scene still reads flat on the screen.

[Scarlett_C]

In Procreate I dipped into atmospheric perspective more directly. I painted the distant hills with cooler lighter tones, then added a haze layer with a soft brush at low opacity. I ran Adjustments > Gaussian Blur on that layer to push them back a touch. It helped, but it sometimes just muddies the color.

[Aaron49]

I tried cranking up foreground detail and keeping far stuff soft, but I kept getting stuck with pasted-looking layers. I think maybe reducing contrast and using overlap helps, but the results were inconsistent and I ended up abandoning that approach.

[MatthewS]

Could the real problem be lighting? If the light is flat, no amount of color work will really sell depth.