Creating Focal Points And Visual Paths

A Focal Point, or sometimes called a Center Of Interest, is a spot in a composition that immediately draws the eye. It's the entry spot for the image, and you can use various tricks to create a focal point to lead the viewer to the most important part of the image. And once you have their eye, you can use other lesser focal points and visual paths to keep them engaged. In this lesson, I'll go through a number of tips on creating focal points and then leading the audience's eye through the rest of the painting.
Videos mentioned in this video...
Contrast In Composition
• Contrasts In Composition
Composition Types
• Composition Types
What is a Tangent? And How To Solve Them
• What is a Tangent? And...
For more info and other lessons, please visit www.neilblevins.com/art_lesson...

[@kobinaa__]

You are a truly a life saver. From the bottom of my artist's heart, THANKS YOU FOR YOUR THREE COMPOSITION VIDEOS

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks Kobinaa, glad you've enjoyed my videos so much!

[@JuanEVG]

Great explanation! so clear and precise

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks Juan, glad you enjoyed it!

[@dagoelius]

The alien image is interesting as I noticed the circular crown and angle of the shoulders before I registered the light focal points.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Interesting. Well those two areas have contrast of shape (organic shapes against much more mechanical shapes), so maybe the shape contrast drew you first, although those two spots also are near areas of light contrast which may have also helped lead you to the interesting shapes. Regardless, not everyone's perception is the same, so while eye diagrams can be good as an indicator, they shouldn't be considered a 100% guarantee.

[@OmegaRainbow]

fantastic! I've been studying watercolors for a few years now and composition is one of my weakest spots...i tried lots of courses but very few have been as clear and informative as this video... excellent job, i'm going to go and check all the other ones now :D
Thanks again for putting all the time and effort in making such a good video ❤

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks so much Omega for the kind words, and I hope you enjoy the other videos in the series!

[@seccovan]

Great stuff, thank you

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Glad you found it interesting!

[@43En]

Could you elaborate more on the "stop"? Why do our eyes bounce off of dark shapes? Does it have to do with contrast? Is it because it frames the composition by darkening everything around our bright focal point and allowing it to stand out more? Is it because every time we try to look away we're met with low contrast in the dark areas which immediately brings our eyes back to the bright focal point because everything around it is overall darker and lower in contrast? If I'm right wouldn't this work with dark on bright?

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Yes, it has everything to do with contrast. Our eyes seek out contrast, so if you put dark objects around the edge of the paper, our eyes will travel to the bright center. But just the same, if you have a white piece of paper and a dark object in the middle of it, our eyes will travel to the dark object. Assuming of course the white paper isn't on a black wall, in which case our eyes will bunce between the edge of the paper and the object in the center of the paper. So yes, it can work both ways, the important part is the contrast.

[@43En]

@@ArtOfSoulburn thank you for replying, I couldn’t decide on the exact reason but this clears things up. I want to thank you for putting out such insightful information, nobody on youtube takes such deep dives as you, nobody. Which is why Im taking my time to write down, study and understand each of your videos about composition and all I can say is that Im not even halfway trough and a huge part of art has been demystified for me. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it :)

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

@@43En Thank you so much, glad you've been enjoying the videos and I appreciate your kind words :)