by Greg Albert
The best example of something in a picture that attracts the mind is a figure. We can’t resist the human presence in a scene.
A landscape without a figure often appears oddly and, perhaps, disturbingly vacant. Even if the subject from which you are working doesn’t include people, consider adding them. Remember, they will become the picture’s center of interest, so use the devices mentioned on focal point to make the figures an eye-arresting focal point.
Also, be careful about including words or numbers in your picture. They can unintentionally become a competing center of interest, stealing attention from where you want the viewer’s eye to go.
subjects that attract the mind
• Faces
• People
• Words & numbers
• Directional symbols
• Things in motion (runner, airplane)
Demand closer study
The eye is naturally attracted to the figures in front of the house. Visually, other points of the picture are as attractive to the eye, but the mind naturally picks out the figures for closer study.
Pocono Impressions Tony Van Hasselt 15" x 22" (38cm x 56cm) Watercolor on paper
Lead the eye The eye naturally follows the strong blue path of the water right to the figures on the beach, making them a powerful center of interest.
Tidepool Louise DeMore 30" x 40" (76cm x 102 cm) Oil on canvas
Give life to a landscape
Although reduced to almost unidentifiable spots of color, the eye is drawn to the figurative shapes in the landscape.
Shepherd and Flock Greg Albert 9" x 17" (23cm x 43 cm) Acrylic on watercolor paper
focal point
A focal point is a magnet for the eye. It is a feature in a composition that draws the viewer’s eye to it. The viewer will look first at any part of a painting that has these characteristics:
• Contrast in tonal value
• Concentration of visual energy or detail
• Bright or intense color
• Hard edges
• Gap in a pattern
• Anomalies in a pattern
• Tangents
• Intersections or convergence
All of these are really different types of contrast. What attracts the eye is some sort of contrasting characteristic that makes an element stand out because it is unlike any other. In the examples on this page, notice how the eye is attracted to the contrasting element.
You can use any of these characteristics to make a particular feature in your painting a magnet for the eye, but there should only be one dominant feature, one “star.” The focal point and the center of interest should be one and the same. In other words, the eye and the mind should be attracted to the same spot. If there are competing features, such as two focal points or two centers of interest attracting the mind, the viewer doesn’t know where to look.
Contrast in tonal value
Concentration of visual energy or detail
Bright or intense color
Hard edges
Gap in a pattern
Anomalies in a pattern
Tangents
Intersections or convergence
Color and value draw the eye
The focal point of this painting, at the left, is created by color and value contrast at the base of the rock cliff in the foreground.
Paria Kevin Macpherson 20" x 22" (51cm x 56cm) Oil on canvas
Detail and value draw the eye
The focal point is at the upper left and is formed by sharp detail and value contrast. Note how the boat’s bow points to this area, as do the diagonals from the left.
Catch of the Day Tony Couch 20" x 33" (51cm x 83cm) Watercolor on paper
placing the focal point
The overall effectiveness of a painting’s design will be a function of the location of its focal point and center of interest. Luckily, the ONE RULE OF COMPOSITION: Never make any two intervals the same can be used to find the right place every time. The focal point should be located in a place that is at a different distance from all four sides of the picture.
The Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds says to divide your picture into thirds vertically and horizontally. (Think tic-tac-toe). The intersections of the two horizontal dividing lines and the two vertical lines create what I call the four sweet spots. Any one of these intersections is a good location for the center of interest because each location is unequally distant from the four sides.
An alternate way to locate the center of interest is to divide the format into four equal quadrants. The center of each would be a good position for your primary subject. Either method will give you an interestingly off-center place to put the focal point.
Divide the picture area as for tic-tac-toe
Divide the picture into thirds vertically and horizontally. The intersections of these divisions form the best locations for your picture’s center of interest.
Use sweet spots as guides
The center of interest does not have to be at the exact point the Rule of Thirds indicates. Close is good enough.
Find the intersection of thirds
Each point determined by the Rule of Thirds is a spot at different intervals from all four sides, complying with our ONE RULE OF COMPOSITION: Never make any two intervals the same.
Divide the picture area into quadrants
An alternate way to locate good positions for the center of interest is to divide the format into four equal quadrants and find the center of each.
exploring the four “sweet spots”
Once you become aware of how to locate a center of interest with the Rule of Thirds, you’ll discover that this idea has been repeatedly used by many great artists. It is a very easy method to remember and use (just think tic-tac-toe). But beware: Even when you do remember to use it when planning your painting, the urge to put the center of interest in the geometric center is very strong. If you’re not careful, you might find that the center of interest has drifted toward the boring center despite your use of the Rule of Thirds.
The Rule of Thirds is one of the handiest applications of the ONE RULE OF COMPOSITION: Never make any two intervals the same. If it is the only way you practice the ONE RULE, you will find that it almost automatically improves the design of your compositions.
Occupying the sweet spot
The center of interest is the largest, brightest flower in the upper left. It occupies a sweet spot.
Locating the focal point
The white house in the field, located at one of the sweet spots, is the focal point of this picture.
lines, leads and pointers
Directing the viewer’s attention as she scans your picture is part of your job as an artist. You can control what the viewer sees and when the viewer sees it. You also want to keep the viewer’s attention freely circulating. You can accomplish both by the use of lines, leads and pointers which direct the eye to where you want it to go, and by avoiding leaks that allow it to escape.
You want to provide a clear visual trail for the eye to follow through the picture. Lines, leads and pointers form the path of least resistance, naturally attracting a viewer’s attention. Any linear element in a picture, such as a line or long, narrow shape, will create a path for the eye to follow. An arrow-like shape can act as a pointer, too, directing the eye to wherever it points. These devices can lead the eye out of the picture as well as into it, so you need to be aware of their affect on the viewer’s attention.
Shapes lead the eye
The shapes in this painting, including the boats, lead the eye into the painting and keep the viewer from straying out.
Marina Friends Margaret M. Martin 22" x 30" (56cm x 76cm) Watercolor on paper
Diagonal lines
Diagonals, naturally dynamic lines in a composition, form powerful pointers to the focal point.
Zigzag lines
A meandering line leads the eye to a focal point at a more leisurely pace than a straight di
agonal. Don’t let it run into a corner, and apply the One Rule: Never make any two intervals the same by making sure the angles and lengths of the “zags” are different.
blocks and exits
As obvious as it sounds, you want to direct lines into the painting, toward the interior and not toward the periphery. However, any line has the potential to lead out as well as lead in. As important as knowing what to do to keep the eye within the frame, is knowing what to avoid in order to keep the eye from drifting out.
direct attention into the center of the picture
• Don’t do anything that attracts attention to the frame or border.
• Don’t crowd things into a corner.
• Don’t let shapes touch the edge of the frame.
• Don’t have faces or figures looking out of the frame.
Avoid leaks and drains
A line from edge to edge will pull the eye right through a painting. In fact, any line that touches the edge of the painting’s format is a potential eye leak. A line touching the edge provides a ready exit for the eye right out of the picture by drawing attention to the edge.
A line that touches a corner of a painting is like a drain. Because the corner is where two edges (both places where the eye can drop out of the painting) meet, the outward pull is strong. Any line that directs the eye to a corner is an invitation to leave the picture entirely.
Create blocks and eye magnets
To keep the eye from following a line out of a picture, you need to use view blocks as well as eye magnets. A view block can be a line, shape or some other graphic element that stops the eye on its way toward the edge of the picture. It blocks the eye from following the path out of the picture and redirects it back in.
View blocks are usually placed close to the edge or in the corners of a picture. In a horizontal format, the blocks would normally be placed on the right or left edge, since the eye naturally follows the horizontal orientation to those edges. The eye is less likely to fall out the top or bottom. View blocks are more often placed in the lower corners than the upper ones.
By using a combination of blocks and eye magnets, you can keep the viewer’s attention inside the picture.
Don’t run lines into corners
Corners are natural drains for the eye. Every corner of this painting has a diagonal leading the eye out of the composition.
Don’t place figures facing out
Don’t play “made you look” with the viewer by placing a figure looking toward a nearby edge of the painting. This naturally attracts attention outside the composition.
Don’t place shapes tangent to the edge
These tangents become unwanted focal points that lead the eye right out of the picture.
Don’t place lines leaning out
Don’t direct the eye to the edge of the format with lines that thrust away from the center of the painting.
attract, entertain and retain the viewer
A good composition will attract, entertain and retain the attention of the viewer. In this chapter, we examined ways to invite the viewer’s eye into the picture and then create a path that circulates it within the borders of the composition. By carefully considering how the viewer is likely to scan his picture, the artist can create a compelling piece of art.
Provide a path for the viewer’s eye to follow
In this painting, the spreading limbs of the tree funnel the eye upward, and act as view blocks to keep the eye from wandering off to the right or left. The oblique thrust of the tree limbs generate a visual energy that animates the whole composition.
There are two eye magnets, the boy’s face and the birdhouse, both located at sweet spots as determined by the Rule of Thirds.
The boy’s face is a center of interest because the eye naturally is attracted to faces; so much important information for social interaction is conveyed by facial features. The birdhouse is a focal point because its “face” is the brightest spot in the picture. Tom has arranged the composition so the boy and the birdhouse are facing each other, compelling the eye to go back and forth from one to the other.
Other minor focal points, such as the hammer in the boy’s hands and the spots of sunlight on the tree limbs, circulate the eye as it scans the picture: face, birdhouse, hammer, face is the circular path the eye generally follows.
Although the face and birdhouse are equally balanced, the visual weight of the picture is centered on the left where the boy is standing. On the right, the birdhouse and light-dappled limb from which it hangs counterbalance the composition dynamically.
The Landlord Tom Browning 30” x 24” (76cm x 61cm) Oil on canvas
Santa Clara Coppersmiths Gerald J. Fritzler, AWS 19' x 14" (48cm x 36cm) Watercolor on paper
tonal value and contrast
Tonal values are critical. The lights and darks contribute more to the success of a painting’s composition than any other factor, including color. In fact, your painting will really be only as good as its tonal values.
Value contrasts attract and entertain the viewer. Points of contrast provide touchstones for the eye as it scans the picture.
Value contrast is so compelling that it is
the best way to establish a strong focal point.
Value contrast will make any part of a picture an eye magnet.
To be effective, the lights and darks in your paintings must at least be consciously considered if not deliberately planned. This planning does not need to be difficult or time-consuming. All it takes is a preliminary sketch before starting the painting and the application of the ONE RULE OF COMPOSITION: Never make any two intervals the same.
the importance of value contrast
The success of your painting depends on value more than any other element. Good tonal value contrast attracts the viewer’s attention and creates clarity.
Compare the examples on this page. The picture with a wide range of tonal values, from light to dark, and strong contrast is the most appealing. Notice that the words in the examples (left) strongly contrast with the background, making them easy to read. More paintings are weakened by the lack of value contrast than in any other compositional failing.
Strong contrast
Strong tonal value contrast increases the clarity of your paintings and attracts and retains the viewer’s attention.
Weak contrast
Lack of value contrast can weaken your painting. It is important to provide at least one element of strong contrast.
vary your values for interest
If you think of a value scale as a series of grays from black to white, you can see how the intervals between each step of the scale are the same. According to the ONE RULE OF COMPOSITION, if a painting has little value contrast—that is, if there is little difference between the darkest and the lightest tonal values in a picture—no part of the picture will be particularly attractive to the eye. If a picture has only darks, only lights or only middle grays, nothing will stand out sufficiently to be a focal point. If you vary the intervals between values so there is no longer an equal interval between each, you create a more interesting proportion of values.
Boring, even intervals of value
This value scale has equal intervals. Each step changes to the same degree as the one before and after. This scale is boring because the eye and mind can determine the pattern quickly.
Heavy on the lights
This value scale is weighted toward the light side. It is more interesting than an evenly distributed scale.
Heavy on the darks
This value scale is weighted toward the dark side. There is an uneven, irregular change from step to step, producing interest.
Use a range of values with varied intervals
The values in this composition are a good example of Mostly, some and a bit (see color dominance for more about this formula). The painting is made up of mostly mid-value, some black and three bits of white.
November Chickens Robert Johnson Oil on canvas 24" x 40" (61cm x
102cm)
seeing your subject as a pattern of values
Before you can make the most of the tonal values in your paintings, you need to develop an awareness of them in your subject matter. The first step is to start looking through (or past) the surface details of your subject, seeing it as a simplified pattern of lights and darks.
To see your subject as a pattern made up of value shapes, you have to look at your subject not as a group of things that can be named, but as a pattern. Instead of thinking tree or vase, think dark shape or light shape. What an object is is not as important as its shape and value.
Simplify the shapes first
Use a pen or pencil to create a simple drawing, reducing your subject to a few big shapes. Eliminate details and combine small shapes into larger shapes. Link shapes of similar value or combine them into larger shapes. Think big shapes; don’t think detail.
Reference photo
Reduce the values to a few
Once you have simplified it, use black and white to make this pattern of shapes into a pattern of tonal values. Although the eye can see an almost unlimited range of tonal values and is capable of perceiving subtle distinctions, you need to use only a few contrasting values.
This way of seeing can be learned with a little practice, and the best way to practice developing an awareness of tonal value patterns is to make drawings that simplify the subject into a pattern of shapes, then turn the pattern of shapes into a pattern of values.