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Use varying levels of focus and detail
When you are looking at a view, your eye sees only one part of the scene clearly in focus. You see the rest of the scene in a more generalized way using your peripheral vision. You should do the same in your paintings by keeping the objects in the main focal point in your painting in sharper focus, compared with objects in other parts of the painting. This will make your painting far more intriguing and interesting for the viewer, because they can explore your painting and gradually discover the centers of interest that you have designed for them to look at more closely.
Avoid making your painting look like a photograph in which the whole scene is in focus. This will just tire our your viewers, giving them no areas in the painting in which they can rest their eyes.
How to create varying levels of focus and details
Two techniques you can use are:
1. Brush size
Use two brushes that have a great contrast of size and shape so you cannot create too much detail outside the main focal point In your painting. Use the small brush only in the focal area. This will make sure that you don’t add too much detail outside of the focal area.
2. Edges
Use soft edges in the less important parts of the painting, such as in the right hand edge of the plant pot.
In this painting you can see the flowers and leaves in the foreground are much more defined than the plant pot and the table, which blend into the background. The areas of light hitting the pot also have some hard edges in their brushstrokes.
Tips
- Do not show the same amount of detail throughout your painting. Keep detail to the focal point of the painting and use less detail away from the focal point.
- Generalize objects and shapes away from your focus area by blending shapes of one tone together into larger shapes.
- Use sharper edges in and around the focal point and focal areas, and softer edges in other areas of the painting
- Be very careful about key perspective lines. Make them very accurate, even if they are in looser, less defined areas.
More examples of sharper objects in the focal point in your painting
Old master examples of sharper objects in the focal point in your painting
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you find it useful. If you would like to get free painting tips by email, please sign up for my free tips newsletter.
If you are interested in a structured approach for learning how to paint, take a look at my online painting classes.
Happy painting!
Barry John Raybould
Virtual Art Academy
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I finished the VAA course a few years ago, but always refer to the notes, rereading the course many times. This is not a course the day you are finished, you are done. No, you keep practising the assignments getting better and better over time. When I look back at my work when I had just… Read more “No need to buy expensive art books…. Just do the VAA 4 year course. I still refer to it”
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The VAA course is built on four main building blocks including PROCESS, REALISM, MUSIC AND POETRY. These are further divided into topics that are continuously developed throughout the curriculum. Drawing, Form, Observation, Colour, Brushwork, Notan, Composition and Poetry are all thoroughly taught. Working on-line we meet students from all around the world, interacting with them… Read more “‘Ladder of Learning’ adds to overall positive experience of this awesome course”
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Your course sounds wonderful! I’m working in pastels. You mention at least once that I would learn about the use of pastels if I take your course. Is that true! THX
Hello Cynthia,
Thank you for your question. I have several students working in pastel to do the Apprentice Program. The way I designed the course is that I focus on explaining all the fundamental principles you need to know about to create beauty in your paintings, and these principles apply to pastels just as they do to other media, such as oils or watercolors. So for this reason, the vast majority of the online painting classes apply equally to all media.
Barry