Tag: focal points

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What to leave out: the secret to strong composition

The Wreck of the SS Ethie, oil on canvas, 18X24. For more information, click on image.

Some days, I’m in the mood to leave modern life out of my paintings. Some days, I want to include all the pollutants, potholes and power lines. This isn’t so much an aesthetic decision as one based on mood. (Although the older I get, the more inclined I am to leave caustic commentary to others. What the world needs now is love, not division.)

It’s easy to see what to put in a painting. It’s harder to figure out what to leave out.

A quick note on classes before we get into it

My upcoming session of evening Zoom classes is selling fast; Painting water is already sold out. Claim your spot in Painting clouds or From field sketch to final studio work before they sell out too.

Compositional hierarchy in painting

Yes, keen observation equals better painting. That doesn’t mean we should transcribe every tree, window or ripple. Without compositional hierarchy in painting, you’re left with a muddle where everything has equal importance and therefore nothing is important.

Every strong painting has a clear compositional hierarchy: something that matters most, things that support it, and what I sometimes call ‘border work’—things that whisper from the sidelines. If you don’t decide what’s important, who will?

Main Street, Owl’s Head, oil on archival canvasboard. For more information, click on image.

What is this painting about?

When I teach critique, I start by asking the artist: “What is this painting about? What were you trying to say?” We could also ask, “What struck you the most about the subject?”

In most cases, that’s not a literal question, but a visual one. Is it light hitting a tree line? The sweep of a cloud bank? The gesture of a figure? The answer is the main determinant of what is important in the painting.

Anything that competes with that is a liability.

Let’s say your subject is the light raking across the roof of a house. That charming little mailbox on the edge of your scene may be delightful in real life, but if it pulls the eye away from your focal points, it belongs in its own, separate painting. That busy pattern of branches behind the roof might be absolutely accurate. However, accuracy isn’t your goal; clarity is. Simplify, soften or axe whatever doesn’t support your goals.

I don’t know why painters feel guilty when they do this, but people are always asking me if it’s okay to leave things out. Even hyperrealism relies on skillful editing.

Every element you keep must direct the eye around the painting through a series of focal points. It should also support the mood and message of the painting. If it doesn’t do those things, it’s not an addition to the painting; it’s a negative.

The Logging Truck, oil on archival canvasboard. For more information, click on image.

How do you control compositional hierarchy in painting?

You really have only a few tools to create focal points:

  • Contrast in value;
  • Contrast in hue;
  • Contrast in chroma;
  • Line (which can be literal or the boundaries between two shapes).

No amount of detail can make up for deficiencies in these elements.

Lobster pound, 14X18, oil on canvas. For more information, click on image.

Restraint is power

Preliminary studies are valuable in many ways. They tell whether the value structure is strong enough to carry an idea, but they also tell you what happens when you remove detail. Squint at the subject. Mass it into big shapes. Decide early what belongs and what doesn’t, and then stick to your guns.

I often tell my students, “If you can paint it once, you can paint it 1000 times.” That’s only necessary because they’ve managed to paint a clever detail in the wrong spot or the wrong value, which they could have avoided with a preliminary value sketch. Good painting requires ruthlessness. If you don’t cut in the sketch phase, you’ll end up doing it in paint. That’s far more painful.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Monday Morning Art School: what is a focal point in art?

All Flesh is as Grass, oil on linen, 30X40, $5072 framed, includes shipping and handling in continental US.

A focal point in art is the area of a composition that draws the viewer’s eye and holds his or her attention. It’s the visual center of interest.

Artists create focal points primarily with contrast in value, hue and chroma, but other elements of design also support focal points. These include lines that guide the viewer’s eye, textural changes, and placement. Detail and complexity will naturally draw the viewer, as will isolation (which is usually also an exercise in contrast). And everything else being equal, a large object will dominate.

Why do focal points matter?

A good visual composer, just like a good musician, guides his or her viewer through the composition. Focal points engage the viewer, and lead them through the space in a calculated way.

Saskatchewan Grain Elevators, oil on archival canvasboard, 8X10, $522 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Should a work of art have just one focal point?

Generally, most paintings have more than one focal point, although occasionally an artist will let just one section of the canvas dominate. Good examples are Rembrandt van Rijn’s self-portraits, where humanity, as expressed through his face, is everything.

A single focal point creates a clear, strong emphasis, but the downside is that there’s no path forward into the painting. Multiple focal points create movement and tension, leading the viewer’s eye through the composition. The longer a person looks at an artwork, the more they engage with it.

Early Morning at Moon Lake, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $348 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

How to prioritize focal points

You, the artist, are the boss here. You should ponder the hierarchy of focal points before you ever pick up a brush. (That’s one reason for a good value sketch.) What is the strongest focal point? What is its spatial relationship to the others? One focal point should lead the band, the others should follow merrily along.

Make sure none of your focal points are at the edge of your canvas or leading off the page. Think of your focal points as elements that are connected compositionally, connected by color harmonies, lines, and value.

Are focal point and subject the same?

While focal point and subject often overlap, they are not always the same thing.

The subject is what the artwork is about—the main idea or theme. The focal point is where the viewer’s eye is drawn first.

In many situations, they might be identical; for example, a black dog running in the snow would be both the focal point and the subject. But in Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Red Hat, the subject is the girl and her stupendous hat, but the focal points are the side of her face, her lace fichu, and the flash of red at the far right of her hat. The focal points are masterfully drawn down the canvas by a single line of light. Rembrandt’s The Night Watch is a portrait of the militia of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch but none of the supporting militiamen are focal points at all.

Athabasca River Confluence, 9X12, $696 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

How do you apply this?

In your next painting or drawing, make a conscious effort to set out and emphasize focal points, using value, hue, chroma and line. Can you articulate where they are and how you want the viewer to read them?

This spring’s painting classes

Zoom Class: Advance your painting skills (whoops, the link was wrong in last week’s posts)

Mondays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST
April 28 to June 9

Advance your skills in oils, watercolor, gouache, acrylics and pastels with guided exercises in design, composition and execution.

This Zoom class not only has tailored instruction, it provides a supportive community where students share work and get positive feedback in an encouraging and collaborative space. 

Zoom class: Signature series

Tuesdays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST
April 29-June 10

This is a combination painting/critique class where students will take deep dives into finding their unique voices as artists, in an encouraging and collaborative space. The goal is to develop a nucleus of work as a springboard for further development.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Monday Morning Art School: Brides and bridesmaids

Today’s blog was delayed due to a DDOS attack on my server. I’m assuming it was by a jealous blogger. 😊

Poplars at Giverny, Sunrise, 1888, Claude Monet, courtesy MoMA.

“You have three colors in this painting battling for supremacy,” I told Theresa Vincent during last week’s lesson on color. “One of them can dominate; the others need to be somewhat muted.”

“Ah,” she answered in her melodious Texas twang. “There can be only one bride; the others have to be content to be bridesmaids.”

Until that moment, I hadn’t been thinking of the red gazebo roof in her painting as Bridezilla, but it worked. In a triad color scheme (which is what Theresa was working in), all three colors can’t be of equal intensity. One must lead. Consider Monet’s Poplars at Giverny, Sunrise, above, which is a triad of green, orange and purple. The green is the star of the show, followed by the orange and purple.

Monet also demonstrated that even at the most carefully-controlled event, every wedding guest should be welcome to wear what they want (within the limits of propriety, of course). His painting is dotted with hints of accidental color. There are blues and yellows, pinks, and even red at the party. A color scheme is the guiding principle, but it isn’t dictatorial. Brilliant paintings have guests from every position on the color wheel.

I’ve written about the basic color harmonies here; understanding them will help you integrate color in your painting. It’s not necessary to memorize these harmonic schemes; the greater lesson is that color harmonies matter.

Arrangement in Gray: Portrait of the Painter, c. 1872, James McNeill Whistler, courtesy Detroit Institute of Arts. Whistler was enamored with monochromatic grey.

Color is fashion-based

The stylish Victorian matron avoided pastels; she decorated in maroon, red, burgundy, chestnut, and dark green, brown and blue. Her Art Deco granddaughter loved bright yellow, red, green, blue, and pink. Neither would have tolerated the monochromatic grey that dominated interior design a decade ago. Our color choices are fashion-based and what looks good to you and me will probably not appeal to our kids.

Each color harmony has multiple permutations, since you can start at any position on the color wheel. Then there is the question of which color leads, to which end you could either use higher chroma or allow it to take up more real estate on your painting. By the time you’re done considering the options, you realize that just about any color scheme you can develop fits somewhere in that chart of color harmonies.

Above Lake Garda at San Vigilio, 1913, John Singer Sargent, source unknown. Sargent loved his complements.

Does that mean you can just ignore color schemes? Of course not. It means you should be inventive but aware. Otherwise, you just might end up in the situation that Theresa found herself, where the bride and bridesmaids are squabbling over who’s in charge.

You should also be aware of how colors influence their neighbors. The definitive text on this is Interaction of Color, by Josef Albers. If you take away one thing from it, it will be the importance of setting values early in the process.

Regatta at Argenteuil, c. 1872, Claude Monet, courtesy Musée d’Orsay, is a split-complementary color scheme.

The same is true of focal points

I’ve written before about the importance of multiple focal points in drawing the eye through the painting. They should be intentional. But, again, only one gets to be the bride, drawing viewers into the painting. The rest, like good bridesmaids, should be quiet supporting actresses.

If focal points aren’t intelligently designed, and you’re not drawn through them with contrast, line and detail, then it’s back to the drawing board for you.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters