 Hello, artist, and welcome to the studio. Do your paintings suffer from TMB, too much boredom? Well, this lesson is going to give you five dynamic focal point strategies that will break your painting out of that artistic rut and give you the ability to tell a story through your work. Are you ready to get started? Here we go. Welcome, artistic friends, to Monet Cafe Studio. I'm artist Susan Jenkins. Today's lesson is something that is a game changer when it comes to taking your art to the next level. This month, we're focusing on focal points and focal point strategies. I really believe a clear focal point is like the heartbeat of your painting. Directing and guiding the viewer to the beauty that you see in a reference image or if you're painting from life. And I remember when I was first painting, I literally would paint everything I saw with no clear direction or focal point. And I learned more about focal points and I saw my art just go to another level. So fortunately, they're not all that hard and they kind of make common sense. So first, I'm going to teach you and demonstrate different focal point strategies. You got to know what they are. But next, I'm going to apply them. You know, you can have all of this knowledge and then you go to apply it in your own reference image and you go to paint. You need to know how to apply these. So we're going to focus on all of that. No pun intended. And it's going to be a lot of fun. And I really do think it's going to be a game changer for your art. All right, you're ready to get focused. Here we go. First, I'd like to share the products that I'm using for this tutorial. And they're pretty simple, thank goodness. But I'm going to go over these two sets and the surface that I'm using and show you where you can get them. Even include the links in the description of this video. This is a little hafstic set that I love made by Unison Pastels. I'm on the Dick Blick website. It has such a nice assortment of colors. I've used it to create paintings using just the set alone. So it's a really great value. Pastels can get expensive, but it is worth it to buy good quality pastels like these. The next set is from another manufacturer that I love, Sennelier Pastels. It's a French company also sold on the Dick Blick website. And they have so many hafstic sets. They even have these little micro sets that are six little hafstics of pastels. I think I'm tempted to buy this one called Autumn Landscape. Aren't those neat? So this is a neat way for, you know, around $11. You can play around with some of these. Now they have full stick sets available, but I always recommend hafstics. You get more color for your money. And the one that I'm using today is a 40 hafstic set. You might be able to see here they have many 30 hafstic sets as well. So lots of options with colors and different varieties of colors. Here you can see this 40 hafstic set. I am particularly drawn to the gorgeous vibrancy of the colors in this set. I've used this one too for multiple paintings. I have some videos where I used just this set alone. I think I have a video on painting some sheep where this is the only set that I used. I do add a few more pastels as I paint. And if you're a patron of mine, I will give you my color notes. You'll get all of the colors that I used for these painting demonstrations. The surface that I used is called pastel matte. I love the surface. You can buy it in individual sheets, but I always like to buy the pads and they come in different colors. It's also neat that they have protective glassing sheets in between each page. I typically tear the pages out, but it's nice to have these glassing sheets anyway. I used a color that's a deep blue. It's part of this particular pack here that has burgundy, gray and this really pretty dark blue. And now's a good time to ask you if you would go ahead and like this video. I think you really will like it. And don't forget to subscribe to this channel. I have new content every week and I wouldn't want you to miss it. Now you hear me talking about my patrons often from my Patreon page. It's a way for you to get all of the full tutorials that I offer extra goodies and you get to be part of my beautiful community of artists. I get to see your work. We have contests, so come on and join the family. It's only $5 a month now. I talked about all this color and what am I doing now? I'm working in black and white. This is just a regular piece of drawing paper. I apologize for my camera contrast. My hands already do look old, but they look really old in this video. Something was a little off, but that's OK as long as you can see the painting. Remember what I said about learning these focal point strategies first and then we're going to apply them? I thought black and white would be one of the best ways to kind of isolate things without adding color to the mix at first. So in this first little box, you can see I've made an upper third horizon line on all four of these and I've just given it a little bit of value and I'm doing them all for the same. That's why I'm just jumping ahead. We've got all for the same a field and a little bit of sky and some grass beneath and I'm going to give a little bit more value, a little darker value down at the bottom. So this is a really blasé, kind of a little typical composition of a field with a horizon line in the upper third. Now I'm just blending with my hand. We're just getting a nice soft field. It's kind of rolling up a hill and each one is going to begin the same way. But I'm going to share with you different focal point strategies for each one. And this is something that you can do even if you don't see it in your reference image. So we'll talk about that more as I paint. All right, so I've got these pretty much blended and ready. And these are going to be super simplistic. This first one I'm calling contrast by value. Value is just the difference between the degree of darkness and lightness to objects. And this particular little tree line in the distance, I'm going to make it the darkest element in the painting and painting or sketch, I should say. And can you see how instantly our eye is drawn to that? We're just physiologically designed to see things that have a high contrast. Let me show you a little example of this in action from a video not too long ago on where I painted in sketchbooks. Yeah, you can paint with pastels and sketchbooks. I started with acrylic ink and I got in those high contrast darker elements, which are the trees, of course. And I also noticed that deep within the grasses in the foreground, there were some high contrast areas between the grasses, the deep grasses and shadow and the flowers. Here's the completed sketch in my little sketchbook. And that leads us to our second focal point strategy, which is called pointing or convergence. And I'm going to demonstrate how that will lead the viewer to another area of focal interest. In other words, those trees. Let's talk about that one. In the second one, I'm just taking this darker pastel and I'm giving the idea of maybe some grasses growing. We have like some deeper areas of where there are maybe some flowers growing up from the roots. And I am purposely laying it in a direction that's going to pull the viewer into the direction I want them to go. Now, I find that focal point and composition kind of go hand in hand. So you're often using your focal point strategies to enhance your composition. Now, what am I pulling the viewer's eye towards? Here's where it kind of comes to composition again. Towards something, an element that I want the viewer to focus on, another focal point, which will be a high contrast or a value difference like I did in the first one. So now I'm giving another little tree line. But in this case, not only do I have the high contrast in value, something really dark next to something really light, I have this second focal point strategy of those rows of grasses leading the viewer up. Again, this is called convergence. I like the term pointing better. I literally think you're just going, hey, look over here using strategies to guide your viewer towards the elements you would like them to focus on. So not only does this second one have the value contrast, it has convergence. Let me show you this in action one more time. This is from a video called How to Create an Alcohol Wash. Yes, you can actually add alcohol to soft pastels. Here I'm doing it right here. But I want you to notice that I have distant trees with darker values, but I'm once again using this pointing concept to take my deeper grasses and roots, literally leading the viewer where I would like them to go. And here's where I'm finishing up. Even though much of it gets covered up, there's still that influence of the darker element underneath, which acts as a pointing tool leading the viewer back to that little waterway. Let's talk about a third focal point strategy called isolation. Another thing that our brain instantly goes to is something that's alone or different or by itself. Isn't that sweet? We focus on things that are alone. We want to help them. But compositionally, our eye also will go to elements that are standing apart from other elements. In this example, I'm just giving a suggestion of some deep foreground grasses with a lot of flowers kind of growing. My flowers are kind of the little gray color. I only have a few colors here or values, I should say. There's no color. And what I'm going to do right now, you know, kind of you don't have anything to really focus on. Eyes kind of going all over the place. But if I take a darker value right now, okay, now we're back to lesson one or principle one, a value difference. Bam, your eye goes to that instantly, not just because it's darker or a high contrast between dark and light, but because these are elements that are kind of standing apart or away from other elements. Now, when it's called isolation, it doesn't have to be just one element, but just one or a few that are very different from the rest. And I often like to do this by reaching my flowers up over the horizon line. That also makes them different or isolated in a way. And a lot of these focal point strategies, oh, by the way, right here, I'm intensifying the value contrast. Remember number one, something dark next to something light? Well, I'm putting even a lighter background behind those dark flowers. And of course, our eyes going to go to it. Here's an example of this focal point strategy in action. I had this field of flowers like Queen Anne's lace flowers, and I just felt like it needed a pizzazz. And so I created a more energetic focal point by reaching one of the flowers up way above the others, above the horizon line. And this would be the concept of isolation to a degree. Your eyes going to go to that one that's a little bit more by itself. And here's a fourth focal point strategy. By the way, there are tons of these. I mean, you might see videos with five focal point strategies, eight, 10. I find there are multiple focal point strategies. Most of them have to do with just something being more different than something else in the composition. So this one has to do with something being different. That's an element that's different. It's going to be a different shape. Do you remember those things? What was it? Was it Sesame Street? Some of these things are just like the others. One of these things just isn't the same. I think I'm doing a harmony. But anyway, you're looking for that thing that's different and your eyes going to be drawn to it. So what I'm going to do, I mistakenly get it kind of too close to the center of the composition, but I'm going to create, right now I'm creating a little bit more value contrast. I've got my dark element. Your eyes going to go to those trees, right? They're the darkest thing in the image. I added a little bit of white behind it. It's even more eye catching. And now I'm going to make just something else that's a little different. Everything's very organic in this because it's a landscape. But I'm going to make me a little building or a little barn. And because the shape, it takes me a while to get this little barn developed. I kind of move it over. Like I said, I had it a little too close to the center. It's never a good idea to put things centrally in a composition. There's this golden ratio and the rule of thirds. You want to keep things more in a third. So I push my building over a bit. Oh, and now I'm using that pointing, that convergence. I'm going to make my grasses and my things kind of going, hey, look over there. You get the idea? It's not just pointing. It's like gesture. You have directional motion towards that element. So now you can see I've kind of got my, now I'm making it smaller now. I've got my little structure. It's a little bit like a little rectangle with a little roof. And I've got my little darker elements of grasses pointing. That's called convergence or pointing. I've got my darker element now of the main trees back there. That would be contrast in value. And the only one I haven't used here is like isolation. Here's a quick little example of this focal point strategy in one of my tutorials. Of course, you're seeing multiple focal points in action. And one of them here is just a difference in color, a color contrast, which we'll talk about soon. But there is a contrast in shape. Everything again is very organic in this piece. And even though that little lighthouse is so far away, it still pulls the viewer's eye towards that element. This concept not only works with structures or buildings, also it works great with people or animals. They are a natural focal point draw for the human eye. So a lot of these work together in harmony. And the more you use them, the more comfortable you'll feel with them. And the more you can take your own reference image, there'll be something in it. Obviously you were drawn to because you want to paint it. But you'll determine those things. Hmm, where do I want the viewer to go? And how can I accentuate that? And it's really with just these little common sense focal point strategies. Here you can see I've written in the focal point concepts above each of the black and white sketches. And I'm going to cover one now. That's my favorite, which is color. Contrast in color is not only one of my favorites, but it's a very, very effective way to draw attention to an element in your painting, as you can see here. And now this is the point to where on the Monet Cafe Channel, you will watch me create these four color studies. I'm calling them more studies. They're not full paintings. Each of them took me around 20 to 25 minutes. These will be sped up. And I'll give some limited commentary to each one. But if you're a patron of mine, you're going to get full commentary for the rest of this. And lots more. You'll get my color notes. So there's lots of perks to becoming a patron. Again, it's only $5 a month. You can cancel at any time. I think you'll love it. But you still get lots of great free content here on the Monet Cafe Channel. This one is basically just going to be a contrast in color. And you'll notice these are studies, by the way. These aren't full paintings. But I recommend you do a lot of studies. That's how you learn. You play and experiment. So this color palette is mostly noticed, mostly all in the green family, even this really dark green here, which is one of the Sennelier pastels. Now I'm still staying kind of on the green, cool side of the color wheel. But notice the drama that just happened when I added that really pretty turquoisey greenish color, a little bit of blue and a little bit of purple around that other focal point interest, which is the dark value of the shape of those trees. And the color contrast in this one is an analogous color contrast. It's not an extreme contrast. These are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. But still, just that subtle contrast and color brought your eye to that focal area. Now, this next painting that I do will have a more extreme color contrast. I'll start with a mostly green color palette for the general first layer. And then I will use a contrasting color that is all the way on the opposite side of the color wheel. And that's called a complementary color. And this complementary color, compliments to green are on the warm side of the color wheel. They're going to be reds, aren't just even pinks. And so I decided to go with a pink here. So rather than just using analogous color, like a blue or teal, I'm using this pink and having some fun carving into these trees with the blue sky. Now, where you saw me pointing right there, I'm also using the focal point strategy of convergence or pointing. I'm making my grasses and my pink shapes pointing towards those trees as well. I mentioned that these focal point strategies work together. Often you use a few of them within one painting to lead the viewer where you want them to go. In this case, the pointing and the pink leads them up to that mass of trees. And then some of the mark making I'm doing kind of pulls their eye around to that distant tree bank. And again, this is just a study, but hopefully it gives you a stronger foundation to use these yourselves. This next one won't focus as much on color, but another focal point strategy that I love. Remember I said there's lots of them and usually has to do with something that's just different from the rest of your painting. And in this case, the difference is going to be mass or size. I'm going to make this large cloud. I'm also using a little bit of that convergence or direction. I have the cloud sweeping up from the left, kind of up to the right. I'm just blending with a paper towel here. And instantly, how can you not notice that cloud? Now I could have taken this and had my little landscape with a little sliver of water and then I could have just made multiple little clouds. It wouldn't have had the drama that this has. Now I'm using another focal point strategy here. It could be considered a little bit of pointing or direction. It's some of my mark making you're going to see me make that's very energetic. And that's another way to draw focal interest for your viewer is some energetic lines or mark making. And again, it's something different from the rest of the painting. Also, if you give it a lot of gesture and movement, that's going to draw your viewer up into that cloud and sweeping upwards to the right. Another focal point strategy that I didn't cover here is texture. If you have an area of your painting that has more texture versus other areas that might be smooth in your painting, that's a way to draw your viewer to that area of interest that you're trying to give attention to. Now, this next one is going to be a color contrast. I'm going to start with mostly colors that are... They're kind of a little bit warm because this is a scene. Oh, by the way, this is my own reference image. It's out of my parent's property. And I did a full painting, a full tutorial on this one on the Monet Cafe channel. But the other ones didn't have a reference image because they're mostly from my head. But my patrons will get images of those paintings or studies to follow or to work from. Okay, so this one, notice I'm not getting any of that drama of the sky in yet. If you didn't see this reference image, if you just didn't even know it was there, you'd be like, oh, look at this. This is a nice kind of a little bit of warm and cool color palette going on here. And before I add the drama to the sky, I actually do like some of the colors in this painting. But the point of this one is the fact that, of course, we're talking about color contrast. We talked about analogous color contrast. And then a little bit more extreme would be complementary color contrast. Now this one has to do with warmth. There's just something about our human brain that is drawn to warm colors. That's why they use it a lot in advertising. You see a lot of bright gold yellows and reds to get your attention. A stop sign is red, it gets your attention. But now here you can see, like I said, I was kind of like in the color palette before I start adding these warm colors. But watch how the drama increases and how your eye is just going to go to that area of interest, which is that sunset behind the tree. Also, I'm using directional energy here, directional or convergence that it's called to kind of point my beautiful golden colors or kind of pointing in towards that tree, which was kind of awesome. That's kind of what they were doing already in the reference image. But the trick for you guys, the challenge for you guys as artists, which I don't think it's a difficult challenge, the more you do it, the better you get, is to be able to take a reference image, see the things that you like, and dramatize them. And know some of these focal point strategies so that you can use them yourselves. One that I didn't cover here as an example, but it's a really common one, is detail. If you have an area of your painting that has more detail, then the rest, some area like is blurry in the background, but you have these flowers or one or two flowers that have more detail than the rest, our eyes are naturally going to go to that one. That's a very common focal point. I want to show you a quick snippet of this last one, which will be a full tutorial on my Patreon page. And this one had to do with isolation and a little bit of detail, like I was mentioning. I have a few of my flowers that I put in kind of first, those ones that are reaching up, that are just a little different in location than the others. And they're going to have more detail than some of the other little flowers that are just very subdued. Can you guess another one I have going on here? Oh my goodness, color contrast. Look at that red next to the green. All right, artistic family. I hope you learned a lot in this lesson and if you're a member in our Facebook group, Monet Cafe Art Group, that's a Facebook group anybody can join. You can feel free to share your studies or your recreations from this. And if you're a patron of mine, you know you're going to get all the goodies. All right, everyone, God bless and happy painting.