While you are planning your next painting, ask, what contrasting techniques can I use from the Contrast worksheet to strengthen the contrasts in and around my story’s hero? This emphasis will do wonders to keep your center of interest the center of interest.
Below, is by no means an exhaustive list, just some ideas to sharpen up. Look for these opportunities to intensify or exaggerate elements and quiet down and subdue others. Like values, it’s the relationships between these elements that make art truly spectacular. Go for Spectacular!
Elements to emphasis or minimize
- Angles and lines
- Sizes of shapes
- Warmth or coolness of colors
- Sharpness or softness of edges
- Values – contrast of lights and darks
- Juxtaposition of shapes
- Straightness or curviness of structures.
- Active or quiet brushwork
- Sizes or types of brushes/knives used.
- Textures – use spatters or patterns to paint the entire painting.
- Paint quantity – Use thin and/or thick paint to paint the entire painting.
- Paint a low-key scene in high key, or a high-key scene in a low key.
- Use a limited palette – one, two or three colors only or use all your colors without mixing them.
- Give yourself restrictions in capturing your scene. Use limited brushstrokes or timed painting techniques to add a freshness to your painting.
For example:
In my watercolor classes, one exercise we do is timed painting. We paint one minute palm trees, for five minutes. Each student starts with a fresh piece of paper. At the start of the clock, they have one minute to paint a palm tree. Their brushes are flying, emotions run hot. There’s no time to second guess choices. The brushwork is quick and direct, every stroke is decisive and laid down with confidence. Colors blend into each other in a wet-on-wet approach. It’s beautiful to watch, exciting and terrifying to do, but at the end of these five minutes beautiful trees are made, yes, but a totally different approach to watercolor painting is learned. I tell my students that every painting you paint from now on needs to be painted directly, confidently, and with this much freedom. Art painted with confidence and certainty connects deeper to yourself, and your viewers. Watercolor, especially, is a medium that likes its freedom and time. 33% of the time you need to plan on what you’re about to paint. 33% of the time you need to be painting. 34% of the time you are not to do anything but wait and watch the magic happen. Good artists get this and practice this daily. They let their paintings breathe. They understand the importance of this design principle of emphasis and dominance. They also understand that to have areas of dominance they also must have areas of quiet, because they realize it’s all about the relationships between every mark made.