Why do I want this blog to bling? Because I hope to share gems – shiny nuggets of knowledge – with you.
Every time I’m with another artist or read about them, I collect another gem. It doesn’t matter whether they’re a beginner or master artist. Nor does it make much difference what type of art they create – from music and dance to literature and visual art. When we open our minds, we can all learn from one another.
Collecting artsy gems has become an addiction of mine. Why? Because for me there’s nothing quite like experiencing “aha!” moments and advancing my craft.
The whole point of this blog is to share the bling. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about what I learn during my “aha!” moments. For the most part, someone shared these gems with me, and I’m just passing them along. Sure, at times, our own brains hit upon original ideas and shout, “Eureka!” but much of our knowledge comes from others.
Bling Thing #1
Notice how non-bling things can shine
Chicago is like the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz. It dazzles the senses with sparkling lights, music on every street corner, and sweet smells of caramel corn, coffee and the gourmet food of Michelin-starred restaurants. In the spring, summer and fall, the city hosts dozens of fairs and festivals every weekend, entices crowds to its sandy beaches, and provides stages for musicians, dancers and other artists.
Despite the overall vibrancy and allure of Chicago, there are moments during the dark, wintry months of January and February when the city can seem like a giant stainless steel refrigerator – cold, hard-edged and gunmetal gray. At first glance, it seems that everything is gray. Gray sky, gray concrete, gray buildings …
But if you look closer, you can discern color among the drabness. Maybe it’s a pinkish tinge along the horizon, a striped flag atop a pole, or a pair of bright blue mittens. Juxtaposed against all the gray, the colors seem more prominent. If we look further, they may appear downright stunning.
When you start noticing the beauty amid a gray day or the unusual in a crowd of like objects, you’re developing an artist’s eye. How do you play up these things so that others can appreciate what you’ve noticed and appreciated? You make it your focal point. Which leads us to Bling Thing #2 …
Bling Thing #2
Create powerful focal points
In a painting, a focal point is something that POPS! It’s the bright blue mittens against a backdrop of muted gray sidewalk. It’s the sharp edge of a flag pole against blurry background images. And it’s the unusual juxtaposed against the ordinary.
When it comes to creating a strong focal point, gray is our friend. Hot pink amid a sea of brilliant orange and vivid turquoise won’t stand out much, but if that same hot pink appears against a backdrop of gray, it will surely call attention to itself.
When it comes to focal points, Errol Jacobsen is the artist who gave me my “aha!” moment. During a workshop he held in Chicago, he stressed the creation of a center of interest. He even came up to my easel and pointed out where I could play up the chroma (intensity of color). Then he picked up my palette knife and asked me, “Do you mind?”
I responded, “Sure … please go ahead.” He deftly sliced the knife into a pool of cadmium lemon paint and spread it like butter on my canvas. And just like that, the color popped. The thick, bold application by the knife was way more effective than my timid brushstrokes.
Then along came Errol’s partner, Stephanie Weidner. She looked at my painting and said, “Hmmm. It’d help to make the background more blurry.”
I took my brush and wiggled it gently along the straight lines of my painting. “No,” she said. “Bring your brush all the way up.” I placed my paintbrush on a straight line, exerted pressure and drew it up all the way through the sky. BINGO … a nice blurred edge.
Since that workshop, I honed my focal point skills so much that someone recently told me it’s a trademark of mine. So … here’s what I learned. To make your focal point pop, you should:
SLATHER. Apply paint thickly where you want to place emphasis. You might use a palette knife versus a brush for this spot in your painting. Slather on the paint. Keep paint thinner elsewhere.
INTENSIFY. Save your brightest chroma paints for focal points and keep the rest of your painting more subdued in comparison. Play up the intensity.
CONTRAST. Besides the thickness and intensity of paint, you can use textures, values, shapes and forms to develop contrast. The more contrast you create, the stronger your focal point.
SHARPEN. Draw attention to your focal point by sharpening the edges of the image. Keep edges blurry where you don’t want the viewer’s eye to go.
EXILE. That’s right. Kick out your focal point from a group of objects. When it’s separated from the group and isolated, it becomes an object of interest.
POINT. You can direct a viewer’s eye to an object by creating lines that lead the eye there. Ideally, these are implied lines as suggested by other elements of your painting.
WEIRD OUT. By including an object that’s unusual to the scene, you’ll call attention to it and create a focal point.
Do you have any other suggestions for making strong focal points?