Emphasis also called, dominance

• Emphasis is used by artists to create dominance and focus in their work. Artists can emphasize color, value, shapes, or other art elements to achieve dominance. Various kinds of contrast can be used to emphasize a center of interest.

In works of art, visual emphasis is placed on the most important parts of the work – the focal area.

Effective use of Emphasis

• The artist created emphasis in this painting through the use of color. By painting the cowboy's shirt red he was able to create a center of interest.

Examples of the effective use of

Emphasis • In this painting it

is easy to see how the artist used light to emphasize the chef. He stands out as the main focal point of the entire the painting

• A focal area is often a place of contrast, where something different is featured.

• A person amid stone buildings is different, and therefore is the focus, or emphasis in this photograph by Georgia Brommer.

• Most of this dock scene is painted in cool colors, so the warm-colored boat and house become the focus of the work. Temperature (color) contrast is a way to show emphasis or the focal area.

• It is easy to find focus in this painting. It is where the value contrast is strongest. The shape of the towers is also different from anything else in the painting. Contrasting shapes become focal areas.

• This might simply look like a painting of a cabbage, but it is actually a carefully designed painting. Light and dark value paths create movement to the focus – the most complex part of the work. The focal area is also a contrasting warm shape in a cool painting.

• The focal area in a radial design is at the center. Lines and shapes lead us there. The warm sun image is the focus in a cool stained glass window (temperature contrast).

• Focal areas are often much more detailed and more complex that other areas of the work. This is true in both realistic and nonobjective, or abstract works.

What is the focal point in this painting?

What makes it the focal point?

Claude MonetThe Red Kerchief: Portrait of Camille Monet1873

No matter what element is chosen for emphasis it

should never demand all the attention. Emphasis is

necessary, but a good composition is one in which

all the elements work together for a unifying effect.

The center of interest is the placement of the most

important conceptual and visual portion of the image.

The focal area does not have to be located in the center of the image, as a matter of fact, placing it off center to the left or

right and either above or below the center line adds

to the interest of the piece.

Edvard MunchThe Scream

• Claude Monet - Impressions: soleil levant [Impressions]

• Monet places the dark valued boat below the horizon line, and it easily becomes the focal point.

• Andy Goldsworthy• In this photograph by

Goldsworthy, the center darker circle becomes the focal point. The flowers get closer together and become more dense. Placement is creating a focal point.

Color Dominance

• Jean-Michel Basquiat - Election Day

• In this painting by Basquiat, the cool color of blue in the background is different than the warm colors of red and yellow so the face and mouth become the focal point.

Emphasis by Placement, Isolation or

eye direction

This painting by John Trumbull, entitled The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis

What we have learned about Emphasis

Emphasis is used by artists to create dominance and ____ in their work.

Emphasis is used by artists to create dominance and focus in their work.

In works of art, _______ emphasis is placed on the most important parts of the work – the focal ____.

In works of art, visual emphasis is placed on the most important parts of the work – the focal area.

The element of interest should ____ demand all the viewers attention.

The element of interest should never demand all the viewers attention.

The focal area does not have to be located in the ______ of the image, placing it off center to the left or right and either above or below the center line adds to the _________ of the piece.

The focal area does not have to be located in the center of the image, placing it off center to the left or right and either above or below the center line adds to the interest of the piece.