Remember the picture plane from last time? Art is made by adding design elements to the picture plane. These elements happen to be square shapes, and there are many other elements of design which we will explore in time.
When the elements are all the same, and evenly distributed on the picture plane, no one of them draws our attention. This is called a pattern and is useful for wallpaper, fabric, etc. where the overall effect is what you are after. You wouldn’t want someone’s attention riveted to just one part of your wall or dress!
By moving the group of design elements to the middle of the picture plane, we have created an area of interest. Now, your eye wants to go into that area instead of just traveling randomly around.
In an art piece, though, you want to be more specific about which element first gets the eye’s attention. So, instead of an area of interest, you want to narrow it down to a center of interest - better known as a focal point.
We didn’t add anything here - we took something away - but we still created a point where the eye wants to go first.
Why does your eye want to go to that empty space first? There’s nothing there to look at! It’s the difference that attracts the attention. Same principle as when teenagers dye their hair blue. It gets attention because it’s not like anything around it. In design, we usually create difference through emphasis.
There are many ways to emphasize an element to make it the focal point - and we will look at most of them on the next page, but first, we’ll take a moment to mention where the focal point should be placed.
The Rule of Thirds is one of those art “rules” that can be fudged a little, but, generally speaking, it is most interesting to mentally divide your picture plane into thirds in both directions, and place your focal point on one of the intersections.
