So what is a Focal Point and how do you create one?
First you’ll need to decide what attracted you to the image you want to draw or paint. Ask yourself what about this image do you want best to emphasize?

Once you have decided on what is most important in your picture, it will be easier to position this as your focal point or center of interest.

So how do you know the best place to position your center of interest?

The Rule of Thirds
The easiest way to begin composing your image is to divide your paper or canvas into thirds, both vertically and horizontally. Where the lines cross are perfect areas in which to position a focal point or your center of interest.

The first diagram shows all four focal areas, however ideally you want to use only one.

Aim to direct the viewer into your painting or drawing and around your center of interest. You can allow your composition to flow along through three of the cross-sections while keeping the center area as your focal point.

Guest Post:
Cindy Wider, an award winning professional artist of 18 years, is represented by the Cooper Gallery in Queensland, Australia, is a published illustrator and the author of Paint In Your Pyjamas!. Cindy offered this piece of advice in Self-Promotion Skills for Artists - an online group in www.FineArtAmerica.com

•••••••••••••••••

An Excellent Example of SUCCESSFUL Self-Promotion!

How do Bugs Know How to Walk? ©Cindy Wider

Over the past 2 decades I have lived a precarious life as a professional artist, author and art educator. I have enjoyed many art sales, held some successful art exhibitions and some not-so-successful. Many of my sales were made to people who would never step foot in a commercial gallery, but who bought my work ‘in passing’ at exhibitions I held in holiday resort foyers.

My first solo exhibition was held in a public art gallery and it sold out, the second joint-exhibition was a near-sellout success and was hung in a Wine Cellar that had spectacular views in their main dining room. A third was held in a 5 star resort foyer. All of these exhibitions were successful and near sell-out shows.

Read the rest of this entry »

Quality Brushes
When you purchase a quality brush from a good art store you will notice that it has one of those little plastic sleeves over the hair. If you remove the little plastic sleeve (yes, you are allowed to do this), you will notice that the hairs are (or should be) hard and stiff. A water-soluble sizing is used to keep hairs stiff during shipping.

How to Test a Good Brush
A good art store will allow you to rinse this sizing out of the brush and test it before you buy. You test the brush by dipping it in water and flicking the water out with a quick shake of the brush. The hairs should come to a clean sharp point or form a clean sharp edge with no hairs awry. If the brush does this, you have a good brush. Read the rest of this entry »

Paint Cap Stuck on Tight?
There are several ways of loosening the cap from a tube of paint, whether it’s oil, watercolor or acrylic.

I’m sure you’ve already had the experience of trying to twist the cap only to have the tube twist and split instead. What can you do?

Well, if you haven’t broken the tube, try one of these techniques: Read the rest of this entry »

Giclee Printing is Inexpensive, Right?
Well, yes - in comparison to the old method of creating an offset or litho print run of say, 1,000 or 2,000 fine art prints (prints that have to be stored until sold, prints that have to be marketed…..).

However, most Artists don’t realize the up front expenses of preparing for the printing of giclees. Hey! It’s a snap! I can print 2 or 3 giclees, then sell them and order a couple more. Right?

Wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

“How do I find a Quality Giclee Printer?”
It’s super easy to buy a printer, advertise online and set yourself up in the business of printing. Scanning can be priced out at anywhere from $15 to $600 per scan and printing is sold by the square inch (including the white border space).

So how do you know where to go, who to trust?

Read the rest of this entry »

They Never Were Lead!
The first pencils were created some time before 1665. They were made from sticks cut from a high quality natural graphite deposit, which was then wrapped in either string or sheepskin. At the time it was thought to be lead. Later, the graphite (a form of carbon), was inserted into wooden sticks that had been hollowed-out by hand.

Today, the “lead” of a pencil is usually made from blend of powdered graphite, clay and water that is shaped into thin rods, dried, kiln-fired and then wrapped in a wood casing.

Read the rest of this entry »