Do you recognize this scenario? You painted an amazing watercolor Landscape and show it to someone. They respond by saying that it is pretty but that is it!!! There is a good chance that the reason they are not static is that they don’t actually see what you want them to. We can fix that, all you need is a clear focal point.
There is a lot of ways to do just that. Here is just a small selection.
- Use a dark value in your focal point
- Use texture and detail to draw the viewer in
- Use white space to emphazise the focus
- Use Lines to guide to your viewer to your focus
I created quite a lot of landscape paintings and you can find some of them in time-lapses on youtube. In this abstract landscape, you can see how I use the biggest amount of detail where I want my focal point but also use a contrasting color. When I use a bright and warm yellow it contrasts the cooler surrounding colors beautifully.
You can also see this timelapse where the focal point is the trees on the horizon line. Both the very simple sky and the ground that becomes more textured closer to the forest draws the viewer into the painting.
Both of these paintings are painted with tube colors in watercolor from Daniel Smith. The top one is on Cold Press paper and the last is Hot Press.
