The Visual Hierarchy

Hi Everyone,

When I start a painting, I rarely do
so with any particular goal in mind. It is more
about simply putting marks down on the panel,
seeing what develops and going from there.
In a very real sense you could say the
painting tells me where to go next.

At a certain point however, the painting begins
to gain more focus, and I start to see what it is
really about. Once this happens, I organize my
marks such that they serve to heighten the
main narrative of the piece.

Watch the video and see what I mean

Do you want your viewers to be drawn towards the
design, the color, or something else? Clarifying and
removing those elements that distract from the main
focus of your work is key to creating strong art.

Let me know what you think about this. When you
create, what are you trying to draw your viewer’s
attention to? I would love to know.

In gratitude, Nicholas

PS I’ve created a private group in Facebook called
Art2life Artists. It’s free to join, and we’ve already built
a vibrant community of fellow creatives. If you haven’t
already joined and would like to, just click here.