where should you locate the center of interest in an artwork?

Answer 1

Paula it depends on what your focal point is and how big it is. Phantasma is right in that you do need to lead the viewers eye to where you want it to go. The main thing is that you don't want to lead the viewer off the canvas or photo. If you have something large in the foreground use it to frame and lead the viewer to the focal point.

Answer 2

Some folks say you should draw an imaginary "tic-tac-toe" grid on the artwork, and put the center of interest on one of the corners of the center square.

To place it dead center--well, there's a reason they call it dead center. Do that, and your picture feels dead. The eyes of the viewer go to the center and you're done. You want to lead the eyes of your viewer to move around the piece, or better yet, into it.

The "tic-tac-toe" square's a good rule to start out with, but you could stick to it too tightly. If there's a secondary center of interest, you'll want to take that into consideration while "framing your shot". You might have an irregularly-shaped triangle formed by three centers of interest in your artwork, for instance. You'd want to balance them against each other somewhat, and they may all end up somewhere besides the four corners of the center square. You wouldn't worry about that, because you would know you have a more dynamic composition this way.

There may also be a good reason to have your main subject way down in a corner of the frame. One example would be if the sky looked particularly interesting and you wanted to emphasize the vastness of the sky, making your main subject look somewhat insignificant by comparison.

Western paintings tend to be either portraits, in which the person takes up most of the frame, or landscapes with no people in them. Chinese paintings, on the other hand, are very often landscapes with tiny people in them. The people and sometimes human-built structures are still an important part of the painting. You could read a lot into that, but it's a matter of what the artist is trying to emphasize.

I take many photographs that have an ocean horizon in them--I live on an island. Sometimes putting my subject in one of the traditional spots means the horizon cuts my photograph into equal halves. Yuck! I will probably zoom, crop, frame my shot a little differently in that case to make either the sky or the ocean 2/3 of the photo.

So there are many ways to approach different subjects. When in doubt, play tic-tac-toe!

Answer 3

I like to make it off center to the left and in the for-ground. But it really depends on what the subject matter is. It also depends how you want the viewer's eyes to travel. like from top left to bottom right, or from the bottom left to top right. The artist is the creator and should use the art to manipulate the viewer's eyes in the way that the artist wants it to be seen.

Answer 4

the "golden mean" is off center, and can be right high right low left high left low usually...the work should flow in such a way that your eye will follow from the golden mean around the (painting) back to the golden mean...i think, atleast thats what i'm told from time to time, especially when the people critiquing my work want to be particularly scathing i can never do it right, yet i know it's right and they are just full of it.

Answer 5

Off center and to the right.

Answer 6

anywhere you chose, but don't make it so obvious, you need to create a visual path so the viewer follows your pre detimined path towards your focal point

Answer 7

Depends on the piece you are drawing.

Answer 8

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