Do artistic compositions need a focal point?

In art, the focal point, or center of interest, is the spot in the scene where viewers’ eyes go first and linger longest. But what if your scene doesn’t have a specific focal point? Does it need one?

What is a focal point?

Most resources define a “focal point” as the part of a work of visual art that the viewers are most interested in. This is where their eyes go first, where they look the longest or the most often; in other words, it’s what they pay most attention to.

In photography, a “focal point” may literally be the part of the scene that is most in-focus (sharpest), but I’m using the more metaphorical definition.

Center of interest vs. focal point

Some resources distinguish between a “center of interest” and a “focal point.” They both have roughly the same definition, but a “center of interest” is the part that gets the viewers most mentally or emotionally engaged, while a “focal point” is a more strictly visual attention-getter. As explained on Artists Network:

The center of interest acts as an “attention getter.” It commands the viewer’s curiosity or mental concentration, and it’s the part of the picture that we find naturally fascinating and want to know more about. Examples of centers of interest are eyes and faces, the human figure, animals, letters, numbers and symbols, and man-made objects. When we scan an image for the first time, our attention is naturally drawn to these items.

“Focal Point vs. Center of Interest” on Artists Network Blog

Personally, I think what you consider the center of interest emotionally is going to vary from person to person, but the point remains: “center of interest” generally refers to what you find, well, interesting, while “focal point” draws the eye due to purely visual stimulus, like being a bright color. Ideally, the center of interest and the focal point are the same.

In this post, I’ll use the term “focal point” to mean both the center of interest and the focal point.

Size of the focal point

What counts as a “point” or “part” or “element” of the painting? How big should the focal point be compared to the rest of the painting?

I’d argue that to meet the definition, the focal point should be small enough that it’s completely within the focused field of view of the viewer without their having to refocus their eyes or move them around. This is usually a pretty small point! Your focused vision area is quite small compared to your overall field of view, which includes out-of-focus peripheral vision.

The rest of the painting (not the focal point)

What about the rest of your painting, the part that’s not the focal point? Is it unimportant? I don’t know of a specific name for the non-focal-point areas of the scene, but I’d like to propose calling it “the context.” The context is crucial to making the focal point work. The context is most of the painting, and sets any patterns for the focal point to break.

How do I create a focal point?

Many composition guidelines are geared toward helping you direct viewers toward the desired focal point or center of interest; in other words, to make one element of your scene stand out from the rest.

For example:

Why should I create a focal point?

You can use a focal point to emphasize the “main idea” of your painting, similar to the thesis statement of an essay.

At any rate, your viewers’ eyes are going to go somewhere, so you might as well be intentional about leading them where you want them to go so they don’t go right out of your painting – or to the wrong place.

Downsides of not planning a focal point

I often don’t think ahead about what my focal point should be and so I can attest that I often end up in one of these non-ideal scenarios:

Alternatives to a focal point

Okay, so now that we’re clear on what it a focal point is, and what happens when you don’t think about its placement, are there alternative ways to organize your composition aside from creating a traditional focal point?

I think there are!

Multiple focal points

Scenes can have multiple focal points, especially complex scenes, but this is a higher-difficulty skill that requires balancing them so that they support each other rather than compete.

It can help to:

• Create a hierarchy: which is the main idea (the thing to notice first) and which are supporting?
• Design your composition to lead viewers’ eyes through the painting, from one place to another and back again, ideally in a circuitous path that never leads the viewers’ gaze out of the painting.

Equal interest throughout

Often we cannot distinguish centers of interest within the abstract picture’s field and have to take the whole of it as one single, continuous center of interest, which in turn compels us to feel and judge it in terms of its over-all unity to the exclusion of everything else.

art critic Clement Greenberg, speaking of Jackson Pollock (via Christie’s)

Certain types of abstract and patterns may depend less on a single focal point than the overall impression of the entire field.

A sense of depth, scale, space, and place

In Claire Giordano’s beginning watercolor class, the class had a discussion about whether certain types of landscapes favored by Claire and her students even have a focal point. In many cases we found that works we liked to look at or to paint did not rely on a specific area or element but an overall sense of space and place. The painting feels like a little portal you could walk through into a three-dimensional place. This depends less on a particular area of the painting standing out and more on a successful illusion of depth.

Of course, paintings with a successful illusion of depth may also have a focal point. For example, the sense of depth and a focal point may be supported by:

• a strong foreground element
• lines that converge in the distance
• lines that grow closer and closer together in the distance, such as ridgelines
• value and detail contrast that emphasizes a specific area while also supporting atmospheric perspective

A mood

Certain paintings just make you feel a certain way, and I don’t think this is always related to a specific focal point of center of interest. There are some aspects of a painting that effectively set a mood without being specific to a certain location in the painting. For example:

• A certain quality of late pervading and affecting everything in the scene may contribute to the sense of time of day, season, place, and overall mood.
• The overall composition can create a certain mood: for example, a painting with a huge sky and small landscape might create a sense of grandeur or peacefulness. A painting with many jagged lines might create a sense of tension.
• Patterns and motifs that recur throughout the painting may set the mood.

As with depth, a painting evoking a specific mood does not preclude using a focal point also, and that is probably usually a safer choice. But I believe that overall mood can carry a painting.

In a post on Streamline Publishing, Christopher Volpe gives an example of Monet’s “Poplars.”

In more atmospheric work, such as Claude Monet’s Poplars series, one avoids focal points – the goal is flow – to immerse the viewer in mood and atmosphere. In the Monet above, there’s no focal point, because the main point of interest is the visual rhythm created between the three trees and the graceful counter-spiral of foliage behind them. Stopping the eye with a single focal point using high contrast and sharp edges would defeat the purpose.

Christopher Volpe, “My Unpopular Opinion About Focal Points”

How do I decide?

Do you need a focal point or center of interest in your particular painting, and if so, what should it be? I think a good way to answer these questions is to think about what interests you in this scene.

• Why do you want to paint this?
• What stands out to you in the reference(s)?
• What aspect are you most excited about painting?
• What do you want to show or share with your viewers?

You might be interested in a color, shape, or form: something pretty obviously visual like that. Or you may be interested in a specific literal/meaningful detail, like a face or an object. Either way, it may be helpful to think of compositional methods to make this element both your focal point and your center of interest.

On the other hand, you may want to convey a concept or feeling that does not lend itself as obviously to a specific visual. If so, it may help to think about the composition of your painting as a whole rather than as a context/focal point. Consider depth, scale, patterns, rhythm, flow, and atmosphere.