Emphasis and Focal Point

     Emphasis relates to how a designer will catch a viewer's eye, the emphasized element can attract a viewer and encourage them to look at it further. One way an artist can do this is through a point of emphasis also known as a focal point. In the painting below (left) by Johannes Vermeer The Art of Painting (oil on canvas) we see that emphasis is placed on the young girl that Vermeer is painting in the painting. We see that the light in the painting draws emphasis to her body, as well as the complementary colors between the blue of her dress and the yellow of the book she is holding. In addition she is also centered in the painting, and is lighter in comparison of the darker gray and muted colors surroundings. The curtain in the foreground is pulled back allowing us as the viewer to see the young woman, the wrinkles in the curtain also forms lines that point to her.  There are other lines that also lead straight to her, she is the intersection point of the horizontal and vertical lines of the map in the background. All of these elements bring the emphasis and our focus to the main character or focal point, showing the concepts of emphasis and focal point. 

     Focal points also occur naturally in the 3-dimensional world. When we look at the picture above we see that the emphasis is on the tall steeple (the tall spire erected as a tower of the church) of the church. This steeple serves as the focal point of our attention because of its unusual size as well as color. It is much bigger than any of the other surrounding objects. The cars and even the large semi-truck and tall pine tree are dwarfed by the size of the steeple. The white of the steeple also plays off the blue background of the sky, making it "pop out" at the viewer. In addition to this, the steeple is placed near the center of this photograph (in real life, the steeple may not be as centered, but in the function of this picture it contributes to the aspect of it being the focal point).  

[Images from:
 http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/art_of_painting.html, http://gis.deat.gov.za/isrdp/More_Info/Photo_K/Focal_point2.JPG]