How Our Eyes See: Part 2

If you have not read "How Our Eyes See: Part 1" please click HERE first.

Now that we have some practical insight into how our eyes function, the next step is to incorporate that understanding into our work using what we have learned about Integrated Observation. 

The Focal Point
The Focal Point of a drawing or painting is the targeted area where we want to direct our viewer to go. It is usually the main subject or area of the artwork. Selecting this point is based on how our central acuity works, that small 5° area of our vision where everything comes into focus. Understanding Integrated Observation, helps us to select and plan for what the Focal Point of our drawing or painting will be. Here the values will have more contrast, the colours be more intense, and the edges the sharpest. As our subject moves into our peripheral vision, those areas are rendered with less value contrast, less intense colours, softer edges, and less detail. Resulting in a picture that has an overall visual harmony where everything works together as an "integrated" whole in the same way that our eyes see.

Segmented Observation  

Segmented Observation is what I refer to as the natural tendency to quickly shift focus around our environment, in a partitioned way. We are not even aware of it because it is so natural. It is like when we walk down a street. Our eyes are continually moving, shifting focus from people to cars to buildings, then back again. We are looking at "segments" of the street scene using our central vision, causing us to think that everything is in focus. This spills over into how we view any subject when drawing or painting, whether from life or a photographic reference. Unfortunately, we see it with Segmented Observation.

Segmented Observation Into Integrated Observation

Look below at the coins from Part 1. Everything appears to be in focus. Look again, now be aware of how your eyes naturally move from one coin to the next refocusing in order to create that illusion. This is Segmented Observation.

Now, concentrate on the coin with the hole. It is a different visual experience. Only that coin is clear and distinct while the rest become more indistinct. This is Integrated Observation. This area, that you are concentrating on, is the Focal Point.

Creating Integrated Observation From Segmented Observation  
Below I have simulated Integrated Observation to the same coins by applying the concepts discussed here and in Part 1. Note how this treatment directs you to one specific coin, the one with the hole. I achieved this by keeping sharp edges and stronger value contrasts at that spot. Moving out from the Focal Point, we see the edges getting softer, the colours looking slightly less intense, and the value contrasts becoming less with the remaining coins. This is the type of manipulation we want to consciously, create in our drawings or paintings.

Image by Uwe Baumann from Pixabay

Whether consciously or unconsciously, people respond to drawings and paintings that portray their subjects in the same way that our eyes see them. Bringing this understanding into your drawings and paintings will help move your work to the next level.

Continue to hone and develop this important foundational skill in both your daily observations and your drawings and paintings.