What is Hierarchy & Why it Matters with Mark Eanes
There are a lot of moving pieces in a painting. But not all of it can be equally important from a visual standpoint.
So what do you do?
Mark Eanes (Ep.28) says you rank it.
For example, your focal area is very important while the very edges of your canvas, less so.
You want your viewers’ eyes to go to the focal point… But it’s OK if they spend less time at the edges.
This is ranking is hierarchy. The ordering of what’s important and what’s less important. your focal area is the most important part of your painting. The edges of your painting are less important.
But what does this mean for how you build a painting?
Put it to Practice:
Hierarchy is the overall plan. But you build those levels of priority through contrast.
Color contrast, value contrast, shape contrast, etc… all affect how your viewer reads your painting.
High contrasts draw the eye more. Low contrasts draw the eye less.
This means you want higher contrast at the your most important areas (like your focal area.) You want lower contrasts at your less important areas (like the edges of your painting.)
This is why you’ll frequently hear this advice for your focal area:
(1) Put your lightest light next to your darkest dark at your focal area.
(2) Have that be the ONLY place in your painting where the lightest light is next to the darkest dark.
When you follow this advice, you’ve created really high contrast at the most important place in your painting. Which means your viewers are almost guaranteed to look there.
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