What Are Your Eyes Doing?

Published: Sat, 03/30/19

Dear ,

With our Creating Visual Paths workshop coming up next week, I thought it might be fun to play with some visual path ideas for today's post. Maybe, tease you a bit.

Do you ever notice what your eyes are doing when you are looking at something? What's causing you to see what you're seeing? Let's get more specific: What are your eyes DOING when you glance at this photo?

Let me guide you a bit: Where did your eyes go first? That tall white monument, right?

Why?

Okay, let's speak in the visual language. Why did your eyes go there first? If your answer is "because of strong value contrast, that's right.

And in what direction did that value contrast cause your eyes to move?

You got that one. I know you did. (Answer: vertical)

Let's Look at Another Version

Now, compare what your eyes are doing in this one with your experience of the first one. They probably still land on the tall white monument first, but are they more relaxed to explore other places in the scene? If so, speaking the visual language, what causes that?

Is it because the strong value contrast in the upper half of the scene has switched to those trees against the sky on either side
Is it because the edges of the tall monument are softer?
Is it because there is now bits of yellow distributed throughout the scene?
Is it because strong value contrast is repeated from side to middle to the other side?
Is it a combination of all of these?

Visual changes we make in our subject matter can totally change how the eye moves in our paintings.

Happy Painting,

Dianne

dianne@diannemize.com

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