Room

Ekaterina Popova Kamsar Ohanyan

Daffodils Contre Jour

Bruce Yardley

In the three paintings of rooms below, each artist puts emphasis on, or brings our attention to something in the

room. Looking at the pictures below, can you figure out which object in each painting has emphasis on it?

In the first painting, it is the lamp. In the second it is the doorway, and in the third it is the flowers.

The artists use arrangement, size, color, and value to put emphasis on these objects. Think about how each artist

uses these elements to bring our focus to an object, and how this allows them to communicate the significance of

the object, or the feelings it creates in the room. What mood or atmosphere do you sense in each image?

Larger versions of each image are on the following pages!

Atmosphere and Emphasis

Ekaterina Popova

Room

Kamsar Ohanyan

Bruce Yardley

Daffodils Contre Jour

To put emphasis on something is to bring attention to it, or to put people’s focus on it. For example, by

highlighting the word emphasis, in this sentence, I bring people’s attention to it!

By highlighting emphasis, it now stands out from the other words in the sentence, as none of the other

words are highlighted. It also draws our attention, because it is a bright color, which is easy to see.

We can also use emphasis to make something stand out and bring attention to it in a piece of art!

Emphasis can help us communicate that something is important in a

Piece of art, as we are bringing the viewer’s attention to it.

For instance, if someone has an important lamp in her room, she can

put emphasis on it in a painting to make it stand out, and communicate

that it is important.

From there, we as the viewers start to focus on what is happening with the lamp to figure out why it is significant. In this case, we see that it is creating a glowing effect, and reveals colors in the room in a beautiful way that makes it an enjoyable space. Having brought our attention to the lamp and what it does with emphasis, she has shown the importance of it. However, she is also able to communicate the emotional significance of the lamp. By showing how it lights up the room in a way that makes it a nice place to be, she is enabling us to experience the same sense of beauty and feelings of enjoyment she has from it. When we create or communicate a sense of feeling or emotion in a piece of art, this is called creating mood or atmosphere.

Today, we will draw a picture of a room in our house. We will find an object that has an emotional

significance in the room, or that contributes to the feeling or atmosphere of the room. We will put

emphasis on the object in a way that helps us communicate the atmosphere it creates!

Atmosphere and Emphasis

The lamp has emphasis on it.

It stands out and is easy to see

because it is bright.

There are many ways to put emphasis on something in a piece of art. For this project, we will choose

two or three of the techniques listed below to create emphasis on something in our pieces!

On the next page, we discuss how you can choose some of these techniques to help you create

atmosphere based on what you are drawing.

Arrangement: You can draw attention to something by

putting it in the center of the piece, or

putting it in front of other things in the piece!

Size: You can put emphasis on something by having it

be a different size than other things in the piece!

If there are a lot of small things in the piece, you

can make it big so that it stands out. Or, if there

are a lot of big things in the piece, you can make it

small so that it stands out! There is emphasis on the daffodils,

which are arranged in front and center,

and their size is bigger than most of the

things in the picture.

Color: To make the thing you are putting emphasis on

stand out, you can have it be a different, or

“contrasting” color than most of the other colors

in the piece. You can do this with color schemes too,

contrasting neutral, warm and cool etc.

Value: You can put emphasis on something by having it

be a different value or shade than the other

things in the piece. If most of the piece is light, you can

make the object dark, or if the piece is dark it can be light.

Techniques for Creating Emphasis

Most of the piece has dark shades or

values, but the doorway is lighter, and

this puts emphasis on it. It is also mostly

earth tones in the room, but there are

warm and cool colors, in the door frame.

As you think of what you will draw for this assignment, it may be helpful to first think of an object

somewhere in your house that is important to you, and that brings out an emotion in you.

We talked about the example where the lamp is important and brings out emotions. In the example

below with the daffodils, it could be that the flowers bring an emotion of cheer to the artist, as flowers

often do. This may be why they decided to paint them.

After you have brainstormed two or three objects that you might draw, think about the rooms that

these objects are in. How does the object affect the way you think about the room, or your feelings

about the room?

For example, if we looked at the room above without the flowers, the muted cool and neutral colors

might give us a sense of relaxation or calm. However, the addition of the vibrant, warm colored flowers

adds a cheerful feeling or undertone to the whole room. It changes the way the picture or room feels. As

you decide on which object and room you will draw, think about whether the object has a big impact on

the way you feel about the room.

Once you have decided which object you will put emphasis on in a room, think

about the fact that you are putting emphasis on it to show how it affects the

atmosphere in the room, or feelings. You will be choosing two or three of the

techniques from the previous page to put emphasis on the object, and to show

what it brings to the room’s atmosphere. So as you use techniques like

arrangement, size, color, and value, think about how they can be used to show

feelings the object brings.

Here, the largeness of the doorway and the brightness and vivid natural colors

of it add a sense of openness and vibrancy found in nature to the room.

Atmosphere and Emphasis

Works Cited: Below are the links where I found images used in this assignment

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-

W7_xWe61aBk/W0rmamEB1uI/AAAAAAAA2VU/__2WMgscqa8bUYpNBbWuEfBu0_NmoUDbgCLcBGAs/

s1600/Ekaterina%2BPopova--Vermont%2BIII.jpg

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saatchiart.com%2Fart%2FPainting-

Kamsar-Ohanyan-Room-50x50cm-oil-painting-ready-to-

hang%2F966944%2F4359222%2Fview&psig=AOvVaw1A2J-JQu1iaBHC-

CIi0nuX&ust=1586442526228000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCICYhauF2egCFQAAAA

AdAAAAABAJ

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/520588038150856014/