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- May 7, 2012
- Messages
- 22,332
Hello hello!!!!
We are slow scrapping!!!!
Is the first day of the month I love the most in the year, so I am delighted to open the month with a great subject!!!!
We will be chatting about making a Focal Point in our pages.
I will be posting a write up I prepared so you can have a read, apart from what we will be chatting in the chat room, and as it is a slow scrap, you have time u til tomorrow , 24 hours to make your page, so, if by any reason you can't get to the chat, you are most welcome to make a page!!!!! Every page made will get a coupon tomorrow!!!!
be back soon!!!
For your page, make a page in which you create a Focal Point to attract attention to what you consider most important in the page, and let me know in the page description (wth the credits) what you used for, bellow I put together some tips , even tutorials from the Lilypad BLOG that are great!!!!
Pages due tomorrow at 3pm EST 8pm London 9pm Europe and every page made in time will get a coupon !!!
EDITING TO ADD AFTER WHAT WE LEARN TOGETHER IN THE CHAT AND TO CLARIFY:
There is not ONE thing that is the Focal Point, is a number of things/ideas composition "tricks" that you can use to draw the eye to the most important part of your page. If the photo is what you want to draw the eye of the viewer to, then you will use many things to create the eye of the viewer to it, to direct them to , with clever embellishment, use of great tittles, a linear composition to some emphasis.
There is NOT ONE thing that will be the focal point, is something you do to attract attention, the point of entry so the viewer can be direct to your most important part.
Here are some tips- but you all do it already, consciously or unconsciously, you always use them!!!
Page Composition : Focal Points-
We have spoken many times about this... we don’t always think when making the pages about the technique of the composition, but something I have learned through my years of membership in Get It Scrapped (before I was invited to their Creative Team, I was a full paying member), and by so many of the The Lilypad’s events, (also way before I became a Polly!)I have learned that knowing certain rules, following certain basic design principles or ideas, my pages become better, and I mean better especially for me who love telling our story, be that a photo I took just because, or an event.
I know we have said this in the chats before, you don’t “need” to know design principles to make a great page, but I know I and surely you too, use them even not consciously, product of following others, and by the instinct that comes with making art (which scrap booking to me is definitely a form of!!!!) so knowing a bit more is always great!
So in here is a bit of a complication ion bits and pieces from all over, but in discussing this together we can lean together!!!!
So, the Focal Point-
countable noun
The focal point of something is the thing that people concentrate on or pay most attention to.
...the focal point for the town's many visitors–the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
In scrapbooking is the same, he focal point is the center of a design. which doesn’t mean it has to be in the center, nor that it needs to be the photo/s, it actually can be the tittle work or even the journaling, but it will be the most important part, the way you will guide the people viewing it to the emphases you want your story/page to have, like the portal that guides the eye through the page. By creating a focal point, giving emphases and then creating a good “page flow” the viewer gets through your portal, the eye is guided to what follows, and then people “get” what your page is about.
There are many, many ways to create a focal point, and, as I said, it doesn’t need to be a photo or be centered.
a great photo combined with cleverly chosen elements decorating is one of my go to, I love elements, so telling the story and creating a focal point with meaningful embellishment comes easy to me.
One of my most loved ways it to make over sized tittles or combining different alphas , or alphas with fonts to call the attention to the story I am trying to tell, and is generally in photos where the story can be told with the tittle alone even if I don’t write much (or none at ll) journaling.
this one is a bit busy for my liking as an ample, but I think it works
even though this isn’t the best example, it works for me, in here I broke the “visual triangle” by using more photos and elements, created a bit of a focal point with the slightly bigger photo on the top, but is the interaction of it with the actual tittle, especially the word AMIGAS (friends) that is in an earthy tone and kind of “calms down” the whole thing plus gives the story an entry point.
https://the-lilypad.com/forum/galleries/2014_bethgratitude.274281/
Another way to create a great Focal Point in to concentrate in your journaling and make it a wonderful visual impact, like combing different fonts or highlighting parts of the journaling, I love making journaling out of word strips and word arts, combining little alphas with fonts, Like Rae @bcgal00 well says in her blog post about scrapping food (and the way we all love talking about food, if you are like me, you have hundreds of food pages LOL) Making the journaling the focal point can help with making a great page with not so great quality photos
Looking at Rae’s post here , another way of creating a Focal Point and guiding the eye: first page uses the brushes and a few elements moving the eye towards the blended photo, is like you are “entering” the shop and the signs of the shop become actually a very important part of the page, telling you what the page is about without the need of much journaling (or none at all,!!!)
you can read Rae’s post here:
https://the-lilypad.com/food-pages/
Rae also has written a post about photographing food that is amazing! you can read it here:
https://the-lilypad.com/photographing-food-2/
Using selective coloring in your photos can also be a great way of creating a focal point, I actually love doing it, especially as sometimes I like to fit the page a bit to much, a photo with too many colors may get lost, by creating selective coloring you can draw the attention to the photo and create a grade of importance so the photo won’t get lost, and then the “work” around it or in general in the page will be also appreciated.
There is also an article in the blog with a tutorial for selective photo coloring by @HeyJude that is amazing! is here:
https://the-lilypad.com/selective-coloring/
Another way to create a Focal Point is by contrast. For example, having too many photos in one page can be distracting, and, if you are like me and like to use lots of elements, that can be tricky. Using contrast can be done in so many ways, you can choose to do it by framing the photo you want to be the focal point with an impacting frame, or just a simple frame but framing only the one, using most of the photos in black and white and the one Focal Point in color, or vice versa (all color and your Final Point being B&W)
Color can be used in many other ways to create the FP and in contrast can also be used sizes, the motion of your photos,
Using one color very different to the overall in the page combined with themed elements located in a good visual triangle can also be your focal point.
Brushes, stamps and paint (alone or all combined!) can be used to create a Focal Point
Elements or a combination of them can create it too. In this page I wanted to make the tree my Focal point, I am sure the story can be guessed by the little photos but s it is during our outing up the tree and ours is now with, I choose to use a very big tree . Not only Cheryl’s template gives it guaranteed success, but I also used her Color me Happy doodles to create more focusing.
another linear : photo + elements
White Space can be used, and is one of the simplest ways to create a Focal Point , it draws the eye to your area without the need for anything specific.
You can use your creativity with lines, structuring your page so the eye is drown to move on a line you create, and combining many of these can create amazing focal points!
In here I used a paper that is powerful and fun way to draw the eye to the story
https://the-lilypad.com/forum/galleries/redcarpet.259554/
If your photo has repetition in it, like say, a pile of baskets or boxes, or pans on a kitchen work top, creating repetition in some shape in your background or with elements or stitching that can draw attention that way, is a powerful; way of focaliZing too.
Once again, thanks so so much for you presence in the chat!!!! Can't wait to see your pages!!!!!!!
We are slow scrapping!!!!
Is the first day of the month I love the most in the year, so I am delighted to open the month with a great subject!!!!
We will be chatting about making a Focal Point in our pages.
I will be posting a write up I prepared so you can have a read, apart from what we will be chatting in the chat room, and as it is a slow scrap, you have time u til tomorrow , 24 hours to make your page, so, if by any reason you can't get to the chat, you are most welcome to make a page!!!!! Every page made will get a coupon tomorrow!!!!
be back soon!!!
For your page, make a page in which you create a Focal Point to attract attention to what you consider most important in the page, and let me know in the page description (wth the credits) what you used for, bellow I put together some tips , even tutorials from the Lilypad BLOG that are great!!!!
Pages due tomorrow at 3pm EST 8pm London 9pm Europe and every page made in time will get a coupon !!!
EDITING TO ADD AFTER WHAT WE LEARN TOGETHER IN THE CHAT AND TO CLARIFY:
There is not ONE thing that is the Focal Point, is a number of things/ideas composition "tricks" that you can use to draw the eye to the most important part of your page. If the photo is what you want to draw the eye of the viewer to, then you will use many things to create the eye of the viewer to it, to direct them to , with clever embellishment, use of great tittles, a linear composition to some emphasis.
There is NOT ONE thing that will be the focal point, is something you do to attract attention, the point of entry so the viewer can be direct to your most important part.
Here are some tips- but you all do it already, consciously or unconsciously, you always use them!!!
Page Composition : Focal Points-
We have spoken many times about this... we don’t always think when making the pages about the technique of the composition, but something I have learned through my years of membership in Get It Scrapped (before I was invited to their Creative Team, I was a full paying member), and by so many of the The Lilypad’s events, (also way before I became a Polly!)I have learned that knowing certain rules, following certain basic design principles or ideas, my pages become better, and I mean better especially for me who love telling our story, be that a photo I took just because, or an event.
I know we have said this in the chats before, you don’t “need” to know design principles to make a great page, but I know I and surely you too, use them even not consciously, product of following others, and by the instinct that comes with making art (which scrap booking to me is definitely a form of!!!!) so knowing a bit more is always great!
So in here is a bit of a complication ion bits and pieces from all over, but in discussing this together we can lean together!!!!
So, the Focal Point-
countable noun
The focal point of something is the thing that people concentrate on or pay most attention to.
...the focal point for the town's many visitors–the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
In scrapbooking is the same, he focal point is the center of a design. which doesn’t mean it has to be in the center, nor that it needs to be the photo/s, it actually can be the tittle work or even the journaling, but it will be the most important part, the way you will guide the people viewing it to the emphases you want your story/page to have, like the portal that guides the eye through the page. By creating a focal point, giving emphases and then creating a good “page flow” the viewer gets through your portal, the eye is guided to what follows, and then people “get” what your page is about.
There are many, many ways to create a focal point, and, as I said, it doesn’t need to be a photo or be centered.
a great photo combined with cleverly chosen elements decorating is one of my go to, I love elements, so telling the story and creating a focal point with meaningful embellishment comes easy to me.
One of my most loved ways it to make over sized tittles or combining different alphas , or alphas with fonts to call the attention to the story I am trying to tell, and is generally in photos where the story can be told with the tittle alone even if I don’t write much (or none at ll) journaling.
this one is a bit busy for my liking as an ample, but I think it works
even though this isn’t the best example, it works for me, in here I broke the “visual triangle” by using more photos and elements, created a bit of a focal point with the slightly bigger photo on the top, but is the interaction of it with the actual tittle, especially the word AMIGAS (friends) that is in an earthy tone and kind of “calms down” the whole thing plus gives the story an entry point.
https://the-lilypad.com/forum/galleries/2014_bethgratitude.274281/
Another way to create a great Focal Point in to concentrate in your journaling and make it a wonderful visual impact, like combing different fonts or highlighting parts of the journaling, I love making journaling out of word strips and word arts, combining little alphas with fonts, Like Rae @bcgal00 well says in her blog post about scrapping food (and the way we all love talking about food, if you are like me, you have hundreds of food pages LOL) Making the journaling the focal point can help with making a great page with not so great quality photos
Looking at Rae’s post here , another way of creating a Focal Point and guiding the eye: first page uses the brushes and a few elements moving the eye towards the blended photo, is like you are “entering” the shop and the signs of the shop become actually a very important part of the page, telling you what the page is about without the need of much journaling (or none at all,!!!)
you can read Rae’s post here:
https://the-lilypad.com/food-pages/
Rae also has written a post about photographing food that is amazing! you can read it here:
https://the-lilypad.com/photographing-food-2/
Using selective coloring in your photos can also be a great way of creating a focal point, I actually love doing it, especially as sometimes I like to fit the page a bit to much, a photo with too many colors may get lost, by creating selective coloring you can draw the attention to the photo and create a grade of importance so the photo won’t get lost, and then the “work” around it or in general in the page will be also appreciated.
There is also an article in the blog with a tutorial for selective photo coloring by @HeyJude that is amazing! is here:
https://the-lilypad.com/selective-coloring/
Another way to create a Focal Point is by contrast. For example, having too many photos in one page can be distracting, and, if you are like me and like to use lots of elements, that can be tricky. Using contrast can be done in so many ways, you can choose to do it by framing the photo you want to be the focal point with an impacting frame, or just a simple frame but framing only the one, using most of the photos in black and white and the one Focal Point in color, or vice versa (all color and your Final Point being B&W)
Color can be used in many other ways to create the FP and in contrast can also be used sizes, the motion of your photos,
Using one color very different to the overall in the page combined with themed elements located in a good visual triangle can also be your focal point.
Brushes, stamps and paint (alone or all combined!) can be used to create a Focal Point
Elements or a combination of them can create it too. In this page I wanted to make the tree my Focal point, I am sure the story can be guessed by the little photos but s it is during our outing up the tree and ours is now with, I choose to use a very big tree . Not only Cheryl’s template gives it guaranteed success, but I also used her Color me Happy doodles to create more focusing.
another linear : photo + elements
White Space can be used, and is one of the simplest ways to create a Focal Point , it draws the eye to your area without the need for anything specific.
You can use your creativity with lines, structuring your page so the eye is drown to move on a line you create, and combining many of these can create amazing focal points!
In here I used a paper that is powerful and fun way to draw the eye to the story
https://the-lilypad.com/forum/galleries/redcarpet.259554/
If your photo has repetition in it, like say, a pile of baskets or boxes, or pans on a kitchen work top, creating repetition in some shape in your background or with elements or stitching that can draw attention that way, is a powerful; way of focaliZing too.
Once again, thanks so so much for you presence in the chat!!!! Can't wait to see your pages!!!!!!!
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