I'm your subservient host, Marco Bucci.

As usual, let's start this thing off with a short lesson.

Novel editor Sean Coyne would like to remind us that once you lose the audience, it's very difficult to get them back.

And a little digging at StatisticsBrain.com will tell you that the average human attention span is a whopping 8.25 seconds.

Just let that linger in the back of your head for now.

Okay, this episode is about visual language, which falls under the topic of communication.

Communication might actually be the most important topic, because after all, that's what art is.

To broach the topic, let's examine what a writer does.

A writer, like any human being, starts off with a bunch of thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

Now those things by themselves are inaccessible to an audience.

So the writer uses their primary tool, language, to make the intangible tangible.

And if the writer's any good, the final result will contain a clear message.

Now where the writer uses verbal language, we, as painters, use visual language to communicate our message.

Let's stick the word message over here, just so we don't forget it.

Okay, what is this painting by John Singer Sargent about?

What's the message?

What is he trying to show us?

Is it all these pine trees?

Is it this fallen log?

No, it's clearly about this guy enjoying a painting session out in the woods.

He's the focal point of the picture, and that's what we'll remember about it.

Here's a much busier painting by Dean Cornwell.

But same question, what's the focal point?

What's Cornwell's intended message?

In a picture populated with people, it's the interaction of these two that stand out.

This is the message.

It's why Cornwell painted this picture.

But how do we know that?

How did Cornwell communicate to us that this painting is not actually about these baguettes?

How did Sargent ensure that we looked at that painter and not get distracted by all those trees?

The answer in both cases is they used contrast to help communicate their message.

Now, I think many of us might think of contrast as simply being a matter of light versus dark.

But that's actually only one example of contrast.

Think of contrast as being equal to any kind of difference.

When there's no difference in a picture, all things are rendered equally unimportant.

And that's a problem when you're trying to communicate.

Whereas building in a bit of contrast enhances the focal point and pretty much guarantees a clearer communication with the audience.

So here are some examples of contrast.

We can start with the obvious one, a light shape reading over dark.

Or how about areas of high activity versus areas of low activity?

How about a frame full of squares with just one circle in it?

Or what about creating difference with texture versus non-texture?

Here's a difference in edges, hard versus soft.

How about a simple difference in the direction of a shape?

And here's one where a higher degree of finish contrasts against more sketchy areas.

Looking back at the Cornwall example, he's using a contrast between areas of high activity in the crowd where no one really stands out versus areas of lower activity to make these two stand out.

There's a second contrast at play as well.

Their silhouettes are the area of highest contrast, dark over light.

And that's how effective contrast can be in communicating a focal point.

So let's go ahead and add contrast and focal point to our notes.

Here's a painting by Mead Schaefer and a painting by Norman Rockwell.

These are examples of another tool for visual language that I call direction.

In the Mead Schaefer painting, we're directed through the picture by this elegant and simple

C curve.

Every important piece of the message lies on that curve.

Schaefer is also using contrast here to make sure we specifically pay attention to what these guys are doing.

The Rockwell painting employs a different kind of curve.

Actually, it's a series of straights that all converge at the focal point.

The fact that we're then ushered out of the painting in three different directions amplifies the message of those kids arguing.

Another cool thing about direction is the nature of the curve can support the message of the picture.

Hard, straight, X-shaped lines emphasize the physical strain in this picture, while the sensual C curve in this picture almost romanticizes the pirates' actions.

All right, so let's add the word direction here.

So we've got a nice little list of four tools for visual language.

But one thing I cannot abide is a teacher who hands out a list that no one is going to remember.

So I'm going to make this stick by coming up with a good abbreviation.

So let's see.

Maybe I can start with the first letter of each word.

How about doubts clouding future momentum?

God, that's awful.

Nope.

How about Count Dracula finds mommy?

Yeah, better, but no.

Ooh, how about Ford Coppola directed movies?

At least that one's true, but pass.

Hmm, this is hard.

Let's take a short break and come back to it.

Hey, remember how we only had 8.25 seconds of attention?

Did you know that a goldfish has nine seconds?

Yeah, it's like the human race has been cheated.

Wait, that's it.

Cheated.

If you show me a picture with no message, I feel cheated.

So don't f***ing cheat me.

If you cheat the audience out of a message, you'll lose them.

And once you lose them, it's very hard to get them back.

So don't f***ing cheat me out of a message.

Implement these visual language tools and see how much more clearly your paintings communicate as a result.

These are sketches from Prague, one of my favorite European cities, a place just begging to be painted.

And as you can see, there's no shortage of things to potentially make the painting about.

So your first job as a painter is to decide what that thing is and then proceed from there.

Even a city as beautiful as Prague needs to be filtered through these tools for visual language in order to come up with a cohesive painting.

So to go about painting this, I'm using the same visual language tools that I just showed you.

My focal point, which should be obvious already, is those two buildings on the right third that are separated via a shape contrast.

And by that, I mean they make one shape that is different than the smaller shapes that surround them.

And the second piece of visual language I'm using is direction.

I'm using a graceful C curve via that river that wraps right around the focal point.

It gives our eye a path to follow, lending some movement to the piece.

And I think C curves are quite elegant, which happens to be perfect for Prague.

And you probably noticed I established these things right away.

They were the first things on the canvas.

And that's really important to me.

At least my most successful paintings come when I have a clear idea of what I want to say and then how I want to use these tools of visual language to say it.

And then the paintbrush just flows more naturally because everything seems to then have a place, a hierarchy.

You know, I could leave this as a quick sketch, which I'm doing here, or I could take it to something very rendered and finished.

But with these visual language tools at play from the start, I know my message will not change.

Okay, on to the next quick sketch.

I think I'm going to make this one a little more fantasy based.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to amp up the visual language for that.

So right away, that big building again is the focal point.

And everything is going to lead you to that.

So you see that triangle, that's water there that I just blocked in.

That is literally a pointing device that points straight to the focal point.

Also, it's very angular, which contrasts the very circular focal point.

In fact, I think I'm going to try and make the foreground area more angular as a rule, which will help separate it or help it be different from the focal point.

I think fantasy, by the way, is a good opportunity to audition different kinds of shapes on the canvas and really try and push the difference between circles and hard edge shapes.

For example, that's what brings us into the realm of fantasy, because in real life, things tend to be a little more similar rather than so starkly different.

So I'll work up this area of foreground now.

And when I do that, I'll make sure to make more angular shapes, you can see boxy shapes and triangular shapes.

I'm really refraining myself from using circles, I really want the circles to be in the focal point.

Also notice the circles are in the clouds.

So anything kind of in that focal range gets circles, and then everything else will get angles.

There's another subtle piece of direction happening here, the water points in and the clouds point in and they cross right at the focal points.

That's another thing I've designed into the picture.

And just to finish it off, here are three boats, of course, they're angles as well because they belong to the foreground.

And just like that, there's our finished sketch.

Okay, let's do one more.

I'll go back to a more naturalistic look to this one.

And I'll make it a night shot so I can really play up some heavy contrast, leading your eye directly to those two buildings in the middle.

And again, I worked that in very early on in the process.

So I'm always building up from something simple.

It's very difficult to start complex and then find simplicity, that method doesn't really work for me.

Aside from the heavy contrast, notice that there's a subtle V composition here, almost as if the two buildings in the focal point are nestled into this valley custom made just for them.

And not only that, but this painting is also very vertical.

Even though it's a horizontal composition, it's very vertical.

All the buildings are pointed straight up and down.

That helps lend the piece structure, which is perfect for painting buildings.

And just a reminder, the audience is not meant to be aware of these tools of visual language.

That's our job as artists.

The audience just wants to look at a picture very quickly, be led to a focal point and come away with a message.

If that happens, you win.

How many times has the following scenario happened to you?

Exhibit A, you start a painting and you feel great.

It's going to be your best painting yet.

And then time runs its course and we get exhibit B.

Now don't worry.

This doesn't mean you're a failure as an artist.

In my experience, this is the result of just not thinking simply enough and therefore not effectively communicating your message.

What I do is I ask myself, what's the message?

What am I trying to show?

And once you got that, you can make it the focal point and have everything else support it.

All of us fight against a natural human tendency to overcomplicate things, but just remind yourself of the beautiful simplicity in the examples earlier.

You'll feel like you've got to embed the Fibonacci sequence into your paintings just to make them work.

There is one time where you absolutely have to use the Fibonacci sequence though.

And it's when you're painting a picture of a cat.