Make Your Art Stand Out:
The Secret to Bold, Striking Paintings

Photo: Julie deBoer, Artist & Founder

If you’ve dipped your toe into learning what I call, the science of great art, you may have become quickly overwhelmed. There’s endless literature out there with limitless opportunities to learn how to create “better” art.

“But why Julie!? Why can’t I simply create intuitively with the talent that I was born with? Isn’t that enough?”

LOL, yes it is. But I bet you’re one of those artists who has a fire in your belly to grow! You’re not satisfied with the status quo, you’re endlessly curious and have an insatiable appetite for creativity. Sound about right?

As you know, growth happens at the edges of your comfort zone, so let’s push those edges!
Today we’re going to tackle the artistic principle of DOMINANCE. It’s one of my favorites and it’s easy to understand and incorporated into your practice, regardless of where you are on your journey.

Dominance is simple. It’s making one element—such as color, value, or shape—stand out more than others. How much more? Aim for 70-80%.

Dominance creates a sense of unity, visual order, and it will strengthen your composition. It also creates interest. Let’s be honest, “even-steven” is boring when it comes to art. Dominance is an effective way to push the limits creatively.

Tell Your Story With Clarity & Emotion Through Color Temperature Dominance

Beautifully displayed below is a COOL DOMINANT painting by master artist and mentor Tim McGuire’s. He’s masterfully created clarity to the narrative of this piece! The cool dominant colors have set the tone and mood but have allowed the warm colors to steal the show and tell the story of a seaside village settling in for a quiet night.

“Full Moon Over Prospect” by Mentor Tim McGuire

Create Impact & Balance Through
Value Dominance

Value is the lightness or darkness of a color. It’s one of the most impactful elements of art but easy to overlook because color loves to run the show.

Simply begin by choosing which value range you want to be dominant: lights, darks, or midtones and ensure that value range is dominant by 70-80%.

Below is a light and airy example of a LIGHT VALUE DOMINANT piece by mentor Kim Eschelman. I’ve shared the original on the left and the greyscale equivalent on the right so you can see the value clearly without getting distracted by those luscious colors!

“January Field” by Kim Eshelman

Another tip? Say ‘no’ to what doesn’t serve you. Not every opportunity will align with your goals, and overcommitting will drain your energy. Focus on projects that excite you and move you forward. If your response to a commission, gallery, art show, mural project, etc isn’t “Heck ya!”, then it should be “Heck no!”

The light value dominance in Kim’s piece has strengthened her ability to celebrate the interplay of shadows and light cast on this wintery field.

But there’s more! You can use the principle of dominance in so many other ways, including:

• Shape
• Direction
• Edges
• Pattern
• Massing
• And more…

We’ll dive into more of these in the coming weeks. But always remember the very first KEY PRINCIPLE to embrace as an artist is grace for the journey. There’s a lot to learn but we’re in this together, so let’s enjoy the journey and face each day in our studios with curiosity, kindness, and patience for ourselves… always.

Talent, intuition, and skill all come naturally but to varying degrees. Learn to appreciate where you’re at, how far you’ve come, and relish how far you’re gonna go!

If you’ve been sitting on the fence, humming and hawing about getting a master artist mentor, it’s time to jump off that fence and get in the game! You’re missing out big time.

I promise if you take that step, your only regret will be that you didn’t take it sooner.

Here to help you move forward,

Julie deBoer
Artist & Founder