Answer:
Sometimes a painting or drawing is a story. All good stories have a hero or, at least, a main character. Visual art can have a main character too. The main character does not have to be a person. An object or area within the composition can serve as the main character in an artwork.
In a story, the main character, sometimes referred to as the protagonist, is not hard to identify. In a book, the protagonist usually has the most dialogue while in a movie, the most screen-time. However, there is no dialogue in a painting and every pictorial element gets the same amount of screen time, or rather, “canvas” time.
So how do we, as artists, designate the main character in a painting? How do we get our audience to look where we want them to look?
The answer to those questions is emphasis. Emphasis is the principle of art that helps the audience put the story of a painting together in their own minds.
Any object or area of emphasis is called a focal point. The focal point is meant to be the part of an artwork to which the viewer’s eyes are first attracted. Artworks can have multiple focal points. The degree to which the focal points stand out determines the order in which the viewer notices them.