Two focal points??

This is a personal project illustrating a whimsical fantasy scene. Im wondering if its' possible to successfully have 2 focal points here or if it just looks wrong. Are there some glaring omissions in the basic layout? I'd like the cat to be a main focal with the child on the swing second. Or possibly I need to fade out that child and swing entirely and focus only on the cat.
I want to make sure I have this tacked down before I move on to color. Im still not sure I like this value first method. I keep struggling with it because it seems like a really organized way to work, but it doesn't come naturally to me. I'm open to all critiques..thank you.

@Deborah-Cantlon-Lambson I think a value study is a tricky thing. One way I check its usefulness is to look at it as a tiny thumbnail to check what communicates. With this, you depend on line to communicate rather than differentiated values. It might be uncomfortable, but would you be able to define the forms through contrast and not allow any lines?

When I zoom out the girl on the swing and the largest fish-bird (sorry I hope that's what it is because I really like it) are the focal points. If you take the lines away from the cat, it disappears. A value drawing I do is only to determine light over dark and dark over light, to kind of map this out in general, aside from any defining details. I haven't gotten all the parts of the process to work together very well yet, but it definitely helps me check my focal points.

I think you should add lots more fish-birds

@carolinebautista yes you're right ..fishbirds. or something like that. I see what you're saying about those lines now..fading them out might help as well as lightening up that main fird. I appreciate your thoughts, thanks.

Frost Drive

@carolinebautista said in Two focal points??:

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I think you should use those fishbirds as subtle leading lines. Right now they're just randomly in the air facing random directions.

Also to really see if your focal point is visible with value alone, squint your eyes as much as you can and look at your picture, if things dissapear, somethings wrong.

theprairiefox

@Deborah-Cantlon-Lambson one thing you might try to better delineate the focal point priority is to vary the sizes more. Right now the one fish bird, cat, and the little girl are all about the same size. That makes them compete more than complement each other.

Another thing to note that your value contrast right now is bringing the viewers eyes to the little girl first as she has the most contrast with what is behind her.

All good points! Thanks @Frost-Drive @theprairiefox

I *think I'm happy with this..or happier anyway!