Detail on the Focal Point

This is a digital painting by a friend of mine, Brandon Dorman. (Check out his blog HERE.)

He paints in Photoshop, but the same principles can apply to Painter. Look at how he used brush strokes and where he has more detail. On the eye and the beak region he has more detail (which translates to smaller brush strokes) than in the feathers and the tree branch. The "non focal point" areas don't require as much detail and have larger brush strokes. So you should spend more time on the focal point area in order to make it detailed and the most interesting part of the piece. Then be more free with your brush strokes in the other areas of the painting.

Hope this helps.