I would like to see the cloth white or cream as opposed to light blue. How about reflecting an edge of the silver pitcher onto the edge of the paint tube. It took me a few minutes to realize that was a paint tube – how about putting some printing on it. Finally, to me it’s too clean – how about tinting the brush fibers with paint and making some smudges on the cloth and paint tube and knife. I like the background, but that horizontal stroke above the brush is annoying to me – can you straighten it out.

Now, none of these things may work or all/some may work. So take it for all as its worth and think hard about your changes before you mess up your very good works so far.

the composition and arrangement are fine.

The red is not the focal point, because it competes with the even more saturated blue vase, and to a lesser degree with the green of the brush. Additionally the cool light blue cloth is in sharp contrast with the warm brown table, making that area compete as focal point as well. Also the values on the metal are correct – very dark or very light, which makes it successfully look like metal – but at the same time this extreme is causing it to want to be main focal point. Everything in your painting you give contrast, strength of color… so nothing is the main thing.

I’d make the blue cloth warm grey, to get it to recede with the brown table and warm background. I’d then either desaturate the red, making the blue jar the main focal point, or desaturate the blue jar in order for the red to become main focal point.

Also the palette knife disappears behind the translucent blue jar. There is one super tiny bit shown in the blue, but not enough to count. Either make the blue vase opaque, so you don’t see the palette knife is in the jar, or increase the amount of knife that we do see in the jar. It may be that in reality the blue jar is angled in exactly one way and the knife inside in exactly another way that the overlap produces a very small hint of the knife. But it does not work. This is one of those instances that you do not paint exactly what you see just because you see it, but you make your own decisions as an artist as to what will work the best.

Painting is good. Why worry about a focal point before you start? My suggestion is when painting from life, look hard for all the in-between colors and values, then mix them from the complements. Let the focal point emerge.

I like it bro.