International Artist – June-July 2019

The Portrait Society of America 35

DuMond who themselves studied at the École

des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian, both

in Paris, respectively.

Loomis demonstrates a simple value design

plan based on the balance and arrangement of

four basic values: white, black, a light mid-tone

and a dark mid-tone. All paintings fall basically

within four value arrangements.

One of the best ways to assess a painting’s

strength or weakness is to photograph it in

black-and-white, by removing the color you

can instantly see whether you have connected

or “massed” your values—this helps guide

a viewer’s eyes through the composition.

When the eye settles in on a value it tends to

follow that value paying particular attention

to the edges and will always be attracted

to the point of greatest contrast. By placing

your darkest dark and lightest light at your

painting’s center of interest, you will be

strengthening the design.

Following this value design puts you in

control of creating a composition that engages

the viewers and is not achieved by layering on

the details or intensifying the colors, this can

only over texturize an area or throw the color

harmony out of balance.

Some of the greatest faults I have seen

in works submitted to our Society’s art

competitions can be laid at the feet of not

having a good, strong compositional design as

their foundation.

Do thumbnails sketches, explore some

options through small color studies and most

importantly have a value plan. Because then,

before you put brush to canvas, you will have

done your homework. The path to success is

paved with good planning.

Left: John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Carolus-Duran, 1879, oil, 46 x 37¾" (117 x 96 cm).

Right: Notice in this painting how your eye is attracted to the hands, cuffs and face because they are the

points of greatest contrast and the mid-tones of the coat act as a connecting form, supported by one value.

Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair, 1853, oil, 96¼ x 199½" (244 x 507 cm)

An excellent example of the massing of values,

notice how Bonheur makes a balance between

grouping all the black horses and grouping and

the white ones, then surrounding it with fields of

halftones, but your eye is attracted to the point

where they touch.

Edward Jonas,

Chairman