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Originally Posted by Mari DeRuntz
To study the grand, agile compositons of the past, there is no better guide. Just remember to keep everything very abstract - even turn the image upside down so your brain does not tempt you to paint "precious" details - which are always secondary to the effect of a picture.
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I have read that Rubens made some research of the values in paintings that he admired.
He would hatch down the simplified value masses to see how much of the composition was occupied of the different value steps.
He found that the most pleasing balance was, not including the lightest highlights and the darkest dark, a division of 4/4 in 4 different values.
On a scale with 9 different steps you would have 25% of the canvas covered with value 2, 25% covered with value 4, 25% with value 6 and the last 25% with value 8.
This means that the painting would have an average value of 5 - neither light , nor dark.
When looking at Sargents paintings, they seem darker than that.
Many portraits do that, I think, but it looks reasonably because of the higher intensity, or quality, of the relatively small light area of the head, the balance is maintained by the psychological compensation.
Allan