What is Overmodeling?

Emanuele Sangregorio asks: "I must ask what is the meaning in English of 'overmodeling.' I found it also in some Andrew Loomis books, but for shadow tones: Don't 'overmodel' shadows."

Michael Cooley asks: "What exactly is overmodeling? You mentioned this in one of your blogs. I was told I was overmodeling one of my early portraits. Im not sure what this means."

Gurney answers: I'm glad you asked. Overmodeling means using too large a range of values to describe a form, and often too many hard edges and planes. 

For example, in the anonymous war bond poster at left, the artist used some rather dark values in the light areas and some rather light areas in the shadows. The plane changes in the forehead and the nose are stated more harshly than they need to be. 

Typically beginning painters overmodel areas in the shadow when they should be handled simpler, softer, and flatter. The effect of overmodeling can be to make the form look shiny and hard and to break up the simple poster-like impact of the whole picture..

By contrast, John Singer Sargent (above) is a good artist to look at for modeling that is restrained and disciplined, with no misplaced accents, unnecessary details, or overstated value ranges.