VALUE What is the Loud Conversation?

The loud conversation is the view of your art that you see from across the room...or even across the street! It is the combination of the high contrast light and dark shapes, areas or representational forms that together, create a pattern of light and dark. Your eye sees contrast between light and dark first, before color and texture. We want to have the loud conversation, this arrangement of light and dark shapes (realistic or abstract), be visually interesting.

In the diagram above, the three high contrast elements on the right side create the loud conversation. On the left side, the three elements that are closer in value to the white background are not considered part of the loud conversation – they are the quiet conversation.

We want to have both a loud conversation and a quiet conversation happening in our art. Those conversations are opposites, and that is why they create so much interest when seen together. “Quiet” and “Loud” when seen together, enhance each other.