How to force an to take up width, even if the image is not loaded

I'm loading a bunch of img's, and I'd like them to take up space on the document even if they are not loaded, or have not completed loading yet.

I tried specifying width and height (both as attributes themselves, and within a style attribute), and find it frustrating that the images will not take up space if they don't load.

Surely, there must be a way to force an img to specific dimensions, **even if that image fails to load.

Thanks