Understanding and Using Colour

Session 5 Monotones: Tints, Tones and Shades

Courtesy of Hilary Beattie for Immediate Live Understanding and Using Colour

Turquoise: tints, tones and shades

This session is a bit of a ‘swatchathon’, but its so interesting I think you will enjoy them all!

So far we have been looking at colour mixing with pure : i.e. mixing one colour with another colour, to produce more colours. We have seen how many colour options this can give us, even with just the primary colours to start with. We have looked at how these colours feel and interact in colour schemes. But there is a whole additional set of alterations we can create with each and every one of these colours we have made. Every single colour we have mixed has a Magenta: tints, tones and shades whole further range of possibilities: its tints, tones and shades: and we create these using and (and - a mix of the two). Without getting involved in the science, black and white don’t count as colours in colour theory. White is pure , and black is total absence of light, and we consider them ‘non-colours’. But their addition to other colours, provide some amazing palettes for us.

When we consider those definitions (very much simplified): total light and no light, its easy to understand that adding them will massively alter the and of a colour. This is known as its value, and is incredibly important in all our art work. Value contrast will grab a viewers eye in a way nothing else can so this is really helpful theory for us to get our heads round.

Lemon: tints, tones and shades So, lets get swatching shall we. Get out your primary colours, together with black and white. Mix a pale grey (I use about 5% black to white) - this gives a reasonably neutral grey for us. Get out your colour book and for each primary colour make 3 colour runs: one with white (these are our tints); one with grey (these are our tones); and one with black (these are our shades). Here you can see mine for the cool palette and on the next page are the warm primaries.

Courtesy of Hilary Beattie for Immediate Live Understanding and Using Colour

Cornflower: tints, tones and shades

As you are painting your swatches in your book take note (as always) of what is happening. You will observe that as we add white (tinting) our colour becomes lighter. This gives us our light value options for the colour. As we add black (), the opposite happens – the colour gets darker and darker (black being the absence of light). This gives us beautiful dark value options in our Poppy: tints, tones and shades palette. And as we add grey (toning), we can observe that our colour is slowly neutralised: neither lighter nor darker, simply the colour slowly removed. These are our tonal mixes and many artists prefer toned colours to pure . They are softer and less stark. If you squint your eyes and look at the palettes here, or at the ones that you have made, you will see the changes in value quite clearly.

Its also interesting to note how fast black changes the pure colour, compared with white which is much slower. This is why we need a lot more white than black in our grey mix, to create truly same-tone hues. If your grey has too much black, you will start darkening (shading) your colour, rather than toning. If it has too much white Buttercup: tints, tones and shades (far less likely), you will start lightening (tinting) rather than toning.

This is all fascinating stuff, so take your time, and focus on what you are seeing as you work. Note how you feel about these options. Which do you like the best? The least?

Courtesy of Hilary Beattie for Immediate Live Understanding and Using Colour

Don’t forget to make colour It’s not just the primary colours that swatches on card too! we can tint, tone and shade we can do the same with any colours we choose. So I’d like you to choose 3 colours again: two analogous (I've chosen a and a ) and a third colour that is a complement (opposite side of the colour wheel) to one of your first two. I've chosen magenta, to complement my green. Now lets work up a palette of possibilities with these … starting with first mixes and then the colour runs between each of our three colours. Remember these are still Magenta, Forget-Me-Not and Apple colour mixes (above) and colour runs (below). pure colour and you could actually make tints, tones and shades for every one of these options. So I've got 22 colour options here (bottom left). I mixed at least 25 tints, tones and shades for each primary colour. So if I did even just 20 for each of these that makes 440 possible options from these three colours. That would be a wonderful palette, full of variety in both colour and values. You just need to know how—and now you do!

Courtesy of Hilary Beattie for Immediate Live Understanding and Using Colour

Forget-Me-Not: tints, tones and shades

I have to be honest and say I didn't mix all those Apple: tints, tones and shades options this time. I just did the main colours, as shown here. Even that made me 85 tints, tones and shades, which is not bad at all. Add my original 22 pure colour mixes and I've got a palette of well over 100 options to play with. And crucially, I've got those light and dark values in each colour. These are super important.

To find out why, we are going to do some more practical work with these aspects of colour. Starting next session.

Oh—and don’t forget to LABEL everything! Magenta: tints, tones and shades

Courtesy of Hilary Beattie for Immediate Live