The Importance Of Values, Tones And Hues In Painting

The use of warm and cold colors is actually more complicated than people expect

. Blues and greens are cold but not exclusively and also reds and yellows are warm but not exclusively. There is a huge mixture of tones that can be created for one color pigment. How dark a color is or how light determines the tone of the color pigment. There is a marked change in the tone of a color in relation to the density of its hue. Also, the tone changes in appearance according to its relationship to other colors surround it. Meaning, a tone gives the illusion of lightness if it is placed together with other lighter colors, and will also appear darker if it is placed together with darker colors. A more diverse range of tones may be achieved from darker colors as compared to lighter colors.

Why is it important to use a variety of tones in my paintings?

Using all mid-range tones in your painting will make it appear one dimensional and lifeless. Life is a cornucopia of colors and ranges of colors. Your painting has to represent this abundance of tones in order to be interesting. Variety is the spice of life and contrast is the spice of the life of your painting. A painting that is big on contrast is considered as a very valuable painting.

In order to appreciate the tones of colors, a good practice would be to work with a gray scale by mixing black and white paints to simulate the various tones of black. You may construct your own scale by starting out with the white paint and then slowly adding touches of black until you have a working model of all the tones starting from the lightest to the darkest. The utilization of the different tones of black to white have been employed numerous times in various famous paintings. Try to come up with nine graduations in your scale or just use a chart if available.

Can I create a color scale for any color?

Absolutely! And you will be able to familiarize yourself with the various tones of the primary and secondary colors in the process. Regardless of the medium you choose, you can produce more vibrant paintings if you fully understand your colors. You'll be amazed at the wonderful things that colors can do, it's as if the have the ability to bring inanimate objects to life. Keep your scales that you create for reference should you find any difficulty in achieving the perfect tone to use in your painting. Achieving perfect tone in your painting holds it all together and never fails to catch the attention of the viewers. It would be much more convenient to create a graduation of colors when you're working with watercolors as you just need to add incremental amounts of water unto each color in order to get the different tones. In building layers using the glazing technique, just use a single color as your base and then add tone after tone in order to come up with your scale. In the case of acrylics or oils, you create your scale by gradually adding color to your base in order to achieve each variation of tone. Remember that you will need much less paint to go from light to dark than the other way around. As with everything else, it takes time and practice to achieve mastery over the different colors and tones in order to capture your exact sentiments unto your painting.

by: Gladys Hatcher

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