Properties of Color:
  - Each color has a name = hue
  - It is either light or dark = value

  - Colors are either warm or cool = temperature
  - Either bright or dull = intensity

The difference between tint, tone and shade:
  - Color plus black added = shade
  - Color plus gray added = tone
  - Color plus white added = tint

 

 

Exercise: Pick a hue and modify it with black, gray and white:

• On good quality white paper, with a graphite pencil and ruler, draw a series half inch squares, three rows of three squares
• In the first row, color in the first square using the hue you picked, color in the second with black and mix the third square with the hue plus black, not necessarily in equal amounts – use less black
• Do the same for the second row but use gray and mix the third square with equal amounts of the hue plus gray, and then the third row mix with white, but use a very small amount of the color first and add white on top
• Keep a note book handy for making notes

 

There are more interesting ways to modify colors with colored pencils than just adding black, gray or white. This example to the left shows how colors are modified when you add the hues ‘complement’ – producing a more interesting ‘gray’ than you might get by creating a tone with a gray pencil. Creating dark values with complements will make a piece much livelier and give it more depth.

[Blue: Primary Color, mixed with its complement Orange: Secondary Color]