Color and Value

 

When learning about color you need to be concerned with how value affects color. 

When mixing:

1.What color is the object ? (red, green, blue or orange, etc) 

2. How much value (gray) is in that color?

color + value = the color of the object

How does value affect color? 

Tone is used to lighten or darken a color and to make it less colorful, or, less intense. Keep in mind that each individual color is naturally lighter or darker as it comes out of the tube. For instance, cadmium red is darker than cadmium yellow. The value gray used will be determined by how light or dark the color. If you don't want to lighten or darken the color and only want to subdue (make less intense), then you can mix a gray that is the same value as the color. This will subdue the color without affecting its value. 

Tone refers to the gray within a color. 
Tone is gray (made-up of white and black).    

   
tint (white) + shade (black) = tone (gray)

(tone, or gray, is just another word for value)

(white + black = gray)

The basics to understanding color is that simple! Don't make it more complicated.

Portrait process

Class painting demonstration by Titus Castanza – explaining how to go about building a portrait.

Low key painting–5 value

You can flip through the images by clicking on the first image then using the scroll button on your mouse to witness the building of the image!