Colour Value

There are many different colours such as yellow, green, blue and red which can be grouped as warm or cool, according to how they make you feel. However you can also have different variations of just one colour, making it light by adding white or dark by adding black. This changes the colour's value, a measure of how dark or light a colour is.

Two important words are tint and shade.

A tint is the mixture of a colour and white, making the colour become lighter.
A shade is the opposite, where a darker mixture is made through adding black (Shades and Tints, 2008).

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Have a Go

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Create a colour value strip.
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1. Choose one colour of paint and place a line on your paper.

2. Add a small amount of white paint. Paint another line next to your first line on your paper.

3. Repeat, adding more white to gradually create a lighter colour.

4. Look at the example below. You should end up with something like this. These colours are tints.

5. Repeat using black paint. These colours are shades.

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Think about it!



Tints and shades



What mood do you think a tinted colour expresses? What mood do you think a shade expresses? 

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A tint can range from extremely pale, nearly white to a barely tinted pure hue.  This means a bright red can be changed to become a bright pink.

A colour scheme using tints is usually soft, youthful and soothing, especially the lighter versions. Tints are often portrayed as feminine or relating to women. Advertising, marketing and websites often use pale and hot pastels if they are targeting women. Tints often express emotions of love, happiness and gentleness. In painting, a tint serves as a point of emphasis, because the eye is drawn toward it. This also creates depth as it brings the light parts of a painting forward. 



A shade ranges from extremely dark, nearly black to a barely shaded pure hue. Shades are deep, powerful and mysterious and often related to a masculine environment. They can also be used as a point of emphasis as they are a dark accent which the eye is drawn to. Shades are often used to express emotions such as anger, evil or death (Bowie-Russell, 2009). 



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Tones
As well as lightening and darkening colours you can also tone them down by adding grey. This makes for more appealing colour combinations as they are more complex, subtle and sophisticated. 



A tone is created by adding both white and black, which is grey. Any colour that is "greyed down" is considered a tone.

Artists usually mix a little grey in every paint mixture to adjust the value and intensity of their pigment. Tones are the best choice for most interior decorating because they're more interesting. They also enable artists to create images which are dark or have more depth (Shades and Tints, 2008). 

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