Welcome! This article is a part of Crafted Colour – Practical Colour Theory for Craft series, which is aimed at helping you develop your colour confidence and craft with colour. Today you will learn about tints, shades and tones of colours in the colour wheel.
Colour Values
The next part of colour theory is about Colour Values. Colour Values show how light or dark a colour is.
Tint
Adding white to a colour creates a Tint. Add white to blue and you get light blue (shocking I know *insert eye roll*) and yes, pink is a tint of red, although I prefer a tint of red-violet.
Shade
Add black to any colour to create a Shade, and add black to blue and you get…navy blue or dark blue. Using black or white is not the only way to change a colour.
Tone
Often adding black to a colour may cause it to shift towards an unwanted colour. Add grey to a colour minimises the shift and still affects the intensity of the colour. This produces a Tone. I don’t have an example of a colour change for the Tone variant, but I’m sure you get the idea.
Using a Colour Wheel which shows Tints, Tones and Shades makes it easier to select colour schemes for your craft projects.
Next up we learn about Warm and Cool Colours, the one of the rules associated with the third part of Colour Theory, Colour Schemes. The really fun stuff is getting closer!
