Tinting, Shading and Toning Colors

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When it comes to mixing color, it is basically a trial and error process that can be very frustrating. I recommend that you continue to create paintings and enjoy the creative process, but you should also mix in these exercises, which will provide you with basic skills that will improve your mixing and handling of colors in your paintings.

When you hear the term "tinting a color," basically it means adding white to the color and creating a lighter value of the color. This can be achieved by adding white paint or by diluting the paint to thin it to such a degree that the substrate (white canvas, paper, etc.) can lighten the color, creating the desired tint. See example (a).

Shading, on the other hand, is darkening the color. Adding black or a complementary color can create the shaded color as shown in examples (b) and (c).

Tones are created by adding both black and white to the color to create a toned version of the color as shown in sample (d).

In creating the following exercises, you can use a piece of canvas from your canvas pad. Draw with an HB graphite pencil four rectangles 6' x 1.5" and divided into twelve 3/4" sections. Paint twelve gradated steps for each example of tinting, shading, and toning colors. These exercises take time, however, it will be time well spent, as you will begin to have a hands-on understanding of mixing paint. This subtle increment of creating the exercises below will add a valuable skill set and lessen your frustration with mixing color while you are trying to create a painting.

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