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Info, Fun and Facts about Art

What Does Colour, Hue, Value, Tone, Shade and Tint Mean When Talking About a Painting

12/18/2017

31 Comments

 
Colour Chart
If you are taking an art class, or trying to learn how to paint via books or on-line, you probably keep coming across these words - colour, hue, tint, shade, tone and value.

One of my art students asked me about these various definitions recently and I thought - yep - these can be very confusing. 
(Especially when I looked up the definition of 
hue and the synonym was tone .... lilac was used as an example of a hue and artists don't usually call lilac a hue ..... most artists would disagree with the definition I found.)

Why the confusion? These terms are defined differently in different industries so you will get varying definitions. In this post I am discussing how these terms are used when an artist or art instructor is discussing a painting.

COLOUR
Let's start with colour - if someone refers to a colour, we understand what a colour is. Blue is a colour, viridian is a colour, orange is a colour. Experts estimate that the human eye can distinguish up to 10 million different colours.
https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/JenniferLeong.shtml
The fashion, interior design and house paint industry come up with all sorts of fabulous names for all the colours that surround us.
A painting is made up of a whole bunch of colours. The terms we are discussing describe the colours used in a painting and how they relate to each other. And when you are learning how to paint, you need to understand these terms.

HUE
When artists talk about hue, they are describing either pure colour (no white, black, grey or another colour mixed with it) or the dominant pure colour in the colour that is being discussed.
These are the colours on a colour wheel. The hues are the primary colours, - red, yellow and blue - and the secondary colours,  - green, purple (called violet or magenta sometimes) and orange. 
Picture
When discussing the dominant colour in a colour we say the hue is .....
The 
hue of these colours is yellow - ​
Picture
The hue of these colours is green - ​
Picture

​Back to the lilac issue. Most artists would not call lilac a 
hue because it is not a pure colour.  If the colour lilac was being discussed, it's hue would be described as purple (or violet). The colour lilac would be called a tint or a tone.
Picture

Why would some artists call lilac a 
tint and some call it a tone? Well .... yet more ways to confuse us about colour ..... it is because my idea of lilac, or your idea of lilac may be different to another person's idea of lilac. Any of the colours in the photo below could be called lilac. And calling it a tint or a tone depends on how a person perceives what is involved in creating the colour lilac. If they see lilac as simply purple plus white - they would call it a tint. If they see lilac as purple plus white plus blue and maybe a bit of black added ..... they would call it a tone.
Picture
Yep. Confusing. The perception of colour and how to create it is very subjective which is why different people refer to these different terms in different ways.
​Hopefully the below definitions will clarify the way these terms are generally used for and by artists.
Picture
HUE - pure colour (colour wheel colours), no white, black or another colour mixed with it -  or referring to the dominant pure colour in a colour

TINT - pure colour plus white
A tint is just a hue that has had white added to it.
The colour lilac can be referenced as a tint if only white is added to the hue violet/purple to achieve it. 

SHADE - pure colour plus black
A shade is simply a hue that has had black added to it.
The colour aubergine can be called a shade of violet/purple if black is added to the hue violet/purple to achieve it. 

If a hue is mixed only with white or black, it stays a pure tint or a pure shade. 
Once another colour or grey (black and white) is introduced, it becomes a tone.

TONE - pure colour plus grey (black and white added)
- and sometimes one or more other colours added to the pure colour
A tone is simply a combination colour or a greyed down hue, the colours "beige" or "salmon" are tones. Skin tones  - think of all of those colours in a face. Combinations of hues with grey create a myriad of skin tones in a portrait.

Tones, tints, and shades are all still called colours.
Tones, tints, and shades all have different values.

Which now brings us to value, often the most discussed and the confusing one.
Picture
VALUE - the lightness or darkness of a colour, tint, tone or shade.
​On a  value scale, black is at one extreme, white at the other. The colours in the image above move from a light value to a dark value.
Shades have dark values. Tints have light values.

​
Values are a big deal in a painting. Correct values establish depth, position objects in a composition, demonstrate accurately the representation of shadow and light, and control the way the eye travels in a painting. When values are off in a painting, the painting doesn't work.

Artists often use one of these to help sort out the values in their paintings.
Picture
The trick is seeing what value a colour is, as colours confuse our eyes,  making it hard to see how actually dark or light they are - what their true value is.
Taking a colour image and translating it into a grayscale image before you paint it helps you accurately understand the ​value of the colours you are dealing with.
Picture
Picture
When values are sorted out in a painting, that is when the magic happens.
​
I leave you with James Whistler's "Arrangement in Gray (Whistler's Mother)", Carravagio's "Incredulity of St. Thomas" and Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring". These three artists were masters at painting values, and the masterpieces below are excellent examples of how the values of different colours are effectively used in paintings.   
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Artist Edvard Munch. Today is his birthday, December 12th

12/7/2017

4 Comments

 
Edvard Munch - 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944
Born in  Ådalsbruk, United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway
Self- Portrait, 1882, Edvard Munch
Self-Portrait with Cigarette, 1895 by Edvard Munch
The Night Wanderer, 1924, Edvard Munch
Young Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch - 1902
Edvard Munch - 1933
"The Scream" by Norwegian Symbolist and influencer of German Expressionism Edvard Munch, is arguably one of the world's most famous paintings and Munch's most recognized work. Munch actually created four versions of "The Scream" - 2 oils and 2 pastels.
Picture
The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch

On 2 May 2012, Munch's 1895 pastel "The Scream" sold  for US $119,922,500.
Yes, over 119 million dollars. 
​
This is how Munch described what lay behind his extraordinary work "The Scream".
​

"I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature."
Edvard Munch
(Faerna, José María (1995). Munch. New York: Harry N. Abrams. p. 16.)

​"The Scream" touched our psyches and infiltrated our culture as few other works of art have. Was Munch's other work as dark and emotional? Yes.
​

"I do not believe in the art which is not the compulsive result of Man's urge to open his heart."
Edvard Munch

(Eggum, Arne; Munch, Edvard (1984). 
Edvard Munch: Paintings, Sketches, and Studies. New York: C.N. Potter. p.10)
Evening on Karl Johan Street, 1892 by Edvard Munch
The Dance of Life, 1899 by Edvard Munch
Death in the Sickroom, 1895 by Edvard Munch
Self Portrait with Wine Bottle, 1906, Edvard Munch
Weeping Nude, 1913-14, Edvard Munch
The Day After, 1894-95 by Edvard Munch
By the Deathbed, 1893, Edvard Munch
Madonna, 1894, Edvard Munch
"My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious—to the point of psychoneurosis. From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born."
Edvard Munch

(​Prideaux, Sue (2005). Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream. New Haven: Yale University Press.)

Edvard Munch's work was highly personal - he lived a troubled life and his art reflects this.

​Edvard Munch grew up in dire poverty and surrounded by illness. Munch's mother died of Tuberculosis when Munch was just 5, he was terribly ill throughout his childhood, and his beloved sister Sophie also died of Tuberculosis when she was 15 and Munch was only 13. He was raised by his father who was a strict Calvinist and suffered from mental illness. After leaving home, he lived a life of self-imposed exile, believing that to be solitary created great art. 
In 1908, suffering depression, seeing hallucinations and experiencing feelings of persecution, Munch was also dealing with alcoholism. It is here when Munch reached an emotional breaking point and was hospitalized for 8 months. He was never married and had no children.
​

When Munch died, his remaining works were not left to any of his family members but were bequeathed to the city of Oslo, which built the Munch Museum.  - 1,100 paintings, 4,500 drawings, 18,000 prints and ​six sculptures. An extraordinary amount of work. An extraordinary legacy for Norway and for artists and art lovers world-wide.

Possibly more than any other artist, Munch expressed in visual form the inner life of modern man. His images of loss, loneliness, anxiety, dread and sexuality touched a chord in viewers that most artists desperately try to reach.

To learn more about this extraordinary artist, visit - https://www.edvardmunch.org/
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What is the difference between acrylic paint, watercolour paint and oil paint?

12/5/2017

6 Comments

 
liquitex acrylic paint
Daniel Smith watercolour paint tubes
Gamblin oil paint tubes
New students wanting to learn how to paint are faced with deciding which medium to choose to paint with. This can be really confusing, so I want to give you a synopsis of the differences between the three types of paints most commonly used - acrylic paint, watercolour paint and oil paint.

All paint is made of two things - pigment (the colour - a dry powder) and a binder (this is what holds the dry pigment together and let's you apply it on a support like paper, canvas, wood etc.).

The three paints we are discussing use different binders - so each type of paint will dry differently, move differently across the paper or canvas, create different transparencies, and reflect colour differently. It is the type of binder used in each type of paint that makes the paint handle in these different ways. An artist is able to do different things which each type of paint and paint quite different paintings depending on his or her choice of medium.

Certain painting techniques work better with certain paints and, certainly, an oil painting does not look like a watercolour. However, every paint produces extraordinary work and the choice will depend mostly on your personality, and your style of art.

If you can, try all three paint mediums before you invest heavily in one type of paint. Everybody is different and your personality will likely respond more to one type of paint more that another. If you can't find classes in your area to do that, start with a limited colour palette first - just a few tubes of colour and a couple of brushes to try each medium.

Here are some pros and cons of each type of paint to help you choose what to begin with.
But seriously, they are all amazing, every medium creates beautiful art.
​(The photos provided of each medium do not speak to the range that each medium can achieve, but I have tried to select pieces that represent the medium and well-known artists that worked in each specific paint type.)

Soupcans ​Andy Wahrhol, 1962 - MOMA 32 canvases , each 20
Soupcans
​Andy Wahrhol, 1962 - MOMA
32 canvases , each 20" x 16" - Acrylic on Canvas
 
​ACRYLIC
​
Acrylic is made of pigment and acrylic polymer emulsion. When water evaporates from the acrylic polymer emulsion, the remaining molecules lock themselves into a stable solid paint film. 

This is the medium I personally start my students with. Artists started using it in the 1950's. It is easy to use and very forgiving so I personally feel it is the best for novices to try painting with.

PRO
 - Easy to use.

- Great for sharp lines, graphic style work.

- Well suited for detail work.

- Dries fast, so you can paint over mistakes.
​
- Easy clean up - water and soap.
CON
- Colour shift. Colours dry darker than when wet.

 - More difficult to do blends and gradations with.

 - Dries fast - so you can't fix and move lines or keep working on an area you may want to.
​
- You can't leave paint on your palette and come back to it later as it dries so fast.

For inspiration and to see what acrylic paint can do visit the National Acrylic Painter's Association
http://www.napauk.com/artists.htm

Joseph Turner Watercolour Tate Museum
WATERCOLOUR
Watercolour is made with pigment and gum arabic (which is tree sap obtained from the acacia tree).

Magical things happen with watercolour, but sometimes you have to be prepared to except the way the watercolour wants to go ....Loose or controlled, watercolour can create paintings like Turner's or highly accurate botanical illustrations. This is the second paint that I introduce students to.
A Wreck, Possibly Related to 'Longships Lighthouse, Land's End' c.1834 - Tate Museum
Joseph Mallord William Turner
338 x 491 mm - Watercolour on Paper

 PRO
- Very cool effects if you allow the watercolour to do what it wants to do.

- Create ethereal loose work or highly detailed work.

- Dries quite fast, depending on humidity where you are. If colours dry on your palette you can re-hydrate them later.
​
- Easy clean up - water and soap.

- Quick painting techniques, can be used quickly to capture a moment.

​
CON
- Colour shift. Colours dry much lighter than when you put them on the paper.

 - More difficult to cover a mistake.

- Harder to control, paper buckling and paint.

 - Watercolour techniques are simple in theory, but can be more challenging to  master. It takes time to learn how the colours interact with each other and why they behave the way they do on the paper.

- If you are doing glazes, there is a lot of wait time between each drying cycle.
For inspiration and to see what watercolour paint can do visit the Royal Watercolour Society
https://www.royalwatercoloursociety.co.uk/artists/

Elizabeth Winthrop Chandler ​John Singer Sargent,​ 1893 - Smithsonian American Art Museum 49
Elizabeth Winthrop Chandler
​John Singer Sargent,​ 1893 - Smithsonian American Art Museum
49" x 40.5 " - Oil on Canvas
OIL

Oil Paint is pigment plus oil used as the binder - usually linseed oil. Oil dries much slower than water, so the paint has a longer time for an artist to work with it.

​This is the medium of the masters. When you see a painting in a museum you are most likely looking at an oil painting. The glazing effects and the way light and colour reflects through oil paint is extraordinary.

PRO
- Longer working time than the other mediums.
You can start a painting and come back to where you were the next day - the paint on your canvas and palette stays wet.
​

- Oil paints blend beautifully creating smooth transitions which makes them excellent for portraiture

- No colour shift (except over many, many years ....) what you mix on your palette is what you see when it dries.


-Higher ratio of pigment to binder than acrylic or watercolour, creating very intense colours.

-Incredible transparency effects can be created with oil paint and it is luxurious to paint with. Like painting with butter.

CON
​
- If you want crisp sharp lines, or want a different colour on top of one you have already painted, you have to wait for a day or up to week before the underlying colours are dry. 
​
- Colours can become muddy if you paint on top of another colour when it hasn't dried.

- Clean up is a bit more complex than acrylics or watercolours. Oil and soap, or solvents and soap are used.

- An oil painting takes a long time before it fully dries so that you can varnish it.

- If you use solvents or certain mediums, you will need ventilation.
For inspiration and to see what oil paint can do visit the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
http://theroi.co.uk/roi-members/

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    Kate Green

    Artist and Art Instructor living in Ottawa, Canada.
    I hope these posts will inform and/or entertain you.

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