Colors Are Your Friends or let’s talk a bit of “my” Color Theory IV

I have listed the first 3 posts in this series the bottom of this post in case you are joining a tad later :)

OK- so in the last thread we talked about the color wheel and you might think, great…so what am I supposed to do with this round thing of colors? Well well…don’t forget, I am a Kraut…so this is an organized series- LOL. First things first.

Now…sometimes when you have a paint media – things get a bit confusing – like when you buy PanPastels:

OK- so Phthalo Green – and then the same color in a tint and a shade- but what the dillio- what does it mean?

Here is a simple explanation:  A tint is any mixture of a bright “pure” color with white. A shade is any mixture of a “pure” color (also referred to as a hue) with black. A tone is a mixture of gray (white + black) and the “pure” color. (source Wikipedia)

So that actually means if you would just buy PanPastels in the colors Phthalo Green, White and Black- you could actually mix four other colors with those colors:

And because I am a lazy girl- I buy sometimes often the Shades and the Tints too. But if you are totally into mixing or you are on a budget….this is quite good to know, isn’t it?

So now…if you take into account the last post on Colors Are You Friends:

When my students for the PanPastel Class ask me, which colors they should buy for the class – what do you think my answer might be?

Exactly – I tell them to get for the beginning five colors: Yellow, Blue, Red, White and Black. Because…they cannot only mix all the Secondary Colors and the Tertiary Colors with those colors- no no….they can also mix all the Shades and Tints and Tones with those colors. That leaves them with how many possibilities?

Exactly- LOL- I have no clue- but it is a lot ;)

BTW – if you are interested in my Über*Media PanPastel Online Class- you can find it here.

Now that we have talked about the attitudes of our friends, their relationship on the color wheel and their tones and shades behind us- we can really turn our mind to more fun things – and try to answer the question:

But hey- this post today and yesterday was a lot to take in, wasn’t it? Tell you what, I give you a little break and come back next week, singing for you ;)

Have an amazing day with lot’s of tints and shades :)

Nat

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Comments (8)

  • Marsha.

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    Aha! Thanks Nat, this is a great lesson!

    Reply

  • Antje

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    I love your thoughts on color…. Please keep going… ;-)

    Reply

  • Nancy Sapp

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    I’ve been painting, sketching & playing with color ever since I was a little girl & I never knew this! I’ve learned SO MUCH in these “Color Friend” blogs.
    Many Thanks!

    Reply

  • Lisa Flaherty

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    Truly helpful, Nat! Can’t wait for the next post!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    New information for me…thanks Nat.

    Reply

  • Riikka

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    I love this series – I always share the link in my blog’s Facebook page as a good source of color theory :)

    Reply

  • france papillon

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    Awesome post (just like all your color-theory-posts) !!! off to add a new link of the day on my page ;)
    bereknuffel :)

    Reply

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