Color Theory for Non-Artists Part III - Hues, Tints, Shades and Tones

I am writing a series on beginning color theory for my "other" interest, makeup.  Since it's an obvious crossover, I thought I'd post here too.  <3 Krissi  Originally posted at http://www.facebook.com/KrissisMakeup.  Click the badge in the sidebar to follow all of my makeup antics on facebook.

Now that you're familiar with the color wheel (from Part I of this series) and understand analogous colors (defined in Part II of this series), we can learn about creating some very pretty looks by combining tints, shades and/or tones of the same hue.

Scratching your heads over these terms? Don't worry, Krissi will explain.

• Hue - these are the brightest, purest and most saturated forms of color. In the Wheel O' Piggies, these would be the inside ring of colors.
• Tint - often referred to as pastels, tints are achieved by adding white to a hue.
• Shade - shades are achieved by adding black to a color ,but many people will misuse "shade" to mean tints, hues and tones as well.
• Tone - are grayed out versions of colors and are very popular this year with people really digging the 'smoky eye' look.

Madd Style Cosmetics Madd Piggiez showing examples of hues/tints/shades
Teals: Tron, Ol '55, Vortex / Blues: Aja, Brad, Space Oddity

In this look, I used colors from the Madd Style Cosmetics Rocky Horror collection to go from white in the inner corner to black (liner) with a blue tint, hue and shade in between:

"Columbia Loves Eddie" created using Madd Style Cosmetics Madd Piggiez
from the Rocky Horror Picture Show Collection
Columbia (white), Eddie (blue), Time Warp (black) and Magenta (red-violet)

I started with a blue hue on the right 3/4ths of my lid; I then added white, creating a light blue tint (because a hue + white = tint). I left the blue unblended on the third quarter of my lid and then added black  in the outer "V" to create a dark blue shade (because a hue + black = shade).

Here, this might help a little...

Because this look was done with basically ONE color and adding white or black to it, the pigments blend from one to another seamlessly.  This is a fantastic technique for those of you new to blending - you get a chance to practice and even your "failures" look flawless, and you can try it with purples, greens, pinks.... etc., and can add a grey to create a more subtle "tone" instead of going with a black.

Now, while I created the tint/hue/shade effect in "Columbia Loves Eddie" by actually adding white and black to a single hue, it's not necessary to be so literal.  You can choose premixed colors that appear to your eye to be lighter (tint), darker (shade) or greyed out (tone) than your basic color (hue).

For example:

Pixie (a light purple "tint"), Electric Kool Aid (a pure purple "hue"), Headstrong* (a dark purple "shade")
 with Glitter & Doom in the crease (a greyed out purple "tone")
(All colors by Madd Style Cosmetics except * by Brazen Cosmetics)

To create this effect, I applied four separate pigments as if I had taken a purple and added white, black and grey.  The lavender on the inner third of my lid appears to be lighter than the purple in the center, therefore, for these purposes, we'll say it's a tint.  Likewise with the very dark purple on the outer corner - I didn't really add black to my purple pigment, but it kinda looks like I did.   The purple in the center is fully saturated and bright, so it's a "hue" while the crease color is lighter, but a bit muddy, so it's a "tone."

Makeup is all about effect, so don't worry about being too literal here.

Pretty cool, huh? Now you try! And remember, there aren't really any absolute right answers here. It's just how your eye perceives the relationship between the colors.

Take a look at the inner ring of colors and let's call them, for the sake of discussion, "hues."   Now look at the pigments that radiate out.  How do they look in comparison to the hues? Are they shades (darker), tints (lighter) or tones (lighter, but muddy)?

Go try this with your own makeup collection and practice with a look or two.


NEXT: Part IV - Complementary Colors

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Color Theory for Non-Artists Part II - Analogous Colors

I am writing a series on beginning color theory for my "other" interest, makeup.  Since it's an obvious crossover, I thought I'd post here too.  <3 Krissi  Originally posted at http://www.facebook.com/KrissisMakeup.  Click the badge in the sidebar to follow all of my makeup antics on facebook.

In February, I wrote Part I in a series on Beginning Color Theory for Non-Artists, directed primarily at the 'makeup' crowd, however, it can prove useful to just about anyone wanting to understand color combinations a bit better. In the first installment, I introduced my "color wheel" (The Wheel o' Piggiez!) and defined primary, secondary and tertiary colors.  In this installment, we're moving on to some of my favorite color combos (in painting AND in makeup), analogous colors.

Analogous colors are colors that lie next to each other in the spectrum / on the color wheel:

Analogous (or contiguous) colors in the Wheel o' Piggiez:
blue-green (Tron), green (Frankenstein and yellow-green (Acid Bath)
red (MAC ltd edition), violet/magenta (Magenta) and purple (Electric Kool Aid)
pigments by Madd Style Cosmetics except red (by MAC).

Yellow-green (Ecto Cooler), green (Zombie Crush)
and blue-green/teal (Beautiful Tragedy*)
Pigments by Madd Style Cosmetics
except for Beautiful Tragedy, by Hi-Fi Cosmetics

Analogous colors are an easy way to achieve a perfectly blended look with your colors. Since each color is made using a little bit of the next one, they really can't help but blend together.

Analogous colors in the outer edge and blended upward
(white added to inner edge):
blue (Eddie), blue-violet (Eddie/Electric Kool Aid),
Violet (Electric Kool Aid) and red-violet (Magenta)
Pigments by Madd Style Cosmetics 

You can achieve a great effect with just two analogous colors, so don't feel compelled to start off with four or five. Now go have some fun!

NEXT: Part III - Hues, Tints, Shades and Tones

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Color Theory for Non-Artists Part I: Intro to the Color Wheel

I am writing a series on beginning color theory for my "other" interest, makeup.  Since it's an obvious crossover, I thought I'd post here too.  <3 Krissi  Originally posted at http://www.facebook.com/KrissisMakeup.  Click the badge in the sidebar to follow all of my makeup antics on facebook.

I get a lot of questions about how I choose my color combinations -not only with makeup, but with my art as well. Though I don't look at a physical color wheel every day, I do keep it in mind when deciding on my color combinations. Yes, I know. I already hear you asking, "Krissi, what the heck is this color wheel and how do you use it?" Well, I'm so glad you asked.

Since I'm doing this primarily for makeup, let's use Krissi's Colorful Wheel O' Piggies, shall we?

This fun little tool was put together using 99% Madd Style Cosmetics pigments (only the 'primary red' is MAC - this color contains carmine and therefore isn't vegan and cannot be found in Mo's shop!)

Let's just start out with a basic discussion of color. Primary colors are defined as the three colors which, when their light waves are blended, produce white. Usually when artists think of primaries, they are the colors you use to achieve all other colors. The three primary colors are yellow, red and blue.

There are other shades, tints, values and hues of these colors, but we'll save that discussion for their own blog posts.

Primary colors YELLOW (Princess Buttahcup), RED (Brash & Bold by MAC-contains carmine) and BLUE (Aja/Jem Coll. - look for this to MAYBE make an appearance in the permanent collection).

Secondary colors (orange, purple/violet and green) are achieved by mixing two primaries together. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right?

ORANGE (Boognish) = yellow + red

PURPLE (Electric Kool Aid) = red + blue

GREEN (Frankenstein) = blue + yellow

Tertiary colors are acheived by mixing a primary with one of its own secondary colors:

YELLOW-ORANGE (Blister In The Sun), RED-ORANGE (Strange Potion), RED-VIOLET/fuchsia (Magenta), BLUE-VIOLET/indigo (Nana's Tea Party), BLUE-GREEN/teal (Tron) and YELLOW-GREEN (Acid Bath)

OK! Now we have a basic color wheel with which to work. Before we move forward with using the color wheel, why not go take a look at your pigment/eyeshadows and see if you can determine where on the color wheel your favorites fit. If you need some visual help, try printing out a sample color wheel (just Google "color wheel," click on images and choose the one you like best). There's no shame in a cheat sheet!


NEXT: Part II - Analogous and Complementary Colors

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FAQ: Can I Use That Image? (aka Copyright 101)

Intellectual property (patents, licenses, copyrights) is a pretty tough concept to get your mind around, but you are in luck.  As it happens, before I was a full time artist, I used to negotiate licensing agreements.  True story.  And since I received two almost identical inquiries involving this very subject in the last few months, I figured it warranted its own post.

In both cases, the requests boiled down to this:


they wanted to commission a piece of art from me and then sell reproductions of the image (one on jewelry, one as prints).


My short answer was "no" to both because, whether or not they purchase a physical painting from me, the image still belongs to me.  That's where the "intellectual" part of intellectual property comes in - the idea (and execution of that idea) is my property.  Yep.  No matter what they pay for the paintings themselves, such payment does not include the right to use the images.

Still a little confused?  No problem.

Think of it this way:  Let's say you go to Borders or your local book store (they still have those, right?) and you buy a copy of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.  You own that physical book, that thing with pages (the "tangible property") - you paid for it.  You may put it on the shelf or dog-ear the corners, sell it in a garage sale or even, God forbid, burn it if you want to.  However, you don't own the rights to the IDEAS contained therein.  You may not make copies of the book and sell them.  You may not make a movie of the book.... unless of course you have permission from Ms. Rowling (customarily in the form of a license agreement and huge-ass amounts of cash going from you to her).

Art works very much in the same way.  Let's say you pay me for a custom painting of your cat.  No matter how much I charge you for that painting - you are only paying for my time, supplies and creativity, not for the rights to use the image.  So even if I charge you an exorbitant amount, you still may not make copies, prints, Christmas cards (not even for your own use) unless we have a written agreement where I specifically give you those rights (which would be under a License Agreement).  Yeah, I know, even though it's YOUR cat.  Even if I painted from a photo you took.

2011 ADDENDUM:  The reverse/reciprocal is also true: I have the right to do whatever I want with the image.  As the artist, I may create prints, cards or another painting OR I may license the rights to someone else to make items using the image: rubber stamps, posters, car wraps, whatever.  The recipient of the original has no rights outside of the ownership of the tangible, physical property (painting) and may not dictate what the artist may or may not do with the image.  Even if it's a painting of YOUR cat.  Even if it was painted from your photo. 

Another intellectual property tidbit: you need to enforce your intellectual property rights or you lose them.  That's why the Disney Corporation protects Mickey so vehemently.  It's also why I do not ever make exceptions - not even for friends.  I mean, you all saw The Godfather, right?  "It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business." 

Anyway, I hope this helped to give you a very brief overview of intellectual property as it pertains to questions I get asked pretty often.   If you have more questions, let me know!

Krissi

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FAQs Answered: How do you make your prints?

I get this question all the time (*cough* 50% of the time it's from people who don't want to do their own research *cough*).   I photograph, crop, color correct, digitally manipulate (if necessary to reposition aspects to fit in 8x10 aspect ratio) and print all of my pieces myself.

• Camera: I have a Nikon D40X camera and use a tripod and a Tamron 18-270 lens with vibration control.
• Software/hardware: I use a variety of software including Corel PaintShop Pro, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Gimp.  Sometimes I edit with a mouse and sometimes I use my Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet and pen.
• Printer/inks: I use an Epson Stylus Photo printer with fade resistant pigment inks, professional photo paper and package using archival quality bags and backings (available at clearbags.com)

And sure, there are other easier and more cost effective ways to make prints, but my hand-made process allows me to keep an eye on the quality and to offer prints of each and every painting requested, not just the most popular ones.

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