JWD Publishing Blog

All colors in this photo  are tones—even the dark ones. 

To see how tones are created—and to get a sense of what they’re all about—up close and personal, I invite you to have a paint-play day—painting tones from your favorite colors. Doing so will expand your color knowledge exponentially. In fact, if you give yourself a day to play with paint, you will be so happy with your new-found knowledge and color understanding.

Alas, consider inviting a few of your friends over to paint tones from  their own favorite colors. Then you can all share each other’s findings. You all will find it’s a very worthwhile day. If possible, plan your painting day within the next two weeks.

Here are the items you will need to paint your own beautiful toned hues: 

PAINTS:  Purchase 3  pure-color tubes of acrylic paint (Liquitex or some other brand). If it suits you, choose one color from the green-blue section of the color wheel (chartreuse through blue-violet). Select another pure color from the red to violet section of the color wheel. Also, choose a pure color from the yellow to red-orange section of the color wheel. This will give you three distinctly different colors with which to paint. If you have other preferences, go with your instincts. Also, if you want to paint with more than three colors, feel free to add more colors. The more you paint tones from other colors, the greater your experience will be—and your color repertoire will be expanded.

Besides your chosen pure colors, you will need a large tube of Neutral Gray 5 (middle value) paint, along with Titanium White and Mars Black.

OTHER ITEMS YOU WILL NEED ARE:  You will need at least 2 packages of unlined 3″ x 5″ index cards, 1 or 2 paint brushes, a few large sheets of paper to protect your work surface, coffee stirrers, paper towels or a rags for cleaning brushes, water, paint containers, and toothpicks. Also, you will need construction paper (white and/or black) or tag-board, glue stick, cutting tools (e.g. rotary cutter, cutting board, and ruler).

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Quilts of Valor Display, Brooking, South Dakota

The Brooking, South Dakota Quilt Show was filled with a wide array of quilts of all interests, skill levels, styles, techniques, and subject matter.  It’s always fun to see what surprises await us as we visit a quilt show. This past rainy, windy weekend amidst beautiful farmland and rolling hills the convention center in Brooking was packed with fascinating quilts and avid quilters.  The quilt show’s  theme was a Fanfare of Quilts.

Here is a glimpse of the quilt show that might give you a sense of the quilting flavor of this northeastern South Dakota region. (Sorry to all of you in the Brooking area when I said you lived in the northwestern part.  I know you’re on the eastern side near Minnisota,  but my fingers automatically wrote northwestern late last night, probably since  my brain was asleep and I live in the northwest.)

Quilts of Valor Display

   In the front lobby of the convention center, there was a wonderful display of quilts made for the veterans from this region who are soon to be returning home. My very favorite of these quilts is the one shown above.  It is such a beautiful quilt.  The quilting is exquisite in this quilt. I could not find any label, so I have no idea who the piecer and quilter are.  Isn’t this a superb quilt!   (If you know the maker, please let me know.)

Never Say Never by Belinda Kruse

This New York Beauty quilt, Never Say Never, was created by Belinda Kruse.  It’s a relatively small quilt that really called to me.  I thought Belinda used really interesting fabrics that worked so well together.  What a grand batik stash she had at her fingertips when beginning this quilt at a Pierre quilt retreat.

The quilting was done by Andi Rudebusch. I really like the way she quilted this design.

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The softly-colored  dahlia (above) has a hint of grayness in its rosy pink color.

The tone scale is the most used group of colors in the world. Regardless, letting tones work their magic in a design can be puzzling, particularly if you are not aware of how they can help develop a design. Once you know their secret, you can let tones work for you in all sorts of ways.  In today’s post let’s analyze tones by looking at two very different images. Both are entirely colored by tones. As we already know, tones are the hues of winter, calmness, and softness.  In addition, you will be able to enhance your designs in so many ways when you know how tones interact both with each other and with hues from other color scales, .

The Most Important Qualities of a Tone

In a nutshell, tones can be of any value. They can range from almost white to almost black and every value in between. Also, tones are renowned for varying the amount of  grayness in their colorings. Some tones have only a hint of grayness, like the dahlia shown above.  Other tones may be slightly grayed or well grayed.  There are also tones that have so much grayness in their makeup that they appear gray with a hint of color.  Colors such as grayed blue or blued gray are examples of two toned colors with subtle difference in their appearances.

The image below illustrates the interaction of tones within a design. Every color in this image is toned.  For instance, the mountain’s blue is grayed. Likewise, the light apricots and blues of the sky are very grayed. The dark green Douglas Fir trees are grayed; all of the water hues are very grayed. The green meadow grasses are the least grayed of all. Consequently, they attract our attention.

 All colors in this image are from the tone scale.

Looking at Tones in Play

At first glance of the picture above, we might think the greens of the meadowland are not toned, but simply a dark green. However, if you put a pure green hue next to the grasses, you will see immediately that this dark green is toned. Because it is the element that  has the least amount of grayness to it, the grass stands out more than any other feature. The darkest elements and those that have the least amount of toning are the ones that capture the attention of our eyes.  Conversely, the sky is made up of very light grayed-blue hues. Because of their lightness and extreme grayness, these colors recede into the distance rather than attract our attention.

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In the last post we discussed the fourth color scale—the tone scale. Since toned colors are the most prevalent in the world, it’s worthwhile thinking about how we can work most effectively with them. Tones are the workhorses of color. They are the hues that hold most designs  together. Pure colors get most of the attention and receive most of the accolades and rave reviews. However, it’s the tones that work the hardest and bring support to those pure colors . Learning how to use tones to the best advantage of your design is really an exciting adventure. Let’s begin with some basic tone concepts in this post.

First, let’s look at the sunset image (above).  Except for a tiny bit of pure yellow in the sky, all of the hues in this image are toned (grayed), including most of the yellow hues. We can see the grayness very readily in the mountains and sky, as these colors are softly muted. Some even appear filmy or veiled. The foreground hills are also toned. Because of their limited amount of grayness and the  fact that their color value is quite dark, the hills are very pronounced. Most of the yellows in the sky are only slightly toned, so they also attract our attention with their brightness and glowing warmth.  Altogether, this image illustrates some of the following principles when working with tones:

• Colors can exhibit a wide range of tonality: some colors are slightly grayed; others mildly grayed; and others are extremely grayed.
• When all of the colors within an artwork or scene have the same degree of grayness and are in the same relative value, the design can be difficult to see. It can also appear flat and/or uninteresting.
• A color’s value (lightness or darkness) has no bearing on the amount of grayness in a color.
• Tones and values, working together, can form a team to create amazing results in all designs.
• Colors of all value ranges can be toned.
• As a rule, the more a color is toned, the more it fades into the distance. This is accentuated when the colors become both lighter and grayer.

In the image below, the grayness throughout the scene is almost equally distributed. Everything looks evenly filmy or veiled. Also notice there is very little value change. The closest hills are slightly darker, but their color value doesn’t provide enough contrast to make this image understandable.  This image illustrates an important concept:

• When value and tonality are the same throughout, it is difficult to understand or interpret the design (or scene).
• .Varying the tonality of colors within an artwork, as well as having some value contrast, makes for a more successful visual statement.

Now let’s look at tones and how they work within the realm of fabric:

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We have delved into three of nature’s four color scales during the last several posts: the pure color scale, the tint scale, and the shade scale. In this post our focus is on the tone scale—the world’s most expansive color scale. We are surrounded by tones in nature, in our homes, and with our clothes. The tone scale is a very important group of colors. We will focus on tones during the next few posts. Although they are not the brightest, the clearest, nor the most spirited, the tone scale represents the majority of colors in our world.

Colors in the tone scale have the same major component: they have been diluted with gray in some way.  Once gray has been added to a pure color, a tint, or a shade, the hue no longer belongs to its original scale. It has become a tone. It doesn’t matter whether the grayness is created with a combination of black and white, a gray of any value, a color’s complement, or by some other means. The method is not important. It’s the result that matters.

Here’s a quick overview of the role of tones:

1.   Tones are the colors of winter.

2.   Tones are the most calming of all colors.

3.   The tone scale is the scale most used in quilts.

4.   Tones are the major colors in art.

5.    Most interiors use tones as their major color scale.

6.    Tones are essential to create atmospheric perspective (depth).

7.    Tones are needed to create luminosity.

8.     Toned hues are usually the colors that become most people .

9.     The majority of colors in this world belong to the tone scale.

The grayness of a toned color can be a mere drop or two placed into a pure hue, a tint, or a shade.  It can also be an immersion of gray in a color, so that the color appears very veiled. Also, a tone can be anything between these extremes. Tones can be just a tad bit softer than the pure color or they can be soft and subtle. Thus tones are widely varied.  Tones can be minusculely grayed, slightly grayed, considerably grayed, or they can be so grayed that the tone appears as a gray with a hint of a color in its makeup.

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I hope you are ready to create your own favorite warm shades.  It’s simple to do and you’ll find yourself creating some amazing new colors that you will love to use in your next projects. You’ll also discover which pure colors create your shade preferences. After reading today’s post, decide which pure colors you would like to explore further by doing the painting activity provided here.  If you have not painted in decades (or have never painted), do not worry. This is a very easy exercise—-and it is priceless in the color information you will uncover.

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