Tip of the month – October 2004

This month, I am continuing with the content found on a 12 color wheel. There are a variety of color wheels on the market and they say the same thing. Some may be easier to read than others. For this tip page, I am using the COLOR STAR by Johannes Itten and the Holbein COLOR WHEEL.

This visual illustrates what can be seen with each color on the color wheel. For example, a color + white (or diluted with water) = a tint; a color + black = a shade; a color + gray = a tone.

This visual from Birren’s book on the PRINCIPLES OF COLOR shows the previous example using a color.

THE COLOR STAR by Johannes Itten is a color wheel which shows pure color, tints, tones and shades.

In this segment from the COLOR STAR starting at a point, you can see a shade, tones, pure color and tints.

This is a color wheel from Holbein. There are a few paint companies with a similar color wheel. On the side shown, you can see the twelve colors on the outer rim of the wheel. This wheel has a second moveable and smaller wheel attached to the larger one.

This is the backside of the Holbein Color Wheel. On it you can see 1) pure color, 2) tint, 3) tone 4) shade. This side of the wheel also has a moveable second wheel which can be positioned over the different colors on the wheel.

If you create your own color wheel, create tints, tones, and shades of each color.

I have created tints, tones and shades of each color on my color wheel. As you can see, I work with complementary pairs to make the tones and shades.

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