Colour mixing: saturation, tone and value

Paul Talbot-Greaves takes you through the basics of successful colour mixing and his colour choices for a late summer landscape in oils, with an exercise for you to try

This diagram shows the five values of colour. The centre colour (C) is sap green, so let’s imagine this is the key colour of a feature in a painting. On its own it can be described as a saturated colour. By adding titanium white (B) we achieve a tint (light tone), suitable for high-key values, for example those seen in the brightest light. At the end of the scale, we have titanium white (A), which depicts highlights. In (D), a mixture of French ultramarine, burnt sienna and titanium white were added to the sap green to create a dark- toned green. Finally (E) depicts a black value, made from French ultramarine, burnt sienna and sap green. Although the intensity is black, a tiny addition of titanium white would turn it straight to a dark tone, so even in dense mixes like this, I still add the key colour