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The Tonal Value of colour

9/8/2011

 
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When we want to express the lightness or darkness of a colour we refer to its tonal value and not the brightness thereof. Colours are totally dependant on tone, but tone has nothing to do with colour. All colours have a tonal value, but tone has no colour. In other words any colour can have the same tone. 

If we look at the following example you will notice that the dresses of the girls on the donkeys are opposite colours with the same tonal value.  
All objects in a painting should have three Tones namely; Highlight, mid tone and shadow in order to affect 3 dimensions.

Any good painting must have all the tones from very light to very dark tones. If not, the painting will appear flat with no light source or dimension. Note the impact in my painting where the full range of Tone is used. 

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    Andre Grobler

    Professional artist, mentor and art teacher for more than 43 years and has produced over 20,000 paintings during his lifetime.

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