• Making Color Work for You
    Awake!—1976 | October 8

    • What about variations of a single color? Such variations are made by diluting a color with a neutral pigment, either white or black. Here you will benefit from using a “color triangle.” What is that? “A color triangle,” notes The World Book Encyclopedia, “has a color at one angle, black at another, and white at the third. If a color from the color wheel, such as red, is mixed with white, the result is a tint​—in this case, pink. If we mix red with black, the result is a shade​—in this case, maroon. And if we mix red with both black and white, the result is a tone​—in this case, rose.” Such a color triangle might look like the one on page seventeen.

      How does one use this? “In a color triangle,” continues the same reference work, “the colors in any straight line form pleasing combinations. A pure color harmonizes with tints and white, with shades and black, or with tones and gray. A tint and a tone blend with black, and a shade and a tone go well with white. Groups of tints, shades, or tones also harmonize well.”