WHAT LEARNERS WANT TO KNOW
THE WORDS USED FOR COLOR STUDY
Within this book a number of words will be introduced and explained. You may want a quick look at those meanings again as they are used in the text. This page is where to find that information. Gesso: an acrylic polymer primer used for preparing surfaces for painting. When applied with a brush, it adds opacity, tooth, adhesion, and water resistance to the canvas, board, or cardboard. Paint does not soak into the surface.
Glaze: colored transparent medium applied over the painted surface.
Ground: the first layer or undercoat that is applied to the support, probably a layer of acrylic gesso, but many other grounds have been used in the past, such as rabbit skin glue or lead white. A ground seals the surface, allowing paint to sit on top rather than soaking into the surface creating a dull effect. Hue: When talking about color, hue refers to the color name such as red, yellow, green, etc. When looking at paint labels, hue means that other pigments were used to replace a known pigment. You might see Cadmium Red Hue, which means that it is similar to Cadmium Red in the way it looks or behaves, but it is not true Cadmium red pigment.
Intensity: describes a color’s relative purity and how brilliant or subdued it looks.
Shade: a color mixed with black or other dark pigment.
Tint: a color mixed with white.
Tinting Strength: the ability of a color to change the character of another color. Yellow tends to have weak tinting strength, while blues have strong tinting strength. Tinting strengths vary with the pigments used. Cadmium yellow dark has stronger tinting strength than Cadmium yellow light.
Tone: refers to the color and the value of that color; also known as “tonal value”.
Underpainting: the initial layer of paint applied to a ground, which serves as a base for additional layers of paint. Underpaintings are often monochromatic and help define color values. Underpaintings can also be complementary to give additional intensity as the top layer of color shows against its complement in the underpainting.
Value: refers to a color’s lightness or darkness.
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