Introduction
Mixing colors with white is a common technique in painting and design. Adding white to a pure color reduces its saturation and brightness, creating a tint. This allows for a wide range of light and pale shades of any hue. Understanding color mixing with white is key for painters looking to expand their palette and create subtle variations in tone and intensity.
What Happens When You Mix Color With White?
When any pure chromatic color – like red, yellow, or blue – is mixed with white, its saturation and brightness decrease. This desaturation occurs because white reflects all wavelengths of visible light equally. Mixing pure white pigment into a color introduces more reflected light across the spectrum, diluting the hue.
Adding white also lightens a color by increasing the ratio of reflected light to absorbed light. A pure hue absorbs some wavelengths and reflects others. Mixing in white pigment reflects more of the light spectrum back to our eyes. The result is a lighter, softer version of the original color.
Tinting vs. Shading Colors
Mixing a color with white to reduce saturation and brightness produces a tint. Tinting is the opposite of shading, where black is added to a hue to create darker shades. Adding black absorbs more light energy, while mixing in white reflects more light.
Just like there are many shades of a color, there are many possible tints. The more white added to the starting color, the lighter the tint becomes. A very light tint with a high ratio of white is called a “pastel.”
Creating Tints of Primary Colors
The primary colors – red, yellow, and blue – can be mixed with varying amounts of white to produce a wide spectrum of lighter tints.
Red Tints
Adding a small amount of white to red produces a soft pink. More white results in lighter pinks, moving into salmon and peach shades. Very pale pink tints are referred to as “baby pink.”
Yellow Tints
With a touch of white, yellow becomes cream-colored. Further lightening results in buff, pastel lemon, and pale yellow. Highly saturated pale yellow produces a color known as “eggshell.”
Blue Tints
A little white mixed with blue makes a powder blue. More white shifts the tone into Alice blue, then approaches icy or wintry light blues. Pale sky blue and “robin’s egg blue” are examples of blue tints.
Creating Tints of Secondary Colors
Secondary colors – orange, green, and purple – can also be lightened with white to span a range of tints.
Orange Tints
Slightly tinting orange with white gives apricot and melon tones. Further lightening brings coral, peach, and flesh color. Painter’s “titanium white” is an extremely pale orange tint.
Green Tints
With white, green becomes chartreuse, then shifts toward lime, mint, and seafoam. Aquamarine is a pale green-blue tint made with a mix of green, blue, and white.
Purple Tints
Light purple like lavender and lilac arise from adding white to purple. More white gives wisteria, then extremely pale mauve and thistle tones.
Achieving Different Tinting Effects
Beyond mixing white pigment directly with a color, painters can use a few different techniques to tint their hues:
- Layering or glazing a lighter color over a darker one
- Tinting a darker color with white first, then applying it as a glaze
- Using artists’ colored grounds pre-tinted with white
- Selectively highlighting areas of wet paint with pure white
Layering or glazing helps blend the white visually while retaining some of the underlying color richness. This can produce subtler results than mixing white pigment directly into a color. Glazing white overmultiple layers of varying tones can create dimensional effects.
Color Theory Concepts in Tinting
Certain color relationships and properties impact the effect of mixing colors with white. Understanding these concepts helps artists predict and control the results.
Value
In color theory, the relative lightness or darkness of a color is called its “value.” Adding white increases value by making the color lighter. However, different hues have different inherent values based on how much light they reflect naturally. Mixing white with a lighter yellow won’t lighten it as much as adding white to darker blue.
Temperature
Colors also differ in perceived temperature. Yellows, oranges, and reds are warm colors, while blues, greens, and purples are cool. Tinting raises the temperature of cooler colors, warming their mood. Tinting warm colors like orange cools them down instead.
Undertones
Every color has undertones – hints of other hues that affect its tone and temperature. Tinting can neutralize or enhance undertones. For example, green has yellow undertones, so adding white pinks up the tone. Purple has red undertones, so its tints retain a reddish hue.
Applications of Tinting
Beyond mixing colors, tinting has many practical uses in art, design, and printing:
- Lightening a color to precisely match a hue, value, or saturation
- Subduing bright colors for a softer, more pastel palette
- Adding visual interest through color variations
- Making powerful colors more accessible for large background areas
- Producing a highlight color by glazing over layers below
- Tinting a dark photograph to moonlit blue for night effect
- Tinting black and white photographs for vintage appeal
- Tinting print materials like papers, cards, and brochures
Artists can keep a range of premixed tints on their palette for convenience. Some brands sell tubes of tinted colors for mediums like oils and acrylics. Tints are also commercially available as pressed powdered pigments, liquid dyes, or digital effects.
Mixing Other Colors with White
While tinting the primary and secondary hues demonstrates the basic effects, far more colors can be lightened with white. Mixing white with tertiary colors like red-orange or yellow-green produces further variations. Any custom blend of colors can become a personalized tint.
Lightening extremely dark shades like black, brown, or navy requires much more white to see a noticeable change. However, adding just a touch of black to white also produces soft grays. Dark tints absorb more light energy than lighter ones.
Painting With Tints
Mastering color tinting allows painters to expand their techniques and build a nuanced use of light and color. Here are some tips for working with tints:
- Start by mixing a palette of light, medium, and dark tints of your chosen hue
- Layer tints for smooth blending rather than mixing colors directly
- Glaze over dark colors with tints to deepen dimension
- Reserve the brightest tints for highlights and interest points
- Use warm tints for exciting, vibrant effects
- Use cool tints for subtle, professional schemes
With practice observing how colors respond to white, artists gain flexibility with their medium. A sensitivity to tinting helps paint flowing gradients, impactful lighting, and centerpieces glowing with luminosity.
Conclusion
Mixing colors with white is an essential technique for controlling hue and lightness. Artists can lighten any color into a softer, paler tint by adding white pigment or paint. The resulting decrease in saturation and increase in value expands the range of possible shades and effects. An understanding of color theory helps anticipate how tinting transforms different hues. Mastering tints unlocks a versatile spectrum of colors for every painting.
