Hue refers to pure color. It is generally the first color the human eye sees when looking at an object. The primary and secondary colors, red, yellow, blue, green, violet, and orange are usually referred to as hues. For example, raspberry would have a red hue since its base color is red.

Saturation is the intensity of a color relative to its own brightness. It describes how vivid or bright a color is. You can tone down the saturation of a color by adding a little grey or a complementary color. For example, you can desaturate, a bright green by adding a little red, which is its complement.

Value refers to how light or dark a color is. The value scale, sometimes referred to as a greyscale, ranges from white to black, with various strengths of grey in between. If you take a color, say red, and add various amounts of black or white to it you can create a blue value scale. It should be noted that black and white are not always the best choices to lighten or darken a color. Sometimes yellow works better to lighten and sometimes blue, purple or raw umber works better to darken a color.

• Tint is a color mixed with white to lighten it. A tint will always be lighter than the original color.

• Shade is a color mixed with black to darken it.

The triadic color scheme uses three colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel. This combination of colors provides deep contrast in a painting and is a good combination to use for a vibrant effect.

A monochromatic color scheme uses variations of just one color. A black and white drawing or painting is a monochromatic color scheme. Using tints and shades of just red, or just blue or any other color would also be a monochromatic color scheme.