Monochromatic Colors

What are Monochromatic Colors? 

First we have to do a little vocabulary...

Name as many different kinds of blues that you can.

Baby blue

Bright blue

Royal blue

light blue

teal

sapphire blue

etc....

These are all different kinds of "blue".  Blue is actually a BIG category with many different kinds of colors inside it.   Therefore "blue" is actually the name of a hue.  A hue is a big category of colors.  A color, such as baby blue, fits into the hue of blue.

Make sense?  I hope so.  

A monochromatic color scheme uses only one hue but many different colors of that hue.

For example, look at the painting The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso.

He essentially uses only one hue (blue) many many different kinds of blue. Yes, there is a little orange but work with me here...

Remember tints (a color plus white) and shades (a color plus black)?  Many times monochromatic color schemes will use tints and shades to make new colors of a hue.  Where do you see tints and shades in The Old Guitarist?