What does tone in paintings?

Answer 1

Tone is created with darks and lights. you can make a tonal scale of say 4,5,7 or 9 tones from lightest (white) to darkest (black). If you create the tonal stages correctly creating a steady transition, and then create an image with just these tones, you will be working tonaly, and the visual effect of using accurately transitioned limited tones like this will add a nice asthetic to the work.