The Art of Colour color wifh all the paints used or by glazing

afterwards with some color; but, of course

one had given 'him a sip of Creme da
Menthe. It had made him ill.”
It must be known that "the color used to A paragraph signalizes the conventional
give a tonal effect will neutralise the
A Discussion of Truths Based on the Laws symbolism of colors, as often understood,
colors wh}ch are complementary to it. If and in his final chapter, which is a dic¬
of Nature J ^ iS ,Ufd as a tonal color> any object tionary of colors which gives to each its
that is violet will be neutralized. Blue place in the spectrum and its complemen¬

T The Art of Colour.' By Michel Jacobs.

den City: 'Doubleday, Pago & Company.
Gar¬

HE director of the Metropolitan Art

Schcfol announces that his treatise
strives "to give truths based on the
objects become green, red objects orange,
crimson objects red, green objects yellow-
green, yellow-green objects become more
yellow and yellow will be the most brll-
liant of all. This is sometimes very pleas-
tary, together with its history and its chemi¬
cal properties, he concedes to its psychology
the conventional effect. His division of the
Spectrum, however, would not in" any way
change the four-square symbolism of colors
laws of nature rather than on the ing if not carried too far. One can see so loved by the mystics. Indeed, merely
conceptions iof baan.” 'It is "designed as a the effect a certain tone would have as a part of the strange reactions of life,
work of reference as well as an attempt to on a picture and still not destroy the pic¬ the psychological .effects of color, however
present a ‘system’ rather than a ‘theory’ for ture m the glazing method by taking a illusory, are as interesting as the mysteries
teaching the- art of color." He says it "is small piece of glass, tinting it slightly witn of musical vibrations,. as expressed in the
not a scientific book but is based on scien¬ the tonal color decided upon, and holding it old Greek "modes.” But science has little
tific knowledge." He has tried it out in patience with sentimentalities.
ture"”the Cye t6 EGe thC effect on 016 Ph>
his classes and on his pupils. It is practi¬ Mr. Jacobs offers real help to the color-
cal and in the best sense of the word revo-„ Ho.w1S„Ch/Pler la followed by a lesson on printer and the exposition which he offers
lutionary. One , cannot doubt that any lights and shadows and the laws of com- for the use of colored filters which when
artist or decorator or designer,, either in plementaries as displayed in them. One correctly utilized would save a vast amount
fabrics or in stained glass, would find it paragraph will be of especial interest to of unnecessary cutting of plates and thus
most illuminating, and according as he put portrait-painters. He says; “It must be ruining the work of artists. He ‘gives ex¬
the directions into effect would make enor¬ borne in mind that the blood flowing un¬ cellent advice for house decoration and
mous strides in advance of those that follow der the surface of the skin is of two colors dress, for landscape gardening, furnishing a
the haphazard methods of the past. the arterial blopd, which is very nearly table of plants and flowers with their varie¬
He begins by casting aside the conven¬ scarlet as seen through the skin, and the ties of, colors for contrast, blending or
tional Ideas of Newton and Brewster, who venous blood which seen through the avoidance in any appropriate Scheme
skin ,s a blue-green because of the through the year; on. the weaving of fab¬
taught that the primary colors are red,
yellow-orange .of the skin. After it rics, color-dyeing and batik,, on stage dec¬
blue and yellow, and he substitutes the
has become oxydized by passing through oration and lighting, on the'’ art of house¬
more accurate spectrum of Young, Helm¬
tl^e lungs, the venous blood becomes painting. .—
holtz and Tyndall, who have shown that
scarlet Therefore, flesh has a great In his chapter on “Color in Relation tq
the primaries are red, green and violet, the
deal of blue-green and scarlet in its local Music,” he denies that the human mind
secondaries are ydllow, blue &nd crimson,
color and of the colors toward their com- can feel any two -emotions at the same;
with intermediate hues orange, .’yellow-
plementaries on the shadowside. For ex¬ time and thinks -that this is a new thought
green, blue-green, blue-violet, purple and
ample, flesh in a half-tone very often shows from the pathological standpoint. This
scarlet. According to his circular spec¬
a green or sometimes a neutralized blue Or theory would play ducks and drakes with
trum-chart he shows that any complemen¬
blue-violet shadow. "Where it shows red stage decoration in opera. Shade of Wag¬
tary color is found by drawing a line di¬
blood—in'the cheeks, the lips, and so forth ner arise and protest 1 Has it not been
rectly opposite; for instance, red to blue,
—very often the flesh casts a purple shad¬ attempted to drench the atmosphere of a
trlmson to green, violet to yellow. music hall with perfumes adapted .to,
ow. Therefore on account of these two
He advocates that the beginner Instead
colors which are in the flesh, the effect to heighten the emotions of the sensitive au¬
)f learning first to draw should first learn ditor? And how about the worthy deacon
our, eyes is very like that of the metallic
;olor in all Its ramifications and' then, when who when his neighbors came to expatiate
surface. Of course the scarlet and blue-
mce a master of this medium, should go on the virtues and abilities of his deceased
green of the flesh is modified by the skin
o drawing. "In this way," he says, "the Wife, exclaimed, “Gentlemen, I agree with
which in itself is a light yellow-orange.”
nind of the student is kept full of the all you have said; but still I did not like
All this will be modified according to the
snthusiasm with which he at first takes her.” Could. he not feel both glad1 and
strength of the light. And he believes that
ip the study of art—the enthusiasm which sorry .that she had gone to her reward?
if the artist follows the table with which
S so essential to make a real artist and To be sure, the old Latin proverb has it:
the chapter ends and the specific direc¬
without which he becomes a mere crafts- Semper idem sentire ac non .sentire ad
tions included in the following chapter,
nan.” , “Color for the Portrait-painter,” one "will idem recedunt; but people may have a
This understanding of color will enable stotnach ache and still enjoy the concourse
have no trouble in giving to his portraits
l person to mix his.pigments not experi- of sweet sounds, being conscious of both
the flight of life,’ apd he will no longer
nentally, empirically, and with chance paint leather flesh and wooden hair.” In sensations.
ffects, but with absolute assurance that he the same careful way he treats of land¬ The proof of the pudding is the eating,
rill get the effects that he desires. All scapes and clouds and their contrasts of and it will be interesting to discover if in
he chapters and the forty-four colored light and sha'de, of the reflections on water time the pupils of Mr. Jacobs’s School out¬
lates with which the- volume is provided whether quiescent or broken by wavelets. distance their rivals of the old school. It
arry out this teaching to its ultimate A chapter treats of the psychology of it Impossible, however, to doubt that his
aluo. He shows how colors change their colors. He doubts if every tint has its theories will exert a powerful Influence on
onality according to their distance from particular meaning and awakens a certain art. His own pictures, even as exemplified
he observer—the perspective of color. A in the color reproductions here presented,
emotion In the mind; aild he broaches a
hapter is devoted to color combinations, however far they fall short of the origin¬
new theory which he thinks has more
ontrasts and harmonies of twenty-four als, as he would be the first to acknowl¬
logio than old traditions, however beauti¬
olors and their complementarles, the com- edge that they do, in -spite of their good
ful. It is that “certain colors or combina¬
inatlons which he calls "split” and the qualities in themselves, make the book no¬
tions of colors are very often liked or dis¬
lmost infinite hues which they make. table. We should like to ask him or his
liked as a result of previous experiences,
Any set of colors within half of the publishers why he mixes the sporadic and
sometimes quite unconsciously, sometimes
pectrum Chart is in harmony provided that unnecessary letter u in the spectrum of
long forgotten.”' He has tested his theory
lore than three or less than six distinct the word color, and his publisher’s • literary
by discovering the psychological reactions
olors of the spectrum are used. Any editor or the proof-reader might well have
in his pupils and has frequently discovered
corrected some of the examples of rather
olor between colors can be used as the the latent reasons, therefor. Thus, "a young questionable usages in his English such
lird color and still make a harmony, but man had a dislike for navy blue (blue neu¬ as “different than,’! "would” for “should”
olor, like music, needs the three steps to tralized) : when a boy he came from Can¬ and in harmony “to” instead of “with.”
lake a complete harmony." He distin- ada; to wear it to school in New York where But a3 a rule he writes with simplicity and
uishes between harmony and tonality, mis-
he was unmercifully teazed about it by clearness, and there is not a page that will
nderstood by many people. A color in-
his schoolmates. A. man, who hated emer¬ not. help the young artist or the. develop¬
;nded to be of a certain tone may be
ald-green recalled that when a lad some ment of art critics. N. H. D.
ainted either directly by mixing the one
THE ART OF COLOUR
AUTUMN LEAVES AND FLOWERS By MICHEL JACOBS

In Split Complementaries
COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY MICHEL JACOBS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN
THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUN¬
TRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

THIRD EDITION

COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY MICHEL JACOBS

 THE SOURCE

God in His infinite goodness

Gave us the light of the sun
Whether it shines bright in the heavens,
Or scatters its light through a cloud.
Or the moon sends back its reflection.
Or the sunbeam enters the home.
Wherever there’s light there’s colour;
For black is the colour of blindness
And a total absence of light.
 -

'
 FOREWORD—FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS

HE Art of Colour” is not a scientific book but is based on

scientific knowledge. Only less than one tenth of the spectrum
is visible to the human eye,* but the artist or craftsman is inter¬
ested only in the effect of the visible rays; on the other hand, a
scientist is interested in knowing both the visible and invisible
rays which he records with instruments.

FOREWORD—THIRD EDITION
In this, the third edition of the Art of Colour, I have given
some explanations suggested by Prof. E. J. Wall, F.C.S., F.R.P.S., and others.
While I did not intend the books originally as a scientific treatise on colour,
I have been very much pleased and surprised with the cordial reception it
has been given by the scientific as well as the artistic world. Some of the
most celebrated artists in America and England have adopted this system.
I have added an appendix, containing footnotes, to this edition.
Michel Jacobs.

"This statement might be modified. According to Professor Wall if we set the length of the
visible spectrum as one quarter inch, then the ultra-violet, X-ray, and gamma ray spectra may be
crowded into about another inch, while the infra-red spectrum extends out to the longer electric
waves and thence to the radio waves and these extend 100,000 miles beyond the visible red.
Assuming, as more convenient, a geometric division of the spectrum as in laying off piano
notes, in which the wave-length of two notes an octave apart are as 1 : 1, then the visible spec¬
trum is about one seventeenth of the whole spectrum.
There is no division now between the shortest gamma rays from radium and the longest radio
electric waves. The latest researches have conclusively proved that Clerk Maxwell’s electro¬
magnetic theory, which postulated but one kind of wave merely differing in length, is correct.
E. J. Wall, F.C.S., F.R.P.S.
 CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION. xiii
CHAPTER ONE: COLOUR THEORY. i
CHAPTER TWO: COLOUR FIRST—FOR ART STUDENTS. 5
CHAPTER THREE: COLOUR MIXING; HUES, TINTS, AND TONES.. 8
CHAPTER FOUR: COLOUR COMBINATIONS — CONTRASTS, HAR¬
MONIES, TONALITIES, MONOCHROMES..!. u
CHAPTER FIVE: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 14
CHAPTER SIX:. COLOUR FOR THE PORTRAIT PAINTER. 19
CHAPTER SEVEN: COLOUR FOR THE LANDSCAPE PAINTER. 22
CHAPTER EIGHT: SUNLIGHT OUTDOORS AND IN. 24
CHAPTER NINE: CLOUDS.1. 26
CHAPTER TEN: REFLECTED COLOUR IN WATER. 28
CHAPTER ELEVEN: PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOUR. 29 /
CHAPTER TWELVE: COLOUR FOR COLOUR PRINTERS. 32
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO INTERIOR DECO¬
RATION. 36'
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO COSTUME DESIGN.. 40
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO LANDSCAPE GAR¬
DENING . 43
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO CUT FLOWERS. 50
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO WEAVING OR
TEXTILES. 51
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: COLOUR DYEING AND BATIK. 53
CHAPTER NINETEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO STAGE LIGHTING
AND DESIGN. 5^
CHAPTER TWENTY: PRACTICAL COLOUR FOR HOUSE PAINTERS.. 62
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: COLOUR IN RELATION TO MUSIC. 64
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: DICTIONARY OF COLOURS, THEIR
PLACE IN THE SPECTRUM, AND THEIR CHEMICAL COMPOSI¬
TION . 67
APPENDIX... 9r
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE NO.
Autumn Leaves and Flowers . Frontispiece

Spectrum Charts, following p. io. I.

Colour-Mixing Charts, following p. io. II.

Colour-Mixing Charts, continued, following p. io. III.

The Perspective of Colour, following p. io. IV.

Colour Combinations. Brilliant Complementaries, p. 12. V.

Colour Combinations, Brilliant Complementaries, continued, follow¬

ing p. 12.. VI.

■Colour Combinations, continued. Neutralized Complementaries,

FOLLOWING P. 12.*,. VII.

Colour Combinations, Neutralized Complementaries, continued,

FOLLOWING P. 12. VIII.

Colour Combinations, continued. Harmonies in Brilliants, follow¬

ing p. 12. IX.

Colour Combinations, continued. Harmonies in Grays, following p.

12. X.
Colour Combinations, continued. Split Complementaries in Bril¬

liants and Grays, following p. 12. XI.

Colour Combinations, Split Complementaries in Brilliants and Grays,

continued, following p. 12. XII.

Colour Combinations, Split Complementaries in Brilliants and

Grays, continued, following p. 12. XIII.

Colour Combinations, Split Complementaries in Brilliants and

Grays, continued, following p. 12. XIV.

Colour Combinations, continued. Monochromes, following p. 12. . XV.

Colour Combinations, continued. Fabric Designs, following p. 12 XVI.
Scintillation Charts Showing Broken Colour, following p. 14.... XVII.
The Colour of Shadows, Still Life, following p. 14. XVIII.

Portrait, The Violet Veil, following p. 18. XIX.

Landscape, Autumn Fields, following p. 22. XX.
Landscape, Idyl of a Summer’s Sun, following p. 22. XXL

Landscape, Autumn Changes to Winter, The Effect of Coloured

YYTT
Light on Colour, following p. 22.... ‘

xi
Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE NO.

Different Intensities of Light on Colours, following p. 22....XXIII.

Clouds, following p. 26. XXIV.

Landscape, Idyl of a Summer’s Sun, following p. 26. XXIVa

Landscape, Winter Reflections, following p. 30. XXV.

Landscape, Spring, following p. 30. XXVI.

Two-Colour Printing, following p. 32. XXVII.

Two-Colour Printing, continued, following p. 32. XXVIII.

Two-Colour Printing, continued, following p. 32. XXIX.

Twenty-Four Colour Spectrum, following p. 32. XXX.

Michel Jacobs’s Colour Types, following p. 32. XXXI.

Michel Jacobs’s Colour Types, continued, following p. 32.... XXXII.

Michel Jacobs’s Colour Types, continued, following p. 32.... XXXIII.

Progressive Proof in New Four-Colour Process, Adam and Eve,

following p. 32. XXXIV.

Progressive Proof in New Four-Colour Process, continued, fol¬

lowing p. 32. XXXV.

Progressive Proof in New Four-Colour Process, continued, fol¬

lowing p. 32. XXXVI.

Progressive Proof in New Four-Colour Process, continued, fol¬

lowing p. 32. XXXVII.

Progressive Proof in Three-Colour Process, Gloucester Fish¬

erman, following p.32. XXXVIII.

Progressive Proof in Three-Colour Process, continued, fol¬

lowing p. 32. XXXIX.

Progressive Proof in Three-Colour Process, continued, fol¬

lowing p. 32. XL.

Interior in Split Complementaries, following p. 38. XT T

Interior Decorations, following p. 38. XLIa.

Fashion Illustration, following p. 42... XLII.

Batik, following p. 42. XLIII.

 INTRODUCTION

HIS book is designed as a work of reference as well as an attempt

to present a “system” rather than a “theory” for teaching the
art of colour. The writer’s articles on “Colour” were published
in the Montreal Star in August, 1913, and in the International
Studio Magazine in April, 1916, followed by another discussion
in the latter magazine for November, 1919. During the three
years previous to 1913, this system was taught by the author in
art classes. Although at that time it had not been elaborated,
the underlying theory was the same as that to be presented in
the following pages, and to-day many painters are using it in their work.
In the various chapters reference is made to the multifold application of this
colour system, which it is hoped will prove of value and interest both to the
student and to the layman, and helpful to the artist, the craftsman, and the
layman in solving problems encountered both in effecting combinations of
colour and in the mixing of paints.
Art may be said to be nature seen through a personality, and personality is
a product of information plus observation. But everyone does not see nature
in the same way, and it is the duty of the artist to depict things as he sees them.
It follows that as some people do not possess the quintessential artistic sense
their ideas about nature are not of as much artistic significance as are the con¬
ceptions of others. There are many who conceive mere photographic likeness
to be “art”—that the mere delineation of detail constitutes artistic expression.
But, it must be known to most of us, a camera does not see as comprehensively
as the human eye, and that even with the wonderful conquests of colour photog¬
raphy mere mechano-chemical reproduction falls far short of nature s marvels
in picture.
Neither colour nor the combination of colours alone is art. We must have
some form to express that which we wish to portray. Combinations of colours
giving us a sense of exhilaration or depression are enhanced and made worth
while by the delineation of form at the same time. An effort will be
made to show in these pages the psychological effect of colour combinations.
The colour theories of Helmholtz and Tyndall are taken for scientific
bases.
To say that a particular thing “pleases” is not to say that it is artistic.
There is a right and a wrong in colour combinations as there is harmony and
discord in music. It is not always necessary to make combinations of brilliant
colours to be a colourist, for very often the combinations of grayed or neutralized
tones are more satisfying. It often happens that while a particular form of art
xiii
xiv INTRODUCTION
is unintelligible to one individual he may be able to express his personality in
some other form.
Because some of the sixteenth and eighteenth century masters painted in
dark, often brown tones, there is no reason why we should follow their example.
We usually compare one picture with another instead of with nature. It must
be understood that each of the old masters is known for a special virtue in
artistic achievement. Michelangelo is known for his wonderful strength and
his marvellous conceptions; Leonardo da Vinci for facial expression; Raphael
for his ideal inspirations; Velasquez for his aristocratic figures bathed in light
and his exquisite silvery grays; Rubens for the quality of his flesh tones and
the colour of his wonderful draperies; Van Dyck for his delineation of culture
in portraiture; Rembrandt for his beautiful light and shade and golden tonali¬
ties; Franz Hals for his extraordinary draughtsmanship, brush work, and facial
expression.
It is a mistake to compare modern pictures with old masters. None of the
old masters was able to paint sunlight in “ plein air. ” Leonardo da Vinci him¬
self tells us that to look like sunlight a picture must be displayed in sunlight.
To-day we know that by the help of modern science it is possible to paint a
picture so that, though displayed indoors, it gives the impression of sunlight in
“plein air.” The painter is never justified in producing a flamboyant com¬
bination of brilliant colour without taste.
In these chapters the author has endeavoured to take up a few of the many
applications to which this colour system can be adapted, and it is believed that
the book will be of use not only to the portrait painter, the architect, and the
landscape painter, but to poster and commercial artists, interior decorators,
costume designers, landscape gardeners, colour psychologists, house painters,
colour printers, stage designers. The principles set forth are equally appli¬
cable in glass staining, pottery and other ceramics, in batik and fabric dyeing;
in the weaving of fabrics and the designing of wall paper, and perhaps it
can be adapted for colour therapeutics and music in relation to colour.
The writer wishes to thank those of his pupils who have helped him in the
painting of the many exercises in this book, and particularly William Bond,
Charlotte Bristow, Maude Kemper, Lloyd Coe, Helen DeLamater, Herbert
Friedemann, Phillips Melville, Nancy C. Wotton, James Scott, and Frederica
Thomson.
In addition, I wish to thank Miss Emilie Sarter, and my secretary, Miss
Edith Bell, who have typed and re-typed this book many times.
THE ART OF COLOUR
 r

CHAPTER ONE* COLOUR THEORY*

N THESE days of technical knowledge and scientific accuracy,

it is a great wonder that the artist still follows the old law of
colours and their complementaries as demonstrated by Newton
and Brewster, based on the theory that red, blue, and yellow
are primary colours, and green, purple, and orange are
secondary. This theory has long since been discarded by
scientists and the new theory adopted as laid down by
Young-Helmholtz-Tyndall, that the primary colours are red,
green, and violet. The difference between these two theories
is that the Newton-Brewster theory is based on the mixture of pigments
and the Young-Helmholtz-Tyndall on the spectrum.
When we see an object that is a certain colour in a white light the shadows of
that object assume a colour that is toward the complementary to the colour of
the lighted side, as Monet discovered. All modern artists understand this.
The question is: what is a particular colour’s complementary? By comple¬
mentary colour we mean that one of the primaries is complementary to the
other two primaries combined. Now, should we use the old theory of Newton,
or that of Helmholtz which is based on scientific truth?
It is true to a certain extent that we cannot mix red and green pigments and
make a yellow, but with the rays of light it is possible to combine the red rays
with the green and secure a brilliant yellow. Also we may combine green with
a violet light and make a brilliant blue, and so forth.
Why painters should change the laws of colour as seen in the spectrum and
their complementaries because the physical properties of the pigments on theii
palette do not mix as do the rays of light, one fails to understand, although it
is possible with certain chemicals to follow exactly the laws of the spectrum.
To repeat, Art is nature seen through a personality. If it is the desire of the
artist to imitate nature as closely as possible, at least in regard to colour, he
must be conversant with all of nature’s laws of colour. Undoubtedly if an
artist tries to paint scientifically and does not really see the colours which he
paints, his work will be of no use from an artistic standpoint. But he must
be taught to see colour as he has been taught to see form.
v Nature has given us in our eyes three sets of nerves corresponding to the
colours of the spectrum. One set of nerves is sensitive to green rays, one to
red, and one to violet. If the violet and green nerves are set in vibration we
see, not green and violet separately, but blue, and if the green and red are set
in vibration we see yellow, and so forth. (^See Appendix.)
♦First published in 1913.
I
2 THE ART OF COLOUR
Let us see what difference it makes whether we take as our guide the
spectrum, or our palette, which to me is only a chemical laboratory from which
we make combinations of chemicals to reflect certain colours of the spectrum.
Suppose, for example, we are painting a red object. According to the law of
the spectrum the shadow of that object should be toward the blue, because
blue in the spectrum is composed of the green and violet rays of light and must
be complementary to the third primary, red. According to the laws of pig¬
ments, as laid down by Newton-Brewster, the shadows of a red object should be
toward the green, because green is composed of yellow and blue pigments and
must be complementary to the third primary, red, as Monet set forth. (2See
Appendix.)
To arrive at an understanding of complementaries, let us say that the
spectrum is represented by ioo which is divided into three equal parts: red,
green, and violet, each represented by 33^% of the whole of the spectrum.
Suppose we take, for example, a full yellow which is composed of all the red
rays (33!%) and all the green rays (33^%), which means that yellow is 66|%
of the spectrum. Now the complementary must be a colour that has 33^% of
the spectrum to make up the whole 100%. We find this to be violet.
But let us take an orange which is composed of all the red rays (335%) of the
spectrum and only i6§ of the green rays, which together would be 50% of the
spectrum. To find the complementary we must make up the 100% by taking
all of the violet rays (33^%) and i6f% of the green rays, making a blue which
is 50% of the spectrum. This blue would be a violet blue or ultramarine, so
that ultramarine is complementary to orange formed of all the red rays and
i6|% green rays, making the full spectrum or 100%.
This applies to the light of the sun; but it must be understood that othej-
light has not the same even proportion of coloured rays. In fact, some lights
have very little violet rays, such, for example, as ordinary gaslight, which fails
to show a true blue on account of its having more of the green and red rays
and only 8% of the violet rays.
The complementaries of the spectrum, according to all modern scientists, are
as follows:

Red is complementary to blue (not to green as in pigments)

Crimson to green (not yellow-green)
Violet to yellow (not to orange)

It will be noticed by the chart (see Plate I) that these complementaries are
interchangeable, and if the colours used in pigments to represent the spectrum
 THE ART OF COLOUR 3
are as follows, it will be found that the primaries of the pigments are made by
the secondaries of the spectrum: i.e..

Primaries:
Red.French vermilion
Green.Emerald green
Violet.Cobalt violet with ultramarine
Secondaries:
Yellow.Lemon yellow or pale cadmium
Blue.Light ultramarine (W. & N.) or cobalt blue
Crimson.Alizarin crimson
Intermediate Hues:
Orange.Chrome orange, deep or orange cadmium
Yellow-green.Emeraude with zinc yellow
Blue-green.Emeraude with blue
Blue-violet.Dark ultramarine
Purple.Cobalt violet with crimson
Scarlet.Harrison red

Thus we have all the primaries of the spectrum, the secondaries and one shade
between each. Of course, I would not advise any painter to use such pigments
as emerald green or French vermilion, especially when mixing with lead
white, but both of these colours can be imitated very nearly by the admixture
for the red vermilion of alizarin crimson and zinc or lemon yellow, and for
the green, not quite so well, with emeraude green and zinc yellow, or better
still cerulean blue, zinc yellow, and zinc white. Even those two fugitive
colours, vermilion and emerald green, can be used pure when mixed with a
little varnish, if an extra brilliant spot of colour is required.
After a great deal of experimenting one comes, to the conclusion that a
picture, to be a true representation of nature, must be painted according to the
laws of the spectrum, using the law of pigments to represent these colours, and
one finds that when he is painting an object which, we will say, is yellow in a
white light, it is best to break into it with green and red, because yellow
in the spectrum is composed of red and green rays. The shadow should be
toward the violet, because violet is the complementary of yellow. I find it
possible to paint blue with green and violet if the colours are kept separate
after the manner of the pointelle.
In regard to the so-called tricendary colours, I would call these grays of
 THE ART OF COLOUR
4
different hues, because in making tricendaries we must mix the three colours of
the spectrum. For example, mixing orange with blue would give us a neu¬
tralized green which is now called a tricendary colour. The spectrum has no
gray or neutralized tone in its composition but it is one mass of pure colour
which when combined in the correct proportion gives us white.
If we look at the chart (Plate I) we shall see that it is a very easy matter to
tell which is the complementary of any colour by simply drawing a line di¬
rectly through to the colour opposite. For instance, violet is complementary
to yellow and red to blue, etc.
If one divides the chart in half, all on one side of it will be found by the com¬
bination of these colours to be in tone; that is, if all of the colours are used on
one half of the spectrum (no matter which half of the spectrum is used) they
will be harmonious. For example, red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green
and blue-green would make a harmony; while blue, blue-violet, violet, purple,
crimson, scarlet would make another harmony. To get a complementary,
let me repeat^ take the colour directly opposite—red and blue, violet and
yellow, crimson and green.
I do not profess to have discovered a new theory nor do I presume to teach
a great many painters more proficient in the art than myself, but I have de¬
vised a way to use the new theory of colour of Young-Helmholtz in the art of
painting. It must not be inferred that I maintain that at all times and in all
pictures the most brilliant colour should be used for I am well aware that the
most restful tones are those grouped as the grays—blue-gray, green-gray, etc.
Nor can one object to a picture because it is painted in browns; only one must
accept such a canvas not as a true representation of nature but as a study in
brown with a little colour, just as one may draw in black and white and tint
with colour. It will be seen that any colour, even the brown, must partake of
and lose itself in the atmosphere and change its hue.
 CHAPTER TWO: COLOUR FIRST—
FOR ART STUDENTS

INCE the Italian Renaissance the student of painting has been

taught first to draw—sometimes for many years—and when,
at last, he is allowed to use colour he must start to learn his me¬
dium over again. It would seem more practical to teach colour
first—in all its ramifications—and then, when the student
really understands his medium, teach him to draw, with one
colour if necessary.
In this way the mind of the student is kept full of the
enthusiasm with which he at first takes up the study of art-
this enthusiasm which is so essential to make a real artist and without which
he becomes a mere craftsman. An appreciation of colour is the first instinct
of a child and of a savage. How often have we seen students whose drawing
was very strong in form and value but who, when they took up pigment,
could do nothing with it, much less achieve a brilliant effect. They do not
understand their medium; they do not understand the effect of light on colour.
The eye soon becomes accustomed to seeing objects in black-and-white
values, and unless this is corrected by continuous exercises in colour, to bring
the eye back to its natural perception, the student will be able to illustrate only
without colour. Many an illustrator knows the truth of this assertion to his
sorrow, but let me say to these that with proper instruction it is possible to
make brilliant colourists of those who are willing to go through a course of
instruction and training.
Since the days of the “Brown Sauce” school, many artists have really seen
and painted colour in spite of their academic training of seeing things in black-
and-white values. This is because they have a natural colour sense and be¬
cause they have seen the truth in the “ Saner Revolutionists. ” But how many
more are there who want to paint in brilliant hues, who want to put the wonder¬
ful effect of sunlight on their canvases yet who cannot see nature as she really
is ? This applies to those artists who paint indoors as well as to those who
paint “plein air”; for there is just as much to know about colour in the studio
as in the open. All shadows are not simply “darker” or “lighter in value,
they must change their colour as well as tone according to the laws of colour
and the natural effect on the eye.
A course of instruction should be followed which teaches the student t e
spectrum first, getting his eye accustomed to seeing brilliant colour. Then he
should be taught how to mix pigment as brilliant as is possible with modern
paints, and at the same time he should be shown that it is possible to lower this

5
6 THE ART OF COLOUR
brilliancy when desired, not by the use of black, but by mixing of the comple-
mentaries.
If the true spectrum is used, all complementary pigments make a perfect
neutral when mixed in equal proportions, or a neutralized colour in unequal
proportions. Yellow mixed with a little violet makes a neutralized yellow,
and if more violet is added it makes a more neutralized yellow, and still more
violet makes a perfect neutral. By lessening the quantity of yellow, a neutral¬
ized violet is obtained, and so on, with all the other colours and their comple-
mentaries.
The student should next be taught the meaning of juxtaposition; that is,
what effect one colour has when placed next to another. For example, any
two brilliant colours which are complementary (one to the other) if placed side
by side enhance the brilliancy of each other; but if one is neutralized the bril¬
liant colour looks still more brilliant. Again, two complementaries against
their two complementaries produce more brilliancy; or three and three; four
and four; five and five; but never six and six because when these are used the
whole chromatic scale is employed and the sensation of white is derived. Of
course, one could use the half tones or quarter tones, but I am referring to the
twelve distinct colours of the spectrum—red, orange, yellow, yellow-green,
green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet, purple, crimson, and scarlet.
We can make what may be called “split” complementaries, such as red and
orange which together would be complementary to a common complementary.
A colour between their individual complementaries would be violet-blue or
ultramarine, etc.
Harmonies are those colours which are adjacent in the spectrum, and, as in
music, a colour harmony must have three tones or half tones; for example, red,
orange, and yellow, or a harmony of four would be red, orange, and yellow and
yellow-green. In a harmony the eye must be led to another colour. A har¬
mony of two colours cannot exist without the tone or half tone between.
The student should be taught to look for the change in hue as well as tone in
his shadows. It is a much quicker method to learn to paint. He then ceases
to paint pictures with “Brown Sauce” or, the other extreme, pictures painted
in the North Temperate Zone that look as if they were painted on the Equator.
It is hardly pleasing to see maple trees growing under a tropical sun.
After the student has been taught how to see colour and gains the mastery of
his medium, he is taught how to draw in colour—in one, if necessary—in oils, in
water colours, or chalk, the last preferably, because it is the most easily handled
and corrected. Then if he wishes he can use charcoal and he will love it much
 THE ART OF COLOUR 7
more than if in the beginning he had attempted to use “the most beautiful of
all mediums. ”
One is led to the opinion that the early masters taught their students colour
while teaching them to draw, for was not the student always with the master in
his studio ? Did not the student paint in the draperies and minor objects in the
master’s picture? Did he not learn colour while mixing paints for the master?
All this he must have absorbed by experience, but how much quicker could the
student of to-day understand if he were taught all that science has discovered,
since those days, of the laws of light and colour.
In all the arts, the laws of nature—or what science knows of them—must be
taught to the student, and these laws must become a part of his being. He
must be able to use these laws without thought. A man cannot fence unless
his sword is a part of himself.
There are those artists who say colour “must be felt. ” They are right, in a
sense, but we must be taught how to feel, just as we were taught to see form
in drawing in the beginning of our student days. The individuality will come
after we understand nature. No two men draw alike, yet many were taught
to draw in exactly the same way.
 CHAPTER THREE: COLOUR-MIXING—
HUES, TINTS, TONES, AND PERSPECTIVE OF COLOUR

OME time in the dim, dark ages before history began, man mixed
different coloured muds with which to draw. As time went on, he
found that he could make more brilliant colours by using crude
chemical compounds. One colour he made of calcined animal
blood and others with decomposed egg. Ultramarine was a pul¬
verized precious stone called lapis lazuli, and greens were made
from vegetable matter, etc. Later, the old masters mixed their
colours by secret formulae. Then came the artists’ colourmen and
to-day we have the benefit of the greatest scientific minds in
chemistry to give to the artist wonderful dyes and pigments that are both
permanent and brilliant.
Yet many present-day artists still mix mud as they did in prehistoric times,,
simply because they do not know the science of colour-mixing. They say
“Colour must be felt.’’ But the artist who handles colour in any form must
know precisely what colour or tone or shade of colour he will obtain by the ad¬
mixture of certain pigments. If he does not know this and mixes by experi¬
mentation he will surely make his colours uninteresting.
It is the author’s intention in this chapter to show how any hue, tint, or tone
can be mixed in a simple, practical way, and suggest a method whereby one can
describe all colours in all their shades or tints so that the student can under¬
stand the master. It is entirely feasible to describe a colour clearly, so that
we can free ourselves from the “Tower of Babel” and talk with one another in
the same colour language.
The colour-mixing charts have been so arranged that besides showing the hues,
tints, and tones they can at the same time be used to show advancing and reced¬
ing colours; in other words, the perspective of colour. (Plates II, III, and IV.)
All tones and tints that are on either side of the neutral form a square—four
tints down and four tones across. The most neutralized colour with white is
the most receding, and the brilliant colour itself is the most advancing. All
tones or tints between these two points in a diagonal direction will give you the
relative plane of the tone or tint. For example, O-A is the most advancing,
and 3-D the most receding. The following groups are in the same plane:
3-C and 2-D
3-B, a-C, i-D
3-A, 2-B, i-C, O-D
2-A, i-B, O-C
i-A, O-B
8
 THE ART OF COLOUR 9
In this way an artist can always be sure to get any colour in the same plane—
when it is absolutely necessary to be accurate. The trained artist of course
sees the colour without the use of a chart for this purpose.
If the colours of the spectrum are arranged in the same order as on the chart
(Plate I), any colour that is opposite will be complementary. It is important
that we know the exact colour. The simple proof in this system is to mix the
two colours together, and if they form a perject neutral grayy they are comple¬
mentary. (3See Appendix.)
The reasons why it is essential to know the exact complementary are two¬
fold. First, the juxtaposition of proper colours (one colour placed next to its
complementary) enhances the brilliancy of both. All the combinations of
colours described in the following chapter are based on their relative position
in the Spectrum Chart (Plate I).
The second reason is that we wish to know the exact complementary for the
mixing of colours, because if we mix one colour with its complementary it will
at first give us a neutralized tone of that colour, and the more we add to this
complementary the more neutralized will the colour become until the two form
a perject neutral. In this manner, the original colour never loses its purity,
but it is as if we were to have less light on that colour. While it loses in bril¬
liancy, at the same time it keeps the exact hue throughout its entire neu¬
tralization. By adding white in larger or smaller quantities to any of these
neutralized tones we produce the different tints as illustrated in Colour-
Mixing Charts (Plates II and III).
When black is mixed to lower the tone of a colour, it not only changes the tone
of the colour but it also changes the hue. As there is no really perfect black
in pigments, all paints that are called black reflect some colour; such as blue,
violet, or brown. For example, ivory black is brown-black, for if we mix ivory
black with a blue we secure a neutralized yellow-green and not a blue at all.
If we mix this same black with a pure yellow we get a neutralized orange, and
if we mix it with a purple we get a neutralized red. If we use the colour called
jet black, or lamp black, which is a blue or a violet-black, with any other colour
the two will not only change in value, but will also change their hue; whereas,
by the system outlined in these pages, one is always sure to retain the exact
hue either in brilliant or neutralized colour without experiment. Does not
this argument appeal to those of my confreres who insist that experimentation
is the only means by which we can mix colour?
If one is familiar with the way to produce any hue, any shade, or any tint of
colour, he will be less apt, as I have said, to make what painters call “mud.”
IO THE ART OF COLOUR
If one can see a colour and know at once how to mix certain pigments to re¬
produce it, it means that there is one thing less to think about in painting a
picture, in dyeing cloth, or in colour printing.
If one will but follow the foregoing directions using the Colour-Mixing Charts
(Plates II and III) and the coordination as a guide he will be able to describe a
colour by giving the coordinate numbers. For example, O-A is the brilliant
colour; i-A is the same colour neutralized one quarter by its complementary;
2,-A by half neutralization, and 3-A three quarters’ neutralization. O-B is the
brilliant colour with white, or more water in water colour or dye; i-B is one
quarter neutralized colour with white, and so forth. It is not necessary for
an artist to be so accurate in mixing colours on his palette, but if he keeps
these charts in mind he will be able to analyze a colour more readily.
There are very many more hues than those given in the Spectrum Chart
(Plate I). As already stated, the complementary can be found in Spectrum
Charts 1 or 2 by taking the colour exactly opposite in the circle. The reader
is .again reminded that any colour mixed with another which forms a perfect
neutral is complementary to that colour.
The painter’s palette need consist of only three colours and white, namely,
crimson, lemon yellow, and blue. An accurate test for these is to find a
yellow which when mixed with crimson makes a perfect red (the colour of
French vermilion) and if mixed with blue will make a nearly perfect emerald
green; to find a crimson which when mixed with yellow will make a nearly
perfect red, and when mixed with blue will make a brilliant violet; to find a
blue which when mixed with yellow will make a nearly perfect green and when
mixed with crimson will make a perfect violet. In this way you will make
sure of having a perfect triad.
However, it is not necessary to confine oneself to just these three colours, for
it is a well-known fact that the mixture of yellow and bluewill onlyapproximate
emerald green and that there is no mixture that will make a perfect cobalt
violet or a vermilion.
I find that the palette best adapted for my own work is: lemon yellow, pale
cadmium, daffodil, or barium yellow or aureolin, yellow ochre, zinc white,
alizarin crimson, cobalt violet, light ultramarine blue and emeraude green
placed in this order, counter clockwise on the palette. (4See Appendix.)
The artist is referred to the last chapter of this book in regard to the chem¬
istry, relative position in the spectrum, and other data concerning each colour
manufactured by artists’ colourmen.
 MICHEL JACOBS’S SPECTRUM CHARTS

Red Blue
THE PIGMENTARY PRIMARIES Orange Blue-Violet
are— Crimson Yellow Violet
Yellow and Yellow-Green Purple
Blue Green Crimson
Hliie-( ireen Scarlet
These are also the Secondaries of the
Spectrum

Pl.ATK
 MICHEL JACOBS’S COLOUR-MIXING CHARTS
Brilliant Brilliant
Red Neutral Blue

■s

Each colour is neutralized with its complementary f

/■

Plate II

f
ti
>
 MICHEL JACOBS’S COLOUR-MIXING CHARTS
. Brilliant
§ Purple Brilliant
Yellow-green
0

miiP
Brilliant Brilliant
Crimson Neutral
Green
0 4 3

Each colour is neutralized with its complementaiy

Plate III
 THE PERSPECTIVE OF COLOUR

Red

€ y'

Foreground Middle distance Distance Far distance

Purple

Foreground Middle distance Distance Far distance

Violet

Foreground Middle distance Distance Far distance

Yellow-green

Foreground Middle distance Distance Far distance

Plate TV
 CHAPTER FOUR: COLOUR COMBINATIONS—
CONTRASTS, HARMONIES, TONALITIES, MONOCHROMES

ONTRASTS. The greatest contrast in colour is obtained by-

arranging complementaries in juxtaposition. Referring to
Chapter I, if we put a red object next to its complementary
blue, the effect on our eye will be to make both colours appear
more brilliant, and if one of the colours is slightly neutralized,
it will make the other colour still more brilliant. As can readily
be seen, if this combination of only two colours holds good,
how much more brilliancy can be obtained by arranging two
colours and their complementaries together; and still more by
three and their complementaries; and yet further, fours and fours; fives and
fives; but to use all twelve colours of the Spectrum Chart would give a sensation
of white to the eye.
All these combinations can be done in brilliant colours, neutralized dark
tones, neutralized light tones, or brilliant tints, and in fact in as many shades
and tones as there are in the Colour-Mixing Chart. So one can easily see that
there is plenty of room to express one’s personality and still be in good taste.
(Plates V, VI, VII, and VIII.) Besides using all the twelve distinct colours of
the spectrum, it is possible to use the hues between these colours. For example,
a colour between yellow and yellow-green, a colour between green and blue-
green and a colour between blue and blue-green, as in Fig. 2, which shows
twenty-four colours. As I have said before, to find out if a colour is comple¬
mentary, mix the two pigments together. If they form a perfect neutral they
are complementary and will give the greatest contrast.
Another set of combinations which we will call “splits” is obtained by ar-
ranging colours with only one complementary. Red and orange o: would
have a common complementary of the combined complementary of both
colours, or a mixture of blue and blue-violet, which would be a blue slightly
violet. Other “split” combinations would be three against onet=EP; three
IT" I
against two 1 .mv 1.1 four against onec ; four against two * 1.1 1 1 ;
=a five against two
four against three li ‘r ‘tV , five against one
five against three Mil l-1 ; five against four six
against one six against two BEF six against three
r 1,1,1,1-rO six against four 1 11 I H ; six against five ’■ViVd?
and of course the innumerable hues between these twenty-four colours. Thus
it is apparent that the combinations of colour contrasts if followed according
to this system are without number but always pleasing to the eye. (See Plates
XI, XII, XIII, and XIV.)
11
12 THE ART OF COLOUR
JHARMONIES. Many people confuse harmony of colour with tonal effect.
The guide for harmonies, in this system, is very simple. Any set of colours
within half of the Spectrum Chart is in harmony provided that at least three
or less than seven distinct colours of the spectrum are used. Any hue between
colours can be used as the third colour and still make a harmony; but colour,
like music, needs the three steps to make a complete harmony. For example,
red, orange and yellow, or red, red-orange and orange are harmonies of three.
Red, orange, yellow, yellow-green is a harmony of four, etc. But if more than
six distinct colours are used the complementary of one of the harmony would
be included and thereby an unbalanced combination of colour would result.
(See Plates IX, X.)
TONALITIES. A picture in a certain tone can be painted in two ways:
by mixing one colour with all paints while painting, which is called the direct
way: or by glazing afterward with a colour. In either method one must under¬
stand that the colour used to give a tonal effect will neutralize the colours which
are complementary to it. If yellow is used as a tonal colour any object that is
violet will be neutralized. Blue objects become green, red objects orange,
crimson objects red, green objects yellow-green, yellow-green objects become
more yellow, and yellow will be the most brilliant of all. This is sometimes
very pleasing if not carried too far. One can see the effect that a certain
tone would have on a picture and still not destroy the picture in the glazing
method by taking a small piece of glass, tinting it slightly with the tonal
colour decided upon, and holding it near the eye, to see the effect on the pic¬
ture. Many different tones can be tried before deciding on the final tone.
(See Plate XXII.)
MONOCHROMES. When only one colour is used throughout all its shades
and tints it is called a monochrome. Any of the shades or tints on one side of
the Colour-Mixing Chart can be used to make a monochrome. In other words,
any colour which is either brilliant or neutralized or light in tint is only one
colour. The neutralized tones have not the power to reflect the full colour of
the spectrum rays, and the tints, having white in their mixture, reflect other
rays of the spectrum. (See Plate XV.)
All these colour combinations can be combined in one picture, and the space
which any one colour covers will influence the effect. For example, a picture
with the foreground and middle distance painted a neutralized yellow and the
distance in the complementary violet in neutralized tones and tints, would be
painted in single complementaries, but the yellow would be broken up into
scarlet, red, orange, yellow-green, green, blue-green; and the violet could be
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS. BRILLIANT COMPLEMENTARIES

One colour and one complementary—rei

Two colours and two complementaries—crimson, scarlet

green, blue-green.

Three colours and three complementaries

red, orange, yellow
blue, blue-violet, violet

Plate V
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Cent.)
BRILLIANT COMPLEMF.NTAR1 F.S

Four colours and four complementaries—orange, yellow, yellow-green, greer.

blue-violet, violet, purple, crimson.

Five colours and live complementaries—red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green

blue, blue-violet, violet, purple, crimson.

Plate VI
 I

COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (CV.nt.)

N EUTRAL1ZED COMPLEM E MAR 1ES

One colour and one complementary

crimson „
green.

Two colours and two complementaries

red, orange
blue, blue-violet.

Three colours and three complementaries

red, orange, yellow
blue, blue-violet, violet.
Plate VII
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Cont.)
NEUTRALIZED COMPLEMENTARIES

Four colours and four complementaries

scarlet, red, orange, yellow
blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet.

five colours and five complementaries

red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green
blue, blue-violet, violet, purple, crimson.

Plate VIII
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Com.)
HARMONIES IN BRILLIANTS

Three colours—red, orange, yellow Five colours—orange, yellow, yellow-green, green,

blue-green

Plate IX

/
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Cont.J
HARMONIES IN GRAYS

Three colours—blue-green, blue, blue-violet Four colours—blue-violet, violet, purple, crimson

Six colours orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue

Plate X
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Corn.)
Si’Ll 1' COMPLEMENTARY IN BRILLIANTS AND GRAYS

Two colours and one mutual complementary Three colours and one complementary
yellow, yellow-green purple, crimson, scarlet
violet-purple green

Three colours and two mutual complementaries Four colours and one mutual complementary
red, orange, yellow yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue
blue-blue-violet, violet-blue-violet scarlet-crimson

Plate XI
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Cont.)
SPLIT COMPLEMENTARIES IN BRILLIANTS AND GRAYS

Four colours and two mutual complementaries

red, orange, yellow, yellow-green
blue-violet, violet

Four colours and three mutual complementaries Five colours and four mutual complementaries
red, orange, yellow, yellow-green blue, blue-violet, violet, purple, crimson
blue-blue-violet, violet-blue-violet, purple-violet red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-yellow-green,
green-yellow-green

Five colours and one mutual complementary

red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green
violet
Plate XII
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Cont.j
SPLIT COMPLEMENTAR1ES IN BRILLIANTS ANO GRAYS

Five colours and two mutual complementaries

green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet
scarlet-red, red-orange

Five colours and three mutual complementaries

red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green
blue-violet, violet, purple

Six colours and three mutual complementaries

scarlet, red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green
blue-blue-violet, blue-violet-violet, purple-violet

Plate XIII
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Cent.)
) SI’LIT COM I’LL M EN TA RIES IN BRILLIANTS AND GRAYS

Six colours and four mutual complementaries

scarlet, red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green
blue, blue-violet, violet, purple

Six colours and five mutual complementaries

. yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet
violet-purple, purple-crimson, crimson-scarlet, scarlet-red, red-orange

Plate XIV
 COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Com.)
MONOCHROMES

Green Orange

Crimson

Pi.ate XV
COLOUR COMBINATIONS, (Cont.)
FABRIC DESIGNS

4—4. P-C-S-R
YG-G-BG-B

Harmonies in four. C-S-R-0

Plate XVI
 THE ART OF COLOUR I3

broken up into crimson, purple, blue-violet, and blue. In other words, all col¬
ours that are broken into the yellow would be in a yellow atmosphere, and
all colours that are broken into the violet would be in a violet atmosphere.
This has been successfully done by some artists who are now using this colour
theory.
Many compound combinations can be made in this way to suit the individual
taste of the artist.
 CHAPTER FIVE: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS—
THE SHADOW OF AN OBJECT GOES TOWARD ITS COMPLE¬
MENTARY

LL shadows of any object, no matter what colour, will be a differ¬

ent colour than the lighted side. Not only will it be darker in
black-and-white value, but to have the effect of light on colour
it will be necessary to make the colour of the shadow a colour
which is toward its complementary. The more light that is on
an object, or the more brilliant the colour, the nearer the shadow
will be to its complementary colour. All pigmentary colours
that are orange, red, scarlet, crimson, purple, and violet go
counter clockwise toward their complementaries for the shadow
colour. All pigmentary colours that are yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-
green, blue, and blue-violet go clockwise to their complementaries on the
Spectrum Chart. Metallic surfaces go both ways to their complementaries,
simultaneously. This accounts for the iridescent effect of copper, brass, and
o-ther metals. It has been found by experiment that this is the reason for the
metallic surface in contradiction to a pigmentary surface. However, a thing
must not necessarily be of metal to have a metallic surface. We have
metallic paint, iridescent glass, etc., while pigmentary surfaces include dyes
for cloth as well as paints which are used for water colour and oil.
The most difficult of all surfaces to secure as to colour and texture is flesh,
which I have found to be a texture between the metallic and the pigmentary
surfaces. It must be borne in mind that the blood flowing under the surface of
the skin is of two colours—the arterial blood, which is very nearly a scarlet as
seen through the skin, and the venous blood, which seen through the skin is a
blue-green because of the yellow-orange colour of the skin. After it has become
oxidized by passing through the lungs, the venous blood changes into scarlet.
Therefore, flesh has a great deal of blue-green and scarlet in its local colour,
and of the colours toward their complementaries on the shadow side. For
example, flesh in a half tone very often shows a green or sometimes a neutral¬
ized blue or blue-violet shadow. Where it shows the red blood—in the cheeks,
the lips, and so forth—very often the flesh casts a purple shadow. Therefore,
on account of these two colours which are in the flesh, the effect to our eyes is
very nearly that of the metallic surface. Of course the scarlet and blue-green
are modified by the colour of the flesh which in itself is a light yellow-orange.
In many places where the blood does not come to the surface very noticeably
the shadows will go toward the complementary of the yellow-orange colour of
the skin.

14
 SCINTILLATION CHARTS

No Low Medium High . No Low Medium High

Scintillation Scintillation Scintillation Scintillation Scintillation Scintillation Scintillation Scintillation

Red Blue

Orange Blue-
Violet

Yellow Violet

Yellow-
Purple
green

Crimson
Green

Blue- Scarlet
green

Showing the components of each colour

Plate XVII
 THE COLOUR OF SHADOWS
STILL LIFE

COPPER AND BRASS

Showing the shadow going both ways to the complementary

BLUE-VIOLET VASE

Showing the shadow going to its complementary as far as purple in sequence with orange highlight

Platk XV HI
 THE ART OF COLOUR 15
All these colours and their shadows will of course be modified by their sur¬
roundings producing different colours because of the simultaneous contrast
and the reflected lights of their surfaces.
How near the shadows are to their complementary colours depends on the
amount of light on an object; the more light the nearer they are to the comple¬
mentary. As all shadows are down in tone they are neutralized with their own
complementaries as is shown in Colour-Mixing Charts.
It must be borne in mind that the shadow colour is dependent on the
colour of the lighted side., Because an object is blue locally is no reason that
it is always blue. In fact, yellow very often has an orange-yellow and yellow
hue on the lighted side. In that case, the shadow would go both ways on the
Spectrum Chart. If a red flannel shirt were shown in the sun on the Equator,
the shadow side of the shirt would go counter clockwise toward its comple¬
mentary and would be neutralized blue-violet (2-B), Colour-Mixing Chart
(Plates II—III). If the same shirt were shown in the sun in the North Temperate
Zone the shadow side would be neutralized violet (2-B). If shown out of the
sunlight under a blue sky it would have a shadow slightly more toward purple,
and if under a clouded sky, the shadow would be a more direct neutralized
purple. (See Plate XXIII.)
Now bring the shirt indoors into a well-lighted room, a north light, and it
will have a shadow between purple and neutralized crimson. If in a room
not north lighted the shadow would perhaps only go as far as the scarlet.
But the shadow always goes toward its complementary. Of course, all
shadows are additionally modified by reflected light. The blue sky would
increase the blue light in the shadow; or the walls of the room would be
reflected.
When painting any object which has a scintillation, it is necessary to break
into it with its two spectrum components and its complementary. Blue is
made up of the violet and green rays. Therefore, blue should be broken into
with these two colours, and if it is desired to have more movement of colour,
break into this blue a little of its complementary, red. This can be done in a
number of different ways, one of which is by getting all the colours on the brush
at one time and putting directly on the canvas, or at least not mixing well on
the palette. The hairs of the brush will separate the colours in oil painting. A
palette knife will also keep the colours separated. Or the colours can be put
on with a small brush, each separately. At all times it is well not to mix thor¬
oughly on the palette, thereby giving more life to the colour. Further examples
would be yellow, broken into its components, red and green, and its comple-
16 THE ART OF COLOUR

mentary, violet. Green would be broken into its components, blue and
yellow, and its complementary, crimson.
It has been said that white is the “highest light” and black the darkest
dark.” But is this really true? You will find the “darkest dark is the
complementary neutralized and the “lightest light” the direct complementary
with white. This is a new theory, I know, and perhaps upsets some deep-rooted
ideas, but you will find this always true: that the high light of a shining sur¬
face is always a direct complementary to its lighted side; example: a blue-
violet glazed vase (Plate XVIII) will have a high light that is orange with
a great deal of white. The high light on a nose always will be the complemen¬
tary colour with white of the lighted side of the nose and not just white as so
many portrait painters paint it.
For the benefit of those artists who wish to use the broken colour method to
get scintillation and vibration the following table has been compiled for ready-
reference. (See chart, Plate XVII.)

SPECTRUM PRIMARIES:
Red
Low scintillation: break into with orange and scarlet.
Medium scintillation: break into with its components, yellow and crimson.
High scintillation: break into with its components, yellow and crimson
and its complementary, blue.
Green
Low scintillation: break into with yellow-green and blue-green.
Medium scintillation: break into with its components, yellow and blue.
High scintillation: break into with yellow and blue in addition to its com¬
plementary, crimson.
Violet
Low scintillation: break into with blue-violet and purple.
Medium scintillation: break into with its components, blue and crimson.
High scintillation: break into with its components, blue and crimson, in
addition to its complementary, yellow.

PIGMENTARY PRIMARIES (or Secondaries of the Spectrum):

Yellow
Low scintillation: break into with yellow-green and orange.
Medium scintillation: break into with its components, green and red.
High scintillation: break into with its components, green and red, in ad¬
dition to its complementary, violet.
 THE ART OF COLOUR 17
Blue
Low scintillation: break into with blue-green and blue-violet.
Medium scintillation: break into with its components, green and violet.
High scintillation: break into with its components, green and violet, in
addition to its complementary, red.
Crimson
Low scintillation—break into with purple and scarlet.
Medium scintillation—break into with its components, violet and red.
High scintillation—break into with its components, violet and red, in
addition to its complementary, green.

HUES:
Orange
Low scintillation: break into with yellow and red.
Medium scintillation: break into with its spectrum components, red, ancf
green, more red than green; or its pigmentary components, yellow and
crimson, more yellow than crimson.
High scintillation: break into with its components, either spectrum or
pigmentary, and its complementary, blue-violet.
Yellow-green
Low scintillation: break into with yellow and green.
Medium scintillation: break into with its spectrum components, red and
green, more green than red; or its pigmentary components, yellow and
blue, more yellow than blue.
High scintillation: break into with its components, either spectrum or
pigmentary, in addition to its complementary, purple.
Blue-green
Low scintillation: break into with green and blue.
Medium scintillation: break into with its spectrum components, green
and violet, more green than violet; or its pigmentary components,
yellow and blue, more blue than yellow.
High scintillation: break into with its components, either spectrum or
pigmentary, in addition to its complementary, scarlet.
Blue-violet
Low scintillation: break into with blue and violet.
Medium scintillation: break into with its spectrum components, green
and violet, more violet than green; or its pigmentary components,
blue and crimson, more blue than crimson.
i8 THE ART OF COLOUR
High scintillation: break into with its components, either spectrum or
pigmentary, in addition to its complementary, orange.
Purple
Low scintillation: break into with violet and crimson.
Medium scintillation: break into with its spectrum components, violet
and red, more violet than red; or its pigmentary components, crimson
and blue, more crimson than blue.
High scintillation: break into with its components, either spectrum or
pigmentary, in addition to its complementary, yellow-green.
Scarlet
Low scintillation: break into with crimson and red.
Medium scintillation: break into with its spectrum components, violet
and red, more red than violet; or its pigmentary components, crimson
and yellow, more crimson than yellow.
High scintillation: break into with its components, either spectrum or
pigmentary, in addition to its complementary, blue-green.
Hues between these colours are obtained in the same manner.
If it is desired to have brilliant colours, full saturation should be used. If
neutralized or mixed with white, the components and complementaries should
be in the same shade or tint so as to keep the colour in the same plane.
 mgm

HlcHEt Jacobs

By MICHEL JACOBS
THE VIOLET VEIL

A portrait done in split complementaries of five colours and one mutual complementary,
(blue-green, blue, blue-violet, viojet-purple and orange.)

The shadow in each case going toward its complementary.

Plate XIX
n
a

\
 CHAPTER SIX: COLOUR FOR THE PORTRAIT PAINTER

N PORTRAIT painting, the first thing that interests the artist

is to paint the character and likeness of the sitter. This part
of the task he realizes interests only those who know the person
whose portrait it is. But there is a higher object to be attained
and that is to make a decoration and to interpret a personality—
something that has value from the Eesthetic point of view. This is
arrived at by two means; first, by composition of form and line;
and second, by colour. It is with the latter that we have to deal
in this chapter.
In arranging the setting for the portrait, the most important thing is to de¬
cide what colour combination is adaptable to the sitter. For a child, one
should select colours that show something of the child’s temperament. If the
child has a spiritual face, a combination of harmonies in grays, such as, blue-
gray, blue-green-gray, green-gray, yellow-green-gray, all with white, i-D or
2-C or 3-B in Colour-Mixing Charts (Plates II—III), would show very well
with a child who has not much colour in the face, for these will bring
out what little colour exists. For a child full of life with red cheeks and lips
the colour should be more brilliant or neutralized only a little. A combina¬
tion of complementaries could be used as follows: scarlet, crimson, purple,
with one complementary and green. This is known as three against one,
crimson i-A, scarlet i-B, purple i-B, green i-A.
For a man’s portrait strong or dark colours should be selected and generally
in harmonies of three or four colours such as red, orange, and yellow, grayed with
their complementaries, 2-A or 2-B in Colour-Mixing Charts (Plates II-III).
In painting the portrait of a young girl one should use youthful tones, such
as the complementaries of three and three or four and four, although sometimes
a harmony of light and brilliant colour is in good taste.
The portrait of an older woman should be painted in neutralized colours
depending on the character of the sitter (see chapter on Psychology of Colour).
As the background of a portrait is behind the sitter, it is advisable to make
the head the most brilliant spot of colour in the picture. This does not mean
that the head should be lighter in colour but that the most brilliant colour
should be painted into the head.
The head, clothes,^nd drapery in a portrait are greatly influenced by the
colour of the background. If the background is a brilliant yellow, black cloth
would look neutralized violet because of the simultaneous contrast to the eye.
Therefore, if it is desired to make the picture look like black and yellow, it is
necessary to paint this black with neutralized green or neutralized red (3-A in
Colour-Mixing Chart, Plates II-III). This will give the black effect in tone,

J9
20 THE ART OF COLOUR
whereas if painted with neutralized violet it would be a contrast. All other
colours are influenced in the same way, especially neutral gray or white.
The head has many colours and to tell exactly which should go into flesh is
like describing the rainbow. Quoting from the previous chapter, “Lights
and Shadows,” “The most difficult of all surfaces to secure as to colour and
texture is flesh, which I have found to be a texture between the metallic and the
pigmentary surfaces. It must be borne in mind that the blood flowing under
the surface of the skin is of two colours—the arterial blood, which is very nearly
a scarlet as seen through the skin, and the venous blood, which seen through
the skin is a blue-green because of the yellow-orange colour of the skin. After it
has become oxidized by passing through the lungs, the venous blood changes
into scarlet. Therefore, flesh has a great deal of blue-green and scarlet in its
local colour and of the colours toward their complementaries on the shadow
side. For example, flesh in a half-tone very often shows a green or sometimes a
neutralized blue or blue-violet shadow. Where it shows the red blood in the
cheeks, the lips, and so forth, very often the flesh casts a purple shadow. There¬
fore, on account of these two colours which are in the flesh, the effect to our eyes
is very nearly that of the metallic surface. Of course the scarlet and blue-
green are modified by the colour of the flesh which in itself is a light yellow-
orange. In many places where the blood does not come to the surface very
noticeably the shadows will go toward the complementary of the yellow-orange
colour of the skin. ” A red-haired girl in a white light with violet haze in the
skin, surrounded by draperies of violet, blue-violet, blue, blue-green, and
green, all neutralized (i-2 and i-B and 2-C in Colour-Mixing Chart, Plates
II-IH), the background violet predominating, is painted:

Hair: Half tone: neutralized red and neutralized orange i-B.

Shadow: crimson and purple 2-A or 3-A.
Reflected light in shadow: violet i-C.
High lights: orange, yellow, and a small quantity of violet O-A and O-D.
Flesh: Half tone: scarlet, red, orange O-C and i-C.
Shadow for cheeks: scarlet, crimson, purple, 1, 2, 3-A or B.
Shadow for chin: yellow-green 1, 2, 3-A or B.
High light on cheek: purple O-D.
High light on nose: crimson O-D.
High light on forehead: yellow O-D.
High light on temple: blue-green O-D.
Reflected light from background: purple i-C.
 THE ART OF COLOUR 21
By using the colour correctly it is not necessary to paint black or brown
shadows to get solidity, as the contrast in colour will give the solidity of form.
Of course, the flesh must seem to vibrate if it is to show the quality or texture
of flesh. This can be done by following the same idea as given in Chapter V,
“Lights and Shadows”; i.e., breaking a colour into its two components. This
one example will give some idea of how colour should be used in portraiture.
The old method of using colour of the background to mix with all shadows
only gives us a picture in monochrome. If one wishes to paint the colours of
nature with all the wonderful effects that it has on our eyes he must study
colour. Using a photograph, as some portrait painters do, “as a guide only,”
will give only a photograph with colour tints. The portraitist must be, first of
all, a good draftsman so that he is not afraid to lose his drawing while painting,
and he must be able to see colour and know how to apply what he sees. How
many so-called portrait painters do ? In this branch of the arts the portraitist
seems to be far behind the landscapist. Some portrait painters tell us that
colour does not change indoors as it does outdoors, but they are mistaken. The
laws of light and colour never change. It is only more difficult to see the colour
of different atmospheres indoors, for that is really the problem. Colours are
not always shades of green or blue. We have not always a white or blue re¬
flected light from the sky. Black or white never exists indoors more than out
of doors, and shadows invariably go toward their complementaries in the same
way, only in the open it is easier to see because they go farther toward their
complementary colours. (See chapter on “Lights and Shadows.”)
To attempt to give the colour of any object in an arbitrary way is impossible.
If the painter studies still life as directed in Chapter V, he will have no trouble
in giving to his portraits the “light of life” and he will no longer paint leather
flesh and wooden hair.
 CHAPTER SEVEN: COLOUR FOR THE LANDSCAPE PAINTER

N THE old school of painting, when starting a landscape, one

was taught to paint in the so-called warm colours first and the
cold colours last. By this new method, one should paint with
cold colours first as described in Chapter VIII. This will give
cool underpainting. If we look at some of Michelangelo’s unfin¬
ished work we find that he started to paint his pictures with
blue, green, and white in contradiction to the Venetian School
which used browns and reds in the underpainting. Of course,
the old masters allowed their first lay-in to dry, but in our
modern way of direct painting we can lay our warm colours directly on the wet
cool colours.
If we divide the Spectrum Chart in half and use all the colours which are in
one half (a harmony), we will not employ a muddy colour in starting our pic¬
ture, and as our paint dries a little we can add our warm colours without danger
of losing their brilliancy. It is preferable to draw the picture with a brush
with one colour, as charcoal or lead is very apt to work through in time. Blue-
green or ultramarine blue are good colours to start with.
All colour in nature is dependent on its surroundings. For example, if we
look through yellow-green foliage at a seemingly blue sky, the colour of the
sky will appear to be purple with white. The same sky will look green when
seen through scarlet autumn foliage. This is known as “simultaneous con¬
trast.” If the sky looks blue it will be composed of the green and violet rays of
light. It is necessary, therefore, to break up the blue of the sky with green
and violet and perhaps the complementary of blue, which is red. This red will
have a great deal of white in its mixture and produce a colour which would be
O-A in the Colour-Mixing Chart (Plate II). If the sky is not very blue it will
be necessary to paint only with violet and green and white, not using blue at all.
You will observe that the dome of the sky is a series of hues of colour. For
instance, if the sun is on the horizon, the zenith will be a blue-violet and the
horizon a yellow-green and all the shades between these two colours running
counter clockwise on the Spectrum Chart, Fig. i. At high noon, the sun "being
directly overhead, this order will be reversed. It is necessary to study the
colour of the sky very closely before starting to work. The study of clouds
is given in Chapter IX. After painting the sky, one might paint in the middle
distance, at the same time painting small particles of colour in the middle dis¬
tance and foreground to give the range of colour.
Distant hills and trees and grass partake of the colour of the atmosphere,
which is blue-violet. Therefore, all distant objects will have a certain amount
22
AUTUMN FIELDS By MICHEL JACOBS

Showing shadows going toward their complementary

Plate XX
IDYL OF A SUMMER’S SUN By MICHEL JACOBS

Sunlight and shade

Plate XXI
AUTUMN THAT CHANGES TO WINTER By MICHEI. JACOBS

The effect of coloured light on colour.

Red filter will change this picture to a winter landscape.
Yellow filter will show a tonal effect.

Puts XXII
Showing the effect of different intensities of light on red by the shadow going
further toward its complementary.

Plate XXIII
 THE ART OF COLOUR 23

of the blue-violet broken into their individual colour. Also, as objects recede
from the eye, the darks become lighter and the lights become darker until at
a great distance they seem to melt into one flat tone. Do not forget, however,
that the shadows of an object go toward its complementary and that where the
shadow is at all discernible the colour will be toward the complementary of the
lighted side of the object. For example, the lighted side of a yellow-green tree
in the far distance will be a yellow-green mixed with white, let us say i-B. The
shadow would be blue 2-B. Both of these colours would be broken into with
a blue-violet i-B. Of course the distance should be kept as simple as possible.
The middle distance will have more colour than the distance and will show
more clearly the difference between light and shade, but here also the blue-
violet of the atmosphere must be broken into all colours especially strong in
the shadows. (See Plate IV.)
In the foreground, the colours will be a little more local and there will be less
of the colour of the atmosphere broken in with them. The shadows and lights
should be of greater contrast. One should always compare the colour values of
the distance, middle distance, and foreground one with the other.
One can paint any colour in the distance and still make it appear to recede if
less contrast is made of colour and value. In the old school, blue was thought
to be a receding colour and yellow an advancing colour, but if one were to paint
the yellow at a distance mixed with white and paint the shadows a green-
yellow with white, and the blue in the foreground with neutralized purple
shadows, the yellow in the distance would appear to recede and the blue in the
foreground would appear to advance. The farther toward the complementary
colour one paints the shadow colours the more light will appear to be on the
object; and the more neutralized and darker the shadows are, the nearer the
object will appear.
As we paint our pictures outdoors in plein air, the light of the sky makes
our paints look nearer to nature’s handiwork; but when they are displayed
indoors, where there is much less light, our paints lose in brilliancy to such an
extent that we must counterbalance this loss by painting more brilliant colour
so that our canvases resemble the sunlight that we saw in the open.
 CHAPTER EIGHT: SUNLIGHT OUTDOORS AND IN

ATURE has beautified the earth with colours that are brilliant
beyond the power of man to imitate. We can only strive to
follow what nature is so prodigal of. As we have less light in¬
doors than in the open, it is necessary to go a little further
toward the complementary to give the same effect of light.
If we do this it will be unnecessary to paint dark shadows
or get a false black-and-white value, for nature never paints in
black or white. This is a conventional form of painting. It
is a man’s law but has no truth in nature. Colour values are
the only things we see if our eyes are normal.
In the spring or summer we can start our picture in a harmony of blue-green,
blue and blue-violet, violet and purple. When we have secured the light and
(dark spotting desired, paint the lights yellow-green, yellow, orange, and red.
For example, first paint the light side of a tree with blue-green mixed with
white and the shadow with blue, violet, and purple; breaking into this with
yellow-green, yellow} and orange to represent the sunlight, and green [perhaps
to show the light of the sky. Paint the trunks of trees in blue, violet, and
purple, at first, and the sun-lighted spots afterward with orange, red, scarlet,
or crimson with more or less white. Of course, it is understood that your
colours can be neutralized or made brilliant depending on the effect desired.
You may want a mural painting in pastel tints, or you may want a startling
effect to look brighter perhaps than nature itself.
This is only one suggestion as to how to start a picture; in many instances
it will not be possible to follow this scheme, because all colours change by
juxtaposition and simultaneous contrasts. A very startling example of this
is seen when looking through green foliage at a blue sky (see preceding chap¬
ter). The sky looks purple with white through the small round holes. Dis¬
tant colours should be neutralized with white in both the lights and shadows.
Very often this will be found to supply sufficient neutralization, especially
if it is desirable to have the picture in a high key. The colour of the atmos¬
phere should be mixed with the colour for distant objects, especially in the
shadows but not so much in the lights.
Foreground colours are more neutralized with their complementaries to
represent more local colour and less atmosphere.
In the autumn the picture may be started with blue, blue-violet, violet, purple,
and crimson, with the yellow, orange, and red lights laid in afterward, or the
reverse method may be adapted. The idea is to keep the brilliance of every
colour and to avoid accidental mixing of the complementaries on the canvas.
24
 THE ART OF COLOUR 25

In the winter, start with blue, blue-violet, violet, and purple, laying the snow
in the shadows with blue-green, blue, blue-violet mixed with white and the
lights with yellow, orange, and red with white. Of course, one should always re¬
member the broken colour as explained in Chapter V,on “Lights and Shadows.”
When sunlight enters a room it not only shows the yellow or orange beam of
light but it also gives a colour tone which affects the light of the entire room.
This, taken into consideration with the lack of blue sky directly reflected
and no great distant atmosphere colour with which to contend, makes the sun¬
light indoors a separate problem, but if we remember that the law of the effect
of light on colour never changes, we can very readily understand it. The
light that enters a room is a reflection of the sky and is reflected again on all
objects by the walls, ceiling, and other objects. A beam of yellow sunlight
entering will modify all these colours and reflections. All objects that are
lighted by the reflected light seem dark in comparison, and by simultaneous
contrast seem to partake of blue-green, blue, blue-violet or violet tones; but the
shadows seem neutralized purple or crimson. In other words, the whole mass
that is lighted by the reflected light assumes a colder set of colours in harmony
and they receive a reflection from the warmer beam of light. It is as if all
objects were lighted by two distinct coloured lights, the stronger light being
reflected into the objects that are lighted by the lesser light. This would give
the effect on the eye of simultaneous contrast.

ART DEPARTMENT
Marygrove College
 I

CHAPTER NINE: CLOUDS

F ALL the wonders of nature, perhaps the most wonderful is the

heavens with the different kinds of clouds and their ever-chang¬
ing colours. One could spend a lifetime studying this phase
of art alone. But like all other things in nature it is the appli¬
cation of the law of light on colour which makes us conscious
of their beauty.
“The more intense the light on an object the farther toward
the complementary colour will the shadow colour go.” As
the light on a cloud is the strongest light and since it is our
object to make this strongest light very luminous, it is well to make the
shadow a direct complementary to its lighted side (toward the source of light),
and gradually diminish the distance toward the complementary as we go away
from the source of light. For example, if the lighted side of a cloud is yellow
with white, the shadows would be violet near the sun; and receding from the
sun the shadows would tend toward blue-violet. These colours would be
■neutralized or brilliant, depending upon whether the brightest part of the sky
were in the zenith or near the horizon. If the sun is near the zenith the clouds
are lighted on the upper sides and O-D in Colour-Mixing Charts (Plate XXIV)
should be used. This colour will be slightly neutralized with its complemen¬
tary, violet, in the direction of the horizon. This is because of the greater
distance of the clouds from the observer with the larger amount of atmosphere
in a lateral direction in comparison with the atmosphere above. The shadows
will be a slightly neutralized violet with white near the source of light, i-D in
Colour-Mixing Charts, and a more brilliant blue-violet as the cloud approaches
the horizon, O-D in Colour-Mixing Charts. The reason for the neutralization
of the shadows is to increase the effect of brilliancy toward the zenith. By
making the blue-violet brilliant toward the horizon, at the same time neutral¬
izing the lighted side and changing the shadow colour from violet to blue-violet
the effect of increasing distance toward the horizon is obtained and at the same
time the effect of increased luminosity is achieved.
In a sunrise or sunset the lighted side of the clouds changes from yellow-
orange to purple in sequence, counter clockwise, on the Spectrum Chart, and
the shadows will go DIRECT to the complementary near the source of light
and only TOWARD the complementary as the cloud forms go farther from
the sun.
It can be readily understood that when the setting sun divides the
rays of light, parts of the heavens show a sequence of colour from
yellow-orange to purple on the lighted side, and the shadows change
26
 ROVING CLOUDS MICHEL JACOBS

Showing the shadow of clouds going directly to the complementary of the lighted side

Plate XXIV
IDYL OF A SUMMER’S SUN By MICHEL JACOBS

Sunlight and shade in green tones

Plate XXIV-A
 THE ART OF COLOUR 27

from neutralized violet near the source of light to neutralized green near
the zenith.
Moonlight is nearly a blue-green light and as it is not as brilliant as the sun
it is never necessary to go direct to the complementary shadow colour, and the
shadow of course is always neutralized.
 CHAPTER TEN: REFLECTED COLOUR IN WATER

E MUST remember that water is, more or less, only a perfect

mirror and will reflect objects on its surface at the same angle
as the line of vision. In scientific terms, “the angle of inci¬
dence is equal to the angle of reflection.” For example, if you
look straight down into a smooth body of water you will see the
sky, directly overhead, reflected in the water, or perhaps your
own face, but if you look at the surface at an angle of say 30°
you will see any object which is reflected at the same angle. In
a simpler way, a line drawn from your eye to the surface of the
water and up again at the same angle from the surface of the water as the line
from your eye, it would show you the angle of reflection.
The above applies to water that is quiescent. When the water has waves or
ripples, the angle is changed from a level plane and a number of different small
reflections result depending on the angle formed by the wave or ripple to the
eye of the observer, so that while the main body of the water reflects what is
in front of you, the waves or ripples may reflect what is behind you.
The first thing to be determined in reproducing this effect on canvas is
what is being reflected from the surface of the water to the eye, for, of course,
you understand the reflection is not a tangible thing like a shadow, and will
change as we view the water from different angles. When the objects and
colours reflected have been determined they should be painted as they appear
in the water, in neutralized tones of the objects themselves. For example, if a
tree is O-A in Colour-Mixing Chart, the reflection would be about i-A or 2-A.j
It is best to paint the strokes of the brush in more or less the same direction
as the movement of the water and try to form interesting patterns in the
handling. At the same time, remember that the small ripplet may reflect the
sky in among the reflections of the foliage of the tree. The edges of the re¬
flection will be broken in jagged forms to correspond to the surface of the water.
The distant colours will melt into one another as described in Chapter VI, but
as the water recedes the angle of vision is changed and becomes straighter.
As the reflections are only on the retina of the eye (or flatplate of a camera),
and are not really existent on the water, the reflections will all meet at a focus
in the eye. If you reverse the principle of perspective and have the point of
sight in the eye, to which all lines at right angles with the horizon converge,
you will get a rough idea of this principle. If trees are upright and reflected
in the water, the reflections will meet at the eye, but if the trees are not up¬
right, the reflection will not be at a right angle but will slant in the opposite
direction to the angle of the tree.
28
 CHAPTER ELEVEN: PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOUR

E ARE told by many that every colour has its particular mean¬
ing and awakens a certain emotion in our minds. But is this a
fact? Will all these emotions be felt by people alike or is it
one of those beautiful myths like the language of the flowers or
the tale of the brook—man’s poetic soul picturing for himself
some ideal fancy? Is it not a legacy from our Grecian or Ro¬
man forefathers, something taken from the land of dreams?
Perhaps, like all myths, it has a breath of truth woven into its
gossamer folds, as the glistening jewel of dew in the spider’s web.
I will attempt to give an idea of the meaning of colour and its effect on the
human mind, based perhaps on a new theory, but one which to me has more
logic than the old, though beautiful, traditions; for I am striving in this book
to give truths based on the laws of nature rather than on the conceptions of
man.
A note of music, a particular perfume, a flower awakens in our minds a
certain train of thought—recollections of long-forgotten days of childhood,
memories of those that are no more or perhaps of things that are fearful to us.
Memory, through the association of ideas, makes us like or dislike many things.
So certain colours or combinations of colours are very often liked or disliked
as a result of previous experiences, sometimes quite unconsciously, sometimes
long forgotten.
From many experiments made with pupils I have succeeded in finding—
where they liked or disliked a certain colour—that the psychological reaction
could be traced to an early experience. Space prevents me from giving more
than a few of the many hundred instances.
A young girl hated yellow-green. In her childhood—when she was about
six years old—while playing on the lawn someone threw a bad egg in her di¬
rection. After that, whenever she saw this yellow-green colour she uncon¬
sciously had a feeling of unpleasantness. Until called to her attention she had
never associated this dislike of yellow-green with this incident before. Another
young woman disliked neutralized scarlet. We spent many hours trying to
find out the source of this dislike. It seems that one day while still a child
she found her pet dog, dead. It had been run over by a vehicle, and had been
dead for many hours. The blood had dried, and the sight of it caused her to
shudder. When she recalled the incident she was very sure that this was the
reason for her dislike of neutralized scarlet. Another young woman disliked
the same colour: she had been in San Francisco at the time of the great fire
and had seen wagonloads of dead being carted over the city, the dark
29
3o THE ART OF COLOUR

red blood running from the wagons. She almost fainted when she recalled the
incident.
A young man had a dislike for navy blue (blue neutralized): when a boy he
came from Canada in a blue blanket coat and was compelled to wear it to school
in New York where he was unmercifully teased about it by his schoolmates.
A man who hated emerald green recalled that when a lad someone had given
him a sip of Creme de Menthe. It had made him ill.
I am sure that if you will delve into the days of your early youth, into the
most impressionable days of your life, you, too, will recall some association of
ideas which will account for your like or dislike of a particular colour.
Perhaps this theory has destroyed for a moment some poetic fancy. One
dislikes those who tear down where they do not build again, but I have
given these examples to show that likes and dislikes of colour are based
primarily on early experiences and the association of ideas, with recollections
of the past which make us link the past with the present and even the
future.
Many of us who have been reared in the Occident, whose history and tra¬
ditions come from a common source, have been taught that certain colours
mean certain things, and by constant association have felt this emotion when
seeing certain colours.
To the Chinese, blue is a sign of mourning and yellow the symbol of nobility.
To us, red is the symbol of war, passion, danger, courage; orange symbol¬
izes glory, heat, laughter, harvest, plenty, autumn, happiness, warmth; yellow
stands for cowardice, indecency, decay, deceit, inconstancy, sickness; yellow-
green for youth, cheerfulness, peace, faith; green symbolizes victory, and to
the Irishman, patriotism; blue-green is half mystery, song, poetry, aloofness;
blue suggests coldness, spirituality, serenity, mystery, truth; blue-violet
conjures thoughts of the ocean and of distance; violet symbolizes sadness,
sentimentality, piety; purple is the badge of royalty, richness; crimson is the
colour of beauty, glorious generosity; scarlet is the sign of blood and anger;
white is the symbol of purity, sacrifice, and winter, and black that of death,
despair, night.
This symbolism is based on our early association of these colours with the
qualities which they are supposed to convey, but so far I have been unable to
find any basis of scientific fact which would justify any theory of physical or
mental reaction to the wave lengths of light which we know as these colours.
A red flag was used by the Romans as a gauge of battle. As a battle entails
physical danger, the colour came to suggest danger. Mars, the god of War,
WINTER REFLECTIONS By MICHEL JACOBS

Showing the effect of colour in the distance influenced by snow, and reflections
meeting at a point in the eye of the observer.

Plate XXV
SPRING By MICHEL JACOBS

Showing the effect of the afternoon sun

Plate XXVI
 THE ART OF COLOUR 3i
was always represented in a red chariot and was the bravest of the brave, and
so red likewise became the symbol of this quality.
Another example is purple. We have read of the purple robes of royalty
since history began. The purple dyes of Tyre were the most expensive of all
colours; only a king could buy them!
If you would read a picturesque history of colour psychology I must refer
you to other sources since here I give you accepted facts and a few reasons
wholly disassociated from intriguing but in most cases fantastic theories and
far-fetched hypotheses.
 CHAPTER TWELVE: COLOUR FOR COLOUR PRINTERS

RINTING has been said to be the “art preservative” of all arts,

and if it is to preserve for future generations the work of our
artists in manifold copies then it must reproduce that work
faithfully in colour. So little is understood about colour by the
printer and plate-maker that many mistakes are made by ex¬
perimenting and hand-cutting of plates without knowledge,
which is extremely costly and wasteful, whereas a little advice
and study would lead to much better work at less cost. Most
of our colour printing to-day is done by Photo-colour work—
Ben Day, Flat-zinc plates. Lithographic stone, Offset, Rotogravure, Woodcuts,
Linoleum cuts. Mezzotints, Aquatints, and coloured Etching. Let us take up
each one of these printing arts separately.
Those who are conversant with modern reproduction will find much in this
chapter they already know, and they will find also a new way to get brilliancy
and faithful reproduction of the original.
At present photo-colour printing is done with half-tone plates. These plates
are reproduced from negatives made from the original art work by the use of
coloured filters placed in front of the lens of the camera, and using a plate
that is sensitized so that the complementary colour is photographed on the
plate, and colours that are of the same hue as the filter will not register on the
plate. As mentioned in the chapter on stage-lighting, and as is demonstrated
in Plate XXII, all colours that are in harmony, or the same colour as the filter,
show white through the filter. There are three filters now supplied the photo¬
plate makers in three-colour printing process, colours which I would call blue-
violet, yellow-green, and scarlet(now commonly known as violet,green, and red),
and for the so-called four-colour printing, a key-plate which is printed in black
using a yellow-yellow-green filter. These colours are not always the complemen¬
tary of the coloured inks that are used, and therefore the reproduction is seldom
an exact copy of the original; especially in America there seems to be a lack of
coordination between the colour-printer, the plate-maker, and the photographic
material concerns. Also there is too much use made of the black plate, as with
the correct three-colour printing, shadows and black can be produced richer and
better without the black plate. If these three elements which are necessary
for a perfect reproduction were coordinated, much beneficial work would be
accomplished. In printing in the three-colour process the correct colour filters
to be used would be (taking the Spectrum Chart, Plate I, as a guide) a violet,
not a blue-violet; a green, not a yellow-green; and a red, not a scarlet. These
colours can be found in the Spectrum Chart. The inks to be used with these

32
 Crimson and blue-violet

Blue-green and crimson Crimson and yellow

PRINTED IN TWO COLOURS

Plate XXVII
Blue-green and blue-violet

PRINTED IN TWO COLOURS

Pi.ate XXVIII
 Blue-violet and yellow

PRINTED IN TWO COLOURS

Plate XXIX

J*
TWENTY-FOUR COLOUR SPECTRUM

Plate XXX
 O
O

co
CO
hJ

S
<
CQ
C
^4

<D
CO y-
<D
CL, ~0
w^

& C
H °

p
c
03
P o

-C
C
.N
n <u
ffi t-*r
w^
J. O
y 03c
o -a
<->
O

CO
o
U o
o -js

txO
The arrow-heads showing the colour of the ink used.
The outside long triangle showing two-colour printing.
The small ovals, three-colour printing.
The centres, four-colour printing.
Plate XXXI
 MICHEL JACOBS'S COLOUR TYPES .
Showing size of dot and combinations of different inks.

IIXXX ;1IV'>.I
 MICHEL JACOBS'S COLOUR TYPES
Showing size and combinations of different inks.
GLOUCESTER FISHERMAN By MICHEL JACOBS

Printed in three colours—crimson, blue, and yellow

Plate XXXVIII
PROGRESSIVE PROOF OF THREE-COLOUR PRINTING

Plate XXXIX
 PROGRESSIVE PROOF OF THREE-COLOUR PRINTING

Plate XL

1
 THE ART OF COLOUR 33
three-colour screens or filters would be their complementaries, yellow, crimson,
and blue. (5,6See Appendix.)
It is very important that the filter to be a true complementary of the coloured
inks to be used be intense enough to block out perfectly the other two colours;
because if it is not intense enough the colour will be only slightly neutralized
and will register on the photo plate. It will then be necessary to do a great deal
of tooling to cut out the other colours. This practice of tooling has grown to
such an extent that some plate-makers, especially in America, are compelled
to do a great deal of unnecessary work, and often ruin the artist’s original
work. If the photographer will see that colour filters are the exact comple¬
mentaries of the coloured inks to be used, as in Spectrum Chart, Fig. i, there
will be a great deal less hand-work on plates. (7See Appendix.)
Another very important item in the making of coloured plates is the colour of
the light. No artificial light at present has been discovered which is a true
white light. The arc light has a slightly yellow tint, but this can be rectified by
using filters which correct the excess yellow rays. The above-named filters,
violet, green, and red, will answer this purpose.
No experiment is necessary if the printers use the crimson, yellow, and blue
inks as in the Spectrum Chart, and use the filters mentioned (Plate XXXVIII).
The test for a true colour in the ink is as follows: A yellow that will make a
brilliant green when mixed with blue, and at the same time when mixed with
crimson will make a brilliant red, is a true yellow. A crimson that will mix
with yellow and make a perfect red, and at the same time when mixed with blue
will make a perfect violet, is a true crimson. A blue that will mix with crimson
and make a perfect violet, and at the same time when mixed with yellow will
make a perfect green, is a true blue.
So much for the present-day method of printing.
Instead of taking the above three colours—crimson, yellow, and blue inks,
commonly known as red, yellow, and blue, one can divide the spectrum in four
instead of in three, and take a colour ink which is a yellow-yellow-orange, a
blue-blue-green, a blue-violet-violet, and crimson-scarlet (see Plate XXXI).
By the combination of the yellow-yellow-green and the blue-blue-green, one
can get all the shades of green and yellow-green, etc. By the combination of
blue-blue-green and blue-blue-violet, one can get all the shades of blue,
blue-violet, and blue-green, and by the use of blue-blue-violet with crimson-
scarlet one can get all the shades of purples and violets much more brilliant than
has ever been gotten with four colours. The filters for these colours should be
their direct complementaries (see Plate I). It has been found necessary to
34 THE ART OF COLOUR
make filters of different chemicals to cut out the colours not desired to register
on plate. The writer believes that this method of dividing the spectrum in
four colours instead of in three has many advantages over the so-called four-
colour process using the black as the key-plate, as the blue-blue-violet plate
can be used for the printing of type, and will very closely approximate black.
In the colour chart specially adapted for plate-makers, the combinations of
colours and dots can be quickly seen. (Plate XXXIV.)
The new printing process in the preceding paragraph can also be used for the
Ben Day process, and the Offset process is practically the same in regard to
colour as the foregoing, except that the dot is softened on account of being
printed from rubber blankets.
The Rotogravure process in colour and the Gelatine process are also in the
same category in regard to colour, and the writer believes that this new four-
colour process can be used to advantage in all these different processes.
If it is desired to print a picture by any of the foregoing methods in only two
colours, many tones of colour can be printed as shown in the Colour-Mixing
Chart, Fig. 3. For example, orange and its complementary blue-violet will
give all the tones as in the Colour-Mixing Chart, including a dark neutral; red
and its complementary blue in the same manner; and following in the same way
each colour with its complementary, namely, scarlet and blue-green; crimson
and green; purple and yellow-green; and violet and yellow. Some of the
neutrals formed by these complementaries will be slightly lighter. This is
much more colourful than printing with one colour and black, and no more
expensive. (Plate XXVII.) (8See Appendix.)
Lithography allows much more scope than any of the foregoing processes
and much expense can be saved if the system of four colours is followed. The
best way to explain its adaptation to this style of reproduction is to refer the
reader to Chapters I, III, IV, VI, VII, VIII, and IX, as the lithographic art
is more or less the same as painting, the only difference being that the colours
are put on by the use of different stones instead of brushes. It also follows
along lines similar to photo-colour printing, flat plate, and Ben Day. In fact,
all these methods are but the outgrowth of lithography.
Woodcut printing is the same as Ben Day or flat-plate printing, only the wood
is cut out by hand tools. Linoleum cuts are exactly the same as woodcuts
but are cut into heavy linoleum.
Mezzotint colour printing is made by a plate which has been previously
roughened by a tool called a rocker which raises many points on a copper plate.
I hese are afterward cut off, more or less, depending on how much light or
 THE ART OF COLOUR 35

shade is necessary. The more the roughness is scraped off the lighter will the
printing be. The plate is afterward printed in colour, each colour being
applied to the plate at one time by means of little daubers. The colour com¬
bination should follow in the same way as has been recommended for lithog¬
raphy. More beautifully coloured mezzotints would result if this system
were adopted instead of the old one of using black.
An aquatint is similar to the above, only the roughened plate is made by
rosin dust and is afterward etched. It is a cheaper method than mezzotint
printing. A coloured etching can be made with a plate as in black-and-white
etching, afterward cleaning the plate of black or brown ink, then daubing in flat
colours as in mezzotint printing. I have found this method to be very suc¬
cessful both in printing the colours first and the dark lines afterward, and the
reverse as suggested above.
A monotype is painted as in oil painting on glass and transferred to paper.
Every impression must be from a separate painting on the glass. This art can
be greatly developed with correct colour combinations.
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO
INTERIOR DECORATION

E DECORATE our homes so that we may enjoy the use of that

part of the house for which it was designed, whether it be a
dining room, sleeping room, living room, or kitchen. The
colours used in the decoration must be so arranged that they
will be agreeable to the occupant. The designer of a deco¬
ration whose only claim is that it is historic is to me a mere
poseur, a hero worshipper, or an antiquarian. Individuality
and originality in good taste are worth much more than a
slavish pandering to the styles of long ago. One should live
in the present, and make history in decoration. Although we may admire
what some of the old master decorators have done in the past, let us not
be so foolish as to cry with those who have no originality themselves, “The
past holds the best in all the arts.”
Many of our fine and applied arts are to-day at a higher stage of development
than history records. So let us design to make the future history of deco¬
ration something that our children can look back on with pride and try to do
better themselves and so progress.
j The decorator should find out what colours or colour combinations are
agreeable or disagreeable to his client before decorating a home. In Chapter
XI, “Psychology of Colour,” I have tried to explain why certain colours affect
people differently. Individuals should be studied so as to make their homes
characteristic of them. Some of our nouveaux riches have a better soul than
most of us give them credit for. Let the decorator find this and not try to
show his own character in his decorations. The soul of a Chippendale in
the home of a Cromwell is hardly to be desired.
There are s'ome general principles in decorations which should always be
observed. Floors should always be the darkest part of a room and the walls
a little lighter in tone and the ceiling still lighter. This is done to give a feel¬
ing of balance and follows the law of nature outdoors. The inside of a
home is but the setting in which persons who inhabit the house are to
be placed, and if the persons are themselves full of colour, care should be
taken to see that the surroundings will fit in with their personality as well as
with their ideas.
The cost of decoration has nothing to do with the good taste displayed.
Sometimes with a small amount of money the best results are obtained.
Simplicity is the highest form of art. Plain coloured walls or self-patterns are
the best. If any design is used the same pattern should be repeated more
36
 THE ART OF COLOUR 37

than once and not a number of different designs in the same room. The
design should be unobtrusive, especially when there are to be pictures. A
few modern decorators make no allowance for the display of our wonderful
native art, and if this senseless idea were allowed to grow it would mean the
killing of our fine arts, acting as a boomerang to the ultimate injury of our
applied arts. Of course some persons prefer mural decoration instead of
framed pictures but a little of both constitutes the best form of decoration.
Certain rooms, like a formal drawing room, would be better with mural deco¬
rations, but a living room is more comfortable and less formal with a few
pictures expressing different ideas. ,
A few suggestions for colour for various rooms may prove helpful. Many
will prefer entirely different schemes of colour, yet each individual can find a
combination pleasing to him or her by following the system as explained in
Chapter IV, “Colour Combinations.”
Large masses of colour are very often more pleasing in neutralized tones and
brilliant colours in small masses. A bedroom, to be restful, soothing, and
quieting, for a young girl, should be in a harmony of three colours, light in
tint, or a tint of C or D in Colour-Mixing Charts. A woman’s bedroom should
be of a little darker colour and perhaps a combination of three colours against
one or four against one, B or C in Colour-Mixing Charts. For a man’s bed¬
room the colour could be darker still and in more neutralized tones, such as
3-B or 3-C in Colour-Mixing Charts. Whether a person likes red or blue or
purple or green is immaterial so long as the combination of the other colours is
in good taste. A bedroom should not be too brilliant in tone nor too complex
in colour combinations. Violent colour combinations are not conducive to
sleep.
In a living room, for winter, perhaps darker, warmer tones in harmony
should be used, or five colours with one complementary in say 2-A in Colour-
Mixing Chart. For the summer, light brilliant colours, such as, O or i-A or B
in Colour-Mixing Chart, and the combinations can be more bold, such as
three colours with three complementaries.
For a smoking room dark neutralized colours, such as 3-A or 3-B in harmony,
or five colours against one complementary; for example, red, orange, yellow,
yellow-green, green with the neutral complementary violet, in 3-A as explained
in Chapter IV, “ Colour Combinations.” Any set of colours based on the same
principle would be in good taste, although one may prefer a warmer or more
simple combination.
If the dining room is large and the owner prefers darker colours, it is best,
 38 THE ART OF COLOUR
in order to give it a tone of simple elegance, to use three colours in 2-A with two
complementaries, i-A, the latter to be used in small quantities; for example,
purple, crimson, scarlet, all 2-A. The colour of the furniture (mahogany), the
walls in the same colours mentioned above relieved with pictures, the principal
colours of which are hues between yellow-green and green and those between
green and blue-green on Spectrum Chart—these colours should be repeated in
upholstering of chairs, and the rug should be about the same colour as walls
and pictures combined in simple pattern. If, however, the room is small,
more brilliant colour can be used, especially if the room is a breakfast room.
In that case O-B or O-C of four colours with their complementaries give a re¬
freshing feeling and stimulate one in the morning. Another combination of
colour that pleases many people is mahogany or walnut furniture with neutral¬
ized gray walls about the tint of D in Colour-Mixing Chart, with one colour
such as blue-green, i-A or purple 2-A. This would be a monochrome or one
tolour with its complementary.
A billiard room can be decorated in brilliant colours with very happy results
as the cloth is itself a brilliant green (generally O-A in Colour-Mixing Chart).
We should make our colour scheme conform to this green. One example,
which I have found to be very successful, is to paper the walls in a blue oatmeal
paper, slightly neutralized i-C. The woodwork, including side benches of
heavy design to conform to the lines of the table, should be neutralized violet
2-B with edges of green O-A like the brilliant cloth. The table itself
should be painted the same colour as woodwork. The rug should be a
neutralized blue-violet 2-A with O-A green and blue border in flat, square
designs. The short window curtains can be green O-A and on the walls posters
of brilliant colours, the principal hues of which are yellow, orange, red, scarlet,
crimson, the frames being the same as the woodwork. The lamps should be
vert antique on copper (blue-green) and the shades of glass of the same
colour. The cues, hung on the wall, give another decorative unit of yellow
and yellow-orange. So you see the billiard room need no longer resemble a
“beer saloon” but can have the spirit of life and gaiety of a room that
customarily is very dull in colour. The combination suggested, it will be
noted, is in five colours with their complementaries, some neutralized,
some brilliant.
Halls are usually dark, so it is well to decorate them in light, simple colours,
sometimes in harmony of three, O-D in Colour-Mixing Chart. Yellow, yellow-
green, and green is a good combination, or blue-green, blue, blue-violet, and
white. Sometimes one wants dark hall furniture and woodwork of neutral-
 Green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet
Red
By MICHEL JACOBS
rv
STAINED-GLASS WINDOW BY LLOYD COE

Plate XLf
 A Sun Parlor in brilliant harmonies
Red, Orange, Yellow, Yellow-green

Green and Blue-green

Chinese influence Chippindale, in a harmony of five

Chinese influence Chippindale, in a harmony of five
Red, Orange, Yellow, Yellow-green
Red, Orange, Yellow, Yellow-green
Green and Blue-green
Green and Blue-green

A bedroom in split complimentaries

Blue, Blue-violet, Violet, Purple, Crimson

Orange, Yellow and Yellow green

Plate XLI-A
 THE ART OF COLOUR 39
ized orange, 3-A (dark oak) with walls of yellow and yellow-green, O-D or i-D
in Colour-Mixing Charts. The rugs and stair carpet could be a more neutral¬
ized tone of the same colours.
In the kitchen and bathroom it is better to use white with one colour as a
monochrome, such as blue O-D, in Colour-Mixing Chart, in very small quan¬
tities.
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO
COSTUME DESIGN

HE clothes that we wear have an important effect on our own

character as well as on the character of those with whom we
come in constant contact. Have you ever observed the be¬
haviour of the small boy when he is dressed for a particular
occasion? It is quite different from his attitude when he is
wearing his everyday suit. A man or woman in evening clothes
feels in a more festive mood.
Colour in clothes also affects our character. The cause and
effect of colour have never been sufficiently studied. As in In¬
terior Decoration, the colours chosen for one’s personal adornment must ex¬
press the taste of the wearer rather than the taste of the particular couturiere
or tailleur, or the mode of the moment, although, of course, a fashionable
dressmaker will see that the clothes suit the client both in character and style.
One is not always the best judge of what is the correct colour combination for
his or her particular type though able to design for others. As Bobbie Burns
so well said.
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us.
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion!

In these pages a method for choosing colour combinations is given based on

this system, with a few general examples.
It is axiomatic that it is much simpler for a man to dress well than it is for a
woman. Men are bound by styles that change very little, although a man
should be careful to see that his shirts, neckwear, hosiery, and gloves follow a
general colour scheme. In my opinion, I think the best colour scheme is a
monochrome, that is the same colour throughout, or perhaps a harmony of three
colours in small patterns and, very seldom, brilliant tones. Colours that are
neutralized in i to 3 in Colour-Mixing Charts, and in any one of their tints,
make a harmonious combination. It is better not to use any of the tints
of O shade, except for light summer wear.
For a young girl the following table of colour combinations has been arranged
for different occasions and it has been purposely omitted to state to what
part of the costume the colour is applied, since in this book the author is endeav¬
ouring to give colour and not design. It will be necessary, of course, to refer
40
 THE ART OF COLOUR 4i
many times to Chapter IV, Colour Combinations,” in order to understand the
many combinations in good taste possible by this system.
Negligee: Light and delicate colours; harmonies with 3, 4, or 5, or three
colours with one complementary; tones from O to 3; in tints B, C, and D.
Example: for a blonde: green, blue-green, blue in 2-C with blue-violet
and violet design in O-B.
Morning Dress: For winter, darker tones of harmonies of three colours, or
one colour in a number of tones with one complementary. Tones 1, 2,
3, in tints A or B. Example: for brunette: red and orange 2-A with pat¬
tern or trimming in yellow i-A.
For summer, lighter harmonies of three or four colours or two colours
with one complementary. Tones 1, 2,3, or 4, in tints B or C. Example:
for brunette: orange, yellow, yellow-green i-B.
Sport Clothes: For spring, summer, and autumn, for a very young girl the
colours can be very brilliant in yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green,
blue, blue-violet, or violet O-A; for a woman the colours should be more
neutralized, 1 or 2-A or B in Colour-Mixing Charts.
For winter, warmer colours should be used, such as red, scarlet,
crimson O-A. If the brilliant colours are used it would be well to have
but one colour with two or three shades of that colour in smaller quan¬
tities. Example: for an auburn-haired girl: violet sweater O-B with
skirt of 3-A, same colour, trimmed with O-A, same colour. Tam o’
Shanter of O-D same colour.
Street Dress: For winter and late fall, darker neutralized tones 1, 2, or 3-A in
Colour-Mixing Charts. The combination should be harmonies of three
or four colours with one complementary. Example: for brunette with
medium brown hair: purple, scarlet, and crimson neutralized 3-A,
trimmed in small design with green (emerald) neutralized i-A. Gloves
neutralized purple 3-A; shoes and stockings black. Hat, combination
of purple, crimson, scarlet 2-B with small trimming of green 2-B.
For summer colours can be brighter and lighter in tone, 1, 2, and 3
in B or C. Example: young woman with prematurely gray hair; blue-
green, blue, and blue-violet, neutralized 3-D, trimmed with small design
in red 2-B.
Afternoon Dress: Colours can be a little more brilliant than for street wear
and of greater variety. Combination of four colours with one comple¬
mentary or three colours with two complementaries. Body of the
dress should be neutralized 1, 2, or 3-A, B,or C, in Colour-Mixing Charts,
42 THE ART OF COLOUR
with complementary colours in more brilliant tones than the larger
masses of colour. Example: young girl with black hair, dark complexion,
and very little colour in face: a dress of soft material in neutralized
orange, yellow, and yellow-green 2-B, relieved with trimmings such as
narrow piping of yellow-green i-A and chiffon collar, cuffs, or
ruching, in colours between blue-violet and violet, neutralized 3-A,
and a colour between violet and purple neutralized 3-A.
Dinner Gown: This dress is generally worn with a few jewels and it is nec¬
essary to consider the colour of the stones in relation to the gown. One
might call this dress a semi-ball gown and therefore the colours can be
fairly brilliant either in harmonies of 3,4, 5,or 6, or four colours with 1 or
2 neutralized complementaries generally in 1- or 2-A or B. Example:
young girl with extremely light, flaxen hair, with delicate complexion
and high colour: colour of dress in blue, blue-violet, and purple neu¬
tralized in 1-A with small pattern of trimming in crimson O-A.
• Ball Gown: As this costume must suggest the use to which it is to be put, the
ball gown may be brilliant in colour, either in light, or darker tones, and
can be of any tone or tint in Colour-Mixing Chart. Sometimes it is de¬
sirable that a ball dress be in light, sometimes in dark colours. In
either case the combination can be in harmonies of 4, 5, or 6, or three
colours and their complementaries. For a young woman with reddish
brown hair, fair complexion, and good colour, purple, crimson, scarlet
neutralized 2-B in Colour-Mixing Chart, with chiffon trimming in
yellow-green, green, blue-green neutralized 3-A, small design trimming
such as ribbon flowers in all colours used. Stockings should be neutral¬
ized crimson 2-C with gold or bronze slippers.
The suggestions made in the foregoing are only to convey to the reader an
idea of the adaptability of the Colour System. Combinations can be made by
using the same system for any costume desired.
FASHION CATALOGUE ILLUSTRATION SHOWING SHADOWS GOING TOWARD THEIR COMPLEMENTARY

Plate XLII

(
BATIK TIED AND DYED IN THREE COLOURS, YELLOW, BLUE, AND CRIMSON

Plate XLIII
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO
LANDSCAPE GARDENING

N THIS art one has great power and freedom, for here we deal
with nature s own tools and mediums. Unlike painting with
pigments, we have the colours to satisfy our aesthetic sense;
brilliants, grays and whites that no paint-maker can imitate.
To lay out an Italian garden with its formally cut trees and
flower beds, or to make the landscape a miniature wild hillside
requires colour knowledge and taste.
Flowers can be combined in the same manner as described
in Chapter IV. But perhaps it would be well to give a few sug¬
gestions as to trees and flowers as well as to the architectural details.
In arranging trees it is necessary to know the colour of the foliage in all
seasons, when seen from a distance. For example, a maple tree changes its
colour from yellow-green at first to yellow and then to red as the season ad¬
vances, whereas the birch changes only to a yellow. If we decide to make a
certain part of our garden in a harmony of yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-
green, and blue, we must use the trees which show these colours, such as the
willow, birch, beech, poplar, cedar, and blue pine. Then as the season advances
there would be a harmony of warm tones, and the effect is more than charming
when the colours of the harmony are arranged in sequence as in the Spectrum
Chart. The colour of any statuary or other ornamental work should be green
bronze or white marble because a warm-coloured bronze or a dark stone would
destroy the harmonious effect.
Perhaps we wish to make a dreamland vista of seeming great distance. Let
us then plant the yellow-greens in the foreground and the blues in the distance.
This will increase the distance, especially if our light colours are farther away.
White birch trees in the distance give the effect of fairyland and if we place
marble statues at the end of a tree-lined lane we have completed the picture.
Sometimes we wish a spot of red against blue to accentuate a certain part of
our land. Blue pines in the distance with red oak in the foreground will do this.
Sometimes a natural coloured bronze will give us the effect, or sometimes a
piece of red marble. It is not only necessary to find the rock to make a rock
garden, it is also necessary that the rock be of the right colour. Different
textures require more or less contrasts; flowers in harmony, rocks in another
harmony, and each complementary to the other as described in Chapter IV.
A flower garden that is beautiful just because it has wonderful flowers in it
will be much more beautiful if those flowers are arranged in sets of harmony
against other sets of harmony. For example, arrange roses so that the deep
43
44 THE ART OF COLOUR
crimson rose melts into a scarlet, then into a red rose, and from a deep orange-
coloured tea rose to a lighter yellow, and then to a white. On another bed
a series of violet, blue-violet, and blue flowers can be arranged. Perhaps we
wish to show our red flowers in all their gorgeousness. Let us then place as a
background a screen of blue flowers or trees. Designs can be laid out with
many kinds of flowers in the same manner as given in Chapter IV, “Colour
Combinations.”
Following is a brief list of flowers that bloom in spring, summer, and autumn
with their approximate colour in the Spectrum Chart. By using this list
in conjunction with “Colour Combinations,” Chapter IV, a garden that is
pleasing to all can be laid out in any colour combination for every season.
Note: “L” indicates “light” in colour; “D” dark. Where “L” and “D”
are both used it is because the flowers bloom both light and dark. “W”
indicates white and the other colours according to the first letter used.
 THE ART OF COLOUR 45
SPRING

Y B B
W R O Y G G G B V V P C S
*
Achillea Ptarmica .

Aquilegia chrysantha . L L L
*
Arabis.
L
Aubrietia. D
*
Bloodroot .
* D D D D D D
Crocus .
L
Daffodil. D
D

Daphne odorata L
*
Deutzia lemoinei

* L L L
Dogtooth Violet D D D
*
Feverfew.
Forget-me-not .... * L L

L
Mertensia Virginica D

Muscari. * D

* L
Narcissus. D
—
Nemesia. L

* L L L L L L L
Pansy. L
D D D D D D D
L L L
Peonies. * L
D D D

Primrose. L L

Puschkinia. L

L L L L
Rhododendron .... *
D D D D

L L
Scilla Sibirica .... *
D D

Snowball. *

Snowdrop. *

Spirea. * L L

* L
Thrift.
46 THE ART OF COLOUR
SPRING—Continued

Y B B
W R 0 Y G B V P C S
G G V
* L L L
Viola. L
D D D
Wistaria. * L

SUMMER

Y B B
W R 0 Y G B V P C S
G G V
Acidanthera bicolor *

Aconite. D
Ageratum. * L
*
Althea . L
L
D
* D
Alyssum.
——
Anchusa Italica L
Anemones, Japanese . *
L
* L L L
Antirrhinum .... L L
D D D D D
Baby’s Breath .... *
L
* L
Balsam . L L ~L L L
D D D D D D
Begonia. * D L L L

Bleeding-heart .... L
D
Buddleia. L
Calendula. D D
Camomile. L
a
Campanula. *
L
*
Candytuft. L L
D D
*
Canterbury Bell L L
D
Clarkia elegans .... L

Clematis. *
D D
Cosmos.| *
L D L
 THE ART OF COLOUR 47
SUMMER—Continued

Y B B
W R 0 Y G B V P C
G G V

* L L L L L L
Dahlia. D D D D D D
* L L L
Daisies.

Delphinium. * L D

* L L L
Di anthus. D D D

Eryngium. L

* L L L
Foxglove. D D

* L L
Funkia. D D

L L
Gaillardia. D
D

Galtonia. *

* L L
Geranium. D
D

* L L L L
Gladiolus. L
D D D D

or
L
Montbretia.
D

Mullein. L
or or r

Pentstemon. *

L L
Petunia. *
D D

* L L L
Phloxes. D D D

Physalis. L
r r

* L
Physostegia.
* L
Pink .
L L
*
Platycodon .... D D
or

* L L
Poppy . D D D

* D
Pyrethrum.
48 THE ART OF COLOUR
SUMMER—Continued

Y B B
W R 0 Y G B V P C S
G G V

L L
* L L
Rose. D D

L
Salpiglossis. L L L L
D

Salvia. L

L L
Scabiosa Japonica . D D

L L
Sea Holly. D D
*
Shasta Daisies ....

* L L L L L
Snapdragon .
D D D D D

Stachys Lanata L

Statice. L

* L L L L
Stock . D D D D
* L
Stokesia.
L L
Sunflower. L
D D

* L L L L L L L L
Sweet Pea. D D D D D D D D

* L L L L L
Sweet William ....
D D D D D
Syringa. *

Thermopsis Carolinian L

L L
Tritoma.
D D

* L L L L L L
Tulip. L
D D D D D D
*
Verbena. L L L L L
D D D D D
Veronica. D
Yucca. *

* L L L L L L L
Zinnia.
D D D D D D D
 THE ART OF COLOUR 49
AUTUMN

Y B B
W R 0 Y G B V P C S
G G V

Aster. * L L L L L L
D D D D D D
Bittersweet. D D

* L L L L L
Chrysanthemum
D D D L D D
* L L L L
Michaelmas Daisy .
D D D D

WINTER

Y B B
W R 0 Y G B V P C S
G G V
Camelia Japonica (Hot¬ *
L
house) .
* L L
Cineraria (Hothouse). L D
D D
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO
CUT FLOWERS

N ALT, nature there is nothing so ravishing as the great variety

of colour seen in flowers. Who has seen the American beauty
rose and not felt exhilaration, an elevating influence? But
the colour of flowers in combination can be either pleasant or
unpleasant. This system is adapted to the arrangement of
flowers both for the florist and for the home, for cultivated
or for the flower wonders of the field.
The preceding chapter on “Colour as Applied to Landscape
Gardening” will be found of use also in the arrangement of flow¬
ers, but as cut flowers are more personal than are large masses growing in the
garden it is well to remember not to make the combination too violent. The
harmonies for personal adornment will be found to be more pleasing. The
combinations will be found in Chapter IV, “Colour Combinations.”
For vases of flowers one can make the combination of complementanes; such
as, four adjacent colours with two complementaries or five colours with one
complementary.
When arranging flowers in the home, the colours that are used in the decora¬
tions of the furnishing should be taken into account, so that the flowers dis¬
played either be in contrast or in harmony, as explained in the chapter on
“Colour Combinations.” If we have a dark corner of a room that has no per¬
manent decoration and is uninteresting, a vase of flowers in contrast to the
colour combinations will increase the beauty of the entire room.
When winter comes we can secure at the florists numbers of dry or em¬
balmed flowers, autumn leaves, or even painted poppy bulbs or lily pods,
which, if arranged in good colour combinations, will make the home more
attractive. The drapery in the immediate vicinity must be taken into
consideration with the colours of the flowers themselves.
A good interior decoration can be enhanced or marred by the selection of the
proper colours of the cut flowers which are placed in the room.
One should always remember that the green of the foliage must also be taken
into account as one colour and the vase as another, and care should be taken to
see that the decoration of the room or the gown one is wearing will make a
correct combination. If this is followed closely you will be able to see your
favourite flowers as you have never seen them before.

50
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO
WEAVING OR TEXTILES

N THE weaving of silks, linen, wool, or cotton there is the ad¬

vantage of unity by weaving colours, one with the other, with¬
out losing brilliancy. Here colour juxtaposition can be carried
to the highest degree. The colour combinations in the masses
or designs should follow what has been laid down in Chapter
IV, “Colour Combinations.” In the present chapter I shall sug¬
gest some possible combinations to be arrived at by the woof
or filler and warp of the cloth.
Combination of Primaries: If we take a brilliant emerald-
green thread and cross it with a brilliant violet in half and half proportions;
i.e., if our woof and warp have the same number of threads of the same size,
we will have a brilliant blue cloth. This can be shaded into the blue-green
and blue-violet by increasing one or the other of the two threads to the
surface of the cloth. We can make our designs in blue, green, or violet, and
shades between these on the Spectrum Chart by the same process of dropping
the warp and allowing the woof to show in the shape of the design. If we
drop the warp and show the woof or filler the design will be violet, and if we allow
only a few threads, say one in four, of the warp to show we will have a blue-
violet design. One can readily see how many combinations are possible with
only these two colours.
If we have red and green threads and use them in the same manner there
will be a combination of red, yellow, and green, and all the shades between on
the Spectrum Chart. Red and violet will give us red, crimson, and violet, and
all the shades between. Crimson and yellow will give us crimson, red, and
yellow, and all the shades between. Yellow and blue will give yellow, green,
and blue, and all the shades between. Blue and crimson will give blue,
violet, and crimson, and all the shades between.
We have seen by the admixture of any two spectrum primaries or any two
pigmentary primaries how we can make many hues. If we take two of these
combinations in our weave we will have many more than just double the
number of shades; for example, if we use a violet and green with a yellow and
crimson we have monotones that appear violet, blue-violet, blue, blue-green,
and yellow, orange, red, scarlet, and crimson, and where the yellow thread is in
juxtaposition with the green we have yellow-green; where it crosses the violet
we have a neutralized gray. An excess of violet gives us a neutralized violet
and an excess of yellow gives a neutralized yellow. When yellow crosses
both the violet and green the result is another shade of green with much

51
52
THE ART OF COLOUR
scintillation, and if there are three violet threads showing and only one green
and one yellow, the result is a neutralized blue-violet of wonderful vitality. If
crimson crosses violet there is purple, and if purple crosses yellow and green
there is a neutralized purple. One can see how many combinations are thus
produced. If more than two sets of primaries together are used the possible
combinations are innumerable.
Triads: If we use three colours; that is, one third of the spectrum, we can
weave a cloth with all the colours; some a little neutralized, it is true, but with
red, green, and violet we can make yellow, blue, and crimson, and in the re¬
verse way, yellow, blue, and crimson produce red, violet, and green. The green
in this last mixture will not be an emerald green and the red and violet will be
a little lower in key, but they will have the added charm of vibration. White
added to any of these combinations will of course make a lighter tint and black
a darker shade.
Harmonies: In Chapter IV, “Colour Combinations,” the reader is told how
to make a harmony in three, four, five, and six colours, but if we weave only two
adjacent colours in Spectrum Chart, we must produce a shade between them,
which would make the cloth in harmony; i.e., if we weave yellow with yellow-
green, we make a green-yellow by this mixture, and if our design is yellow and
the body yellow-green, the half tones are green-yellow. But if instead of using
the yellow-green we use green, we will have a more complete harmony and
greater life in the textile.
White or black also can be used in any harmony weave without affecting the
harmony.
Of course, monochromes are used by combining one colour with black or
white.
Fabric designs (Plate XVI).
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: COLOUR DYEING AND BATIK

ERHAPS there may be a few readers who do not understand

exactly the making of a batik, and it might be well to explain
here, in as few words as possible, really what a batik is.
Java seems to have been one of the foremost nations in the
dyeing of cloth with figures and patterns in design dyed into
cotton and silk; and the Japanese seem to have carried it even
to a greater art. Cloth, from time immemorial, has been im¬
ported into Java from Holland and England, and was chiefly a
calico used by the natives as garments and head-dress. Pieter
Mijer has written an excellent book in which he explains fully how to make
dyed batik.
It is the object here simply to give the colour combinations that are possible
and the effects that can be obtained by the combinations of colours, as very
often the amateur batiker trusts to luck to get an effect, and until the cloth is
completed has not the remotest idea of the colours that will be produced.
In a brief way, the following is the method used: A pattern is drawn on the
material with a soft pencil or crayon, the cloth is then waxed with an instrument
which is called “tjanting” which is made in different shapes. Only the portions
are left exposed which are intended to be dyed in the first dyeing. After the
dyeing the wax is removed, and the portions which have been dyed are waxed
to protect them from the next dyeing. This method of waxing is repeated
many times where there are many colours, but as I have explained in the first
part of this chapter, many effects can be secured by dyeing one colour over
parts of the material already dyed one colour, instead of using numbers of dif¬
ferent dyes. As Mr. Mijer says in his book, “Many batiks are simply painted
cloth.” Without using the wax the colour is painted with a brush in the pat¬
tern desired. Of course, the colour will run in uneven forms if put on the
cloth with water only, but the author has found that it is possible, by stretching
the cloth very tightly over a chalk surface, for the dyes to be kept within
reasonable bounds, as the excess of moisture will be absorbed by the under¬
ground of chalk. He has also found that an ordinary waxed pencil can be used
instead of the melted wax in the tjanting.
Another method is by tying with a string small particles of the cloth, and
dyeing them in different colours. This allows the dye to make fantastic pat¬
terns which are sometimes very interesting; but of course this method of design
is purely accidental.
After the cloth has been dyed in the pattern and colours desired, sometimes
it is found advantageous to cover parts, or the entire cloth, with a crackle.

53
54 THE ART OF COLOUR
This is done by mixing portions of beeswax and paraffine, and dipping the
cloth in this. When this wax mixture has become hard on the cloth, it is
crumbled in the hand; so that the wax will break into fine cracks, and after¬
ward by dipping the cloth in dye of a darker colour than the pattern, the cloth
will have a network of cracks in the parts which have been exposed to the dye.
The Japanese use this “crackle” to a greater extent than the Javanese. In
fact, some fabrics are dyed only with the crackle in different colours. This is
done by waxing, crackling the wax, and dyeing in one colour, re-waxing,
crackling the wax again, and dyeing in another colour. The writer has made
some cloth by this Japanese method which has been found to be very in¬
teresting, and entirely different from the batik cloth generally done in this
country.
Many excellent books have been written on colour dyeing and batik, but in
all that one reads none gives a comprehensive and exact method of mixing dyes
to secure the most brilliant colours such as were used and understood by the
ancients. Of course, combinations of colours have much to do with the effect
of brilliancy as described in Chapter IV, “Colour Combinations.” Outside of the
juxtaposition, colour mixing as given in Chapter III is most important. There
is a slight difference between mixing dyes and mixing paints. In mixing dyes
there is the added advantage of mixing aniline dyes by both the spectrum and
the pigmentary law of colour, for the reason that cloth may be held up
to the light or used to reflect the rays of light. Therefore we may mix an
emerald-green dye with a red vermilion to secure a brilliant yellow. Further,
we can mix violet with red and secure a brilliant crimson. This is impossible
with paints except in the juxtaposition method.
By using the Spectrum Chart, Fig. i, combinations of colours can be used
either in harmony or in contrast (see Chapter IV).
For example: if a cloth is first dyed yellow, then crimson, we can produce any
of the hues between these colours in the Spectrum Chart by using more or less
of one or the other colour and allowing the cloth to stay in a weaker or stronger
solution. Certain parts of the design can be made blue-green, green, or
yellow-green over the yellow parts that have been covered with wax before
dipping into the crimson solution. These would all be brilliant colours, and if
it is desired to make a pattern superimposed, such as a crackle over all in a
neutralized colour or black, it would be necessary to leave exposed only the
parts to be so superimposed and dyed a complementary to the centre colour
arrived at by the triple dyeing. In this particular example it would be violet.
A safe rule to follow is that all colours within six on the Spectrum Chart can
 THE ART OF COLOUR 55
be produced together without lowering their brilliancy, and if it is desired to
get neutralized colours, use their complementaries as described in Chapter IV.
While it is possible to get a very dark gray by using complementaries, it
is sometimes found desirable to use black in conjunction with two comple¬
mentaries. By this method we get a deeper, richer black than by using black
only. The idea of mixing red with blue to produce a purple, and the same red
with yellow to produce an orange, or the blue with yellow, to make green as
some books on batik describe, will not give the most brilliant results. The
colours spoken of in these books as secondaries and tricendaries or tertiaries
would place colour dyeing in the same category as the old school of painting
which is sometimes known as “Brown Sauce.”
It seems that the batik art is still using the old colour theory of Newton
and Brewster, ignoring the laws of nature as discovered by Helmholtz. Red,
yellow, and blue are not the primary colours but red, green, and violet are
known by all scientists really to be the only colours in nature as explained in
the first chapter of this book. Such colours as red-brown, blue-brown, green-
brown, and orange-brown are nothing more or less than red mud, green mud,
blue mud, and orange mud.
Of course, one does not always wish to use brilliant colours in the dyeing
of cloth. However, we certainly do wish to have our fabrics pure in colour
whether they are dark gray or lighter neutralized tones. The dyer will be
greatly surprised when he or she tries the system as advocated in this book,
at the simple process of using complementary colours to make neutralized
tones and making colour combinations in conformity to the chapter on that
subject, following the formula given in Chapter III, “Colour-Mixing,” paying
particular attention to the test therein given as to what is a perfect yellow, a
perfect crimson, or a perfect blue.
 CHAPTER NINETEEN: COLOUR AS APPLIED TO STAGE
LIGHTING AND DESIGN

HE stage is an animated graphic art. On it are displayed nature,

real and unreal; themes that are objective and subjective;
truths, myths, fables; ideas and ideals—all revealed to us
through the media of language, action, form, and colour.
As I remarked at the beginning of this work, colour is the
first instinct of a child and of a savage. It may be said to be
meat to that part of the brain which is affected by the optic
nerve. Therefore, if we wish to express our ideas to others by a
basic sense we must understand the laws of colour—nature’s
laws—and how they affect the human eye.
In stagecraft we have the added power to make our colour change in hue,
tone, and tint at will, by the use of coloured lights of varying intensity. We
must therefore study not only colour mixing, colour juxtaposition, and colour
combinations, but the effect of coloured lights on colour itself. It is possible
to- paint stage scenery so that by throwing different coloured lights on the
scene an entirely different effect can be produced for the spectator by using
the light complementary to the colours on the set. For example, in Plate XXII
is a picture of an autumn scene. By covering with the red gelatine, the effect
of a snow scene will be produced. This is because the picture is painted in
scarlet, red, orange, yellow, and their complementaries—blue, blue-violet, and
violet. The first three colours being in harmony to the red filter or gelatine,
appear white, and the complementaries appear as grays of different shades.
So the trees lose their foliage of yellow, orange, and red, and the tree trunks
become bare. By closely studying this picture in daylight and under a red
filter you will notice that this seeming phenomenon is also based on this same
system of colour which is used in other arts. Many similar striking colour
effects can be produced by using coloured lights that are in harmony.
If we paint a scene in green, blue, green-blue, and blue-violet, and throw a
blue light on the picture it will disappear into a white mass, and if a red light is
thrown on it it will become black. If an object were painted with any of these
colours neutralized with their complementaries, as in Colour-Mixing Chart, the
forms so painted would not be visible until shown under a blue light. The
figure painted with any of the above neutralized colours would appear and
everything would be white. Then if a white electric arc were used the figure
would disappear. I first became familiar with these phenomena while develop¬
ing this colour system in 1912, and later published it in the Montreal Starm
1913. Many novel effects can be developed along these lines, but the most
56
 THE ART OF COLOUR 57

important part of these experiments is to show what wonderful results can be

obtained by using the correct coloured light on the correct coloured set.
In designing a set, care should be taken that the colours used form combina¬
tions as explained in Chapter IV on “ Colour Combinations,” whether in high
contrast or in low harmonies; and great care should be exercised to see that
the lights and costumes are designed at the same time and in the same scheme.
For example, if a set is to be designed to represent a garden scene, and five
colours are used with three complementaries, the combinations must include
the costume colours. These colours and their complementaries could be
yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, and blue, either o-B or i-B, and the
white used should be tinted with yellow. The costume could be white, light
gray, purple, crimson, scarlet o-B and i-B in Colour-Mixing Chart. The scene
can be changed from early morning sunlight to late night, and every colour be
a beautiful combination by using yellow-orange light (intense) on the sun-
lighted side, and blue-violet (diminished) on the shadow side. As sunset ap¬
proaches the yellow-orange is gradually changed into orange, and the shadow
light into violet; then the sunlight into red, and the shadow light into purple.
This would give the highest contrast to the sunlight, as explained in Chapter
VIII, “Sunlight Outdoors and In,” and gradually the intensity of the sun¬
light would be decreased as the sun set. Night throws a blue haze over all,
gradually changing into neutralized blue-green to 3-A. Moonlight would be a
blue-green light tint o-D.
As I have said, the stage is an animated graphic art; the study of colour for
it must necessarily follow the same system of colour which is applicable to all
the other arts described in this book.
In the simultaneous combination of different coloured lights the following
general principles will be found to apply:
If two complementary coloured lights are used on the same spot at the same
time white light will be produced. For example, red and blue lights make
white light. Of course, the colours referred to are the red and blue in the
Spectrum Chart on Plate I. The parts of the stage lighted by only one of
these colours would be red or blue.
If any two spectrum primary coloured lights are combined they make the
pigmentary primary. Green and violet lights make a blue light; green and red
lights a yellow light; red and violet lights a crimson; and in the reverse way a
crimson light and a yellow light make a red light. A yellow light and a blue
light make a green light and a blue light and a crimson light a violet light. The
laws of this system as set forth in Chapter I apply here throughout. Two of
58 THE ART OF COLOUR
the pigmentary primaries of the Spectrum combined make the inverse order.
Any coloured light thrown on a coloured pigment which is within a harmony of
six, as explained in Chapter IV, changes the colour of the pigment but will not
lower its brilliancy. Any two coloured lights that are complementary will
tend to make the light white.
While two complementary colours in light will make a white light, it must
be remembered that the object on which they are thrown must in itself be
white to show this effect. If the object is coloured, the effect of the two
complementary coloured lights will be to show the object up in its true colours
under the white light.
If any coloured light is thrown on to the same colour pigment, and no other
light is visible, all colours that are in harmonious sequence will appear white
if no other colour is within the vision f or comparison. This is, perhaps, a modi¬
fied form of the known laws of relativity. A coloured chalk drawing on the
same colour paper as the chalk itself will not be visible because there is no
way by which the eye can see the relative colour value between the chalk and
the paper. If it is desired to have a set of a sequence in harmony, such as
crimson, scarlet, red, orange, and yellow, a red light thrown on this set when no
other light is visible will be a perfect blank in so far as colour is concerned. If
we have introduced any of the other colours of the spectrum which are comple¬
mentary or nearly complementary to the light they will appear black or gray,
but if we have other light visible to the eyes of the spectators they will become
conscious, immediately, of the red colours painted in the set which will show
much more brilliancy than if they had a white light on them. This is on ac¬
count of the law of relativity.
A set may be lighted with one colour, the set being painted in harmonious
sequence, and figures or objects which are of the same colour, complementary
to the light thrown on the set may be introduced, and a spotlight thrown on to
these persons or objects, which will show them up in very brilliant colour.
This light, while itself may be complementary to the set, will have no effect on
the colour of the set, but will only light up the objects which are coloured with¬
in the light’s harmonious sequence. For example, a set may be painted in
violet, blue-violet, blue, blue-green, and green, the light thrown on the set to
be blue. A figure is introduced which is cfothed in a vermilion cloak, and a red
spotlight is thrown on to this figure. The set will in no way reflect the red
light which is thrown on the figure, and the figure itself will in no way reflect
the colour blue which is thrown on the set. This is because a colour will only
reflect the coloured rays which are in harmonious sequence.
 THE ART OF COLOUR 59
If the stage designer will but follow this system in the colour of sets, in colour
of costumes, and the colour of the lights we would have colour effects much
more wonderful and pleasing to the eye.
For the guidance of those who desire to try this system of stage lighting, I
give a table of coloured lights on coloured pigments. Some of these effects
are already known, I am aware, which have been found out by long experi¬
ments, and there are a great many more combinations possible which can
not all be listed here, but I trust the table will be a guide.
One or two things should be borne in mind, the stronger the light the more
intense can the gelatine screen be, but we cannot get more of a coloured ray of
light out of a lamp than it has in it, that is, if the light is, say, a carbon fila¬
ment lamp, we can get but very little blue light from it as it has very little
of the violet rays of light in its composition no matter how dense we make the
gelatine, whereas a Mazda-gas-filled lamp has a much greater proportion of
violet rays, and we can get much more of the blue light through. It must be
remembered blue light is made up of violet and green rays. There is a great
.deal of red rays in both kinds of light, and quite enough of the green. The
only colour with which we will find difficulty, on account of the violet rays, is
a brilliant blue; so if we do wish a set lighted brilliantly with a blue we must
use many more lights than we would for any other colour.
Another thing we must remember is that we can only reflect from a pigmen¬
tary surface the colour in which it is painted or one of its components. You
do not neutralize a colour with light of its complementary colour, it simply
does not reflect its true complementary.
For example, a yellow will reflect a yellow light, and as its components are
red and green it will reflect both of these colours. It will, therefore, naturally
also reflect the hues between, yellow-green and orange.
The names of colours of the gelatines are taken the same as in the Spectrum
Chart on Plate I. I understand that crimson is called magenta; and yellow,
light amber; orange, dark amber, etc.; but I think it would be an advantage
if the electrician called his colours the same as the artist who paints the sets
calls his paints. It certainly would avoid some confusion. However, any one
can translate these colours into the regular names now used by using the
Spectrum Chart on Plate I.
It is suggested that you find out first just what proportion of each coloured
ray your light has. This can be done by holding the Spectrum Chart, on page
i, up to the light, and if any colour does not show up as brilliant as it does in
daylight you know it has less of that coloured ray.
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 THE ART OF COLOUR 61

As all gelatine is dyed with aniline dyes there is a fluorescence which gives it
the quality of being able to let two rays pass at the same time. Violet or
purple gelatine is very marked in this respect. Some anilines do not do this.
The lighter the coloured pigment the more it will reflect other rays besides
its own, especially the colours near to it in the Spectrum Chart.
Plate XXII—Coloured Lights on Pigments.
When the sets are lighted from back stage the light thrown toward the audi¬
ence will not be changed in the intensely lighted part, but as the rays go away
from the source of light they will blend into the lights thrown on the set from
the front. In this way many beautiful iridescent effects can be produced.
 CHAPTER TWENTY: PRACTICAL COLOUR FOR
HOUSE PAINTERS

HE journeyman painter is interested in colour because usually

he does not know how to mix his paints to produce certain tones
and tints. He is, of course, hampered by being compelled to
use a cheaper grade of paint than the artist uses. He is also in¬
terested in knowing what colours will go well together. For this
he is referred to Chapter IV, “Colour Combinations,” for the
general principles are the same wherever colour is used. He is
advised to study this chapter thoroughly and to understand
what is meant by Colour Harmonies, Colour Contrasts, and
Colour Complementaries. He will find that his customers will like any of
these combinations provided they desire harmonies or contrasts as explained
in Chapter XIII, “Interior Decoration.”
Concerning colour mixing, he can use colours already mixed to nearly the
colour he wishes, but if the tone is to be altered he must add a little of the
pure colour he wishes to approach. The mixture of complementaries is too
expensive for house painting, and the painter must use black to neutralize his
colour. If he is careful of which black he uses he will injure the purity of his
colour much less than if he does not observe this precaution. For example,
if he wishes to lower the brilliancy of violet, blue, or green, let him use blue-
black, and if he wishes to lower the colour of purple, crimson, or scarlet, let him
use jet-black; and if red, orange, or yellow, let him use Vandyke brown or ivory
black, adding as much white as will make the desired tint. If he uses blue-black
to try to lower a red, let us say, he will change the red into a neutralized purple.
If he uses jet-black with blue he will change it into a neutralized blue-green.
If he uses ivory black with blue he makes a neutralized yellow-green. If he
uses ivory black with green he changes it into a neutralized yellow-green.
Therefore a painter should know just what colour will result by the mixture of
any black, recognizing what hue the black is. This can be determined by
mixing the black with a little white, remembering, however, that most whites
have a little blue in their composition to neutralize the yellow-orange colour
of the oil; or in water colour, the colour of the binder used. Unfortunately,
even some artists still use black in mixing their colours regardless of the fore¬
going, and the result is their pictures are far, very far, from the colours of
nature.
By using the Colour-Mixing Chart the painter can show his customer any
colour that he is able to mix.
First, mix the pure colour to be used, then add the right black, allowing for
62
 THE ART OF COLOUR 63
the colour of the oil or binder, adding sufficient white to make the desired tint.
In this way many pounds of paint will be saved and a much more beautiful
colour will result.
To find out what certain colours are—such as, raw umber (a very neutral¬
ized yellow); burnt sienna (a neutralized red), turn to Chapter XXII, “Dic¬
tionary of Colour.”
 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: COLOUR IN RELATION TO MUSIC

UMBERS of books have been written on the relation of colour

to music. There is, of course, an analogy between the two arts
which is based on the similarity of emotion created by beau¬
tiful colour and beautiful sound. Our sub-conscious self, our
soul, can be elevated to the heights of the seventh heaven by the
elation of rhythmic sounds or harmonious colour combinations.
It is on account of the analogy of the two emotions that many
have promulgated the idea that sound and colour can be ex¬
pressed at one and the same time, and that therefore by their
simultaneous employment we would derive enhanced appreciation of both arts.
There is, in addition, an analogy between the number of waves in both sound
and colour, but is not this analogy like two railroad trains both travelling at
the same rate of speed on parallel tracks in the same direction to the same place?
The vibrations which affect the eye and those which affect the ear are conveyed
to different parts of the brain and produce two distinct impressions, both of
which are felt, it is true, almost simultaneously.
The writer makes bold to put forth the theory that it is impossible for the
human mind to feel any two emotions at the same time. Perhaps from a path¬
ological standpoint this is a new thought. The reader can himself try the ex¬
periment of looking at a picture while hearing music; he will see that it is im¬
possible to hear the music and see the picture at the same moment. It may be
only an infinitesimal fraction of a second’s difference when the sound is heard
and the picture seen. The space of time between these brain vibrations may
be so infinitesimal that it is almost imperceptible. Many musicians insist
on very little light being in the room when they play so that the mind can
concentrate on the music.
Colour is a graphic art, music is not. The former is used to-day in all the
graphic arts, but in none of the other arts as poetry or music, either
vocal or instrumental. It is true that when we hear certain compositions
we get sensations of colour, but as I have explained in Chapter XI, “Colour
Psychology,” this is simply a psychological suggestion or association of ideas in
the same way that colour suggests certain ideas from early association with
them.
With the present scales in music now used by the Occidental the writer is
unable to make the vibrations of colour coincide. Perhaps, if some of the
Oriental music scales were used it would be possible to make the two synchro¬
nize perfectly, and certain combinations of colour might give us the same sen¬
sation as certain combinations of sound. There are, I believe, different scales
64
 THE ART OF COLOUR 65
at present founded on each degree in the diatonic scale. Perhaps some mu¬
sician can find a scale which will coincide with this colour system.
As I have already said, colours must be combined in harmonies or contrasts
to form a pleasing composition of colour, so one note of music and one colour
only would hardly express a theme.
Regarding so-called colour music or an art of colour only it has already been
said in the introduction that one can hardly call colour or a combination of
colours alone high art. Coloured lights can be thrown on a screen in com¬
binations or in succession, or pictures can be painted from which we derive a
certain amount of elation, but if the colours express some form they will satisfy
to a greater degree our aesthetic sense. It is not necessary to portray some
known form of nature, for sometimes a fantastic shape or some flat design that
resembles nothing we have ever seen before is very beautiful and satisfying,
especially if the design is in good composition and form. Mineral oil thrown
on water on the street has attracted many of us, times without number. So
if we are to have a new art called Colour Art or Colour Music or Colour Poetry,
let us not forget that colour is a plastic art and so must be expressed in plastic
form.
Perhaps some day someone will be able to give us an art with the help of the
moving picture machine or other movable lighting effect which will make us
feel the height of emotion which is possible in music. Mr. A. Wallace Riming-
ton has already succeeded in giving to us what he calls his “Colour Organ,”
which by the constant changing of colour on a screen gives us certainly a
very pleasing sensation. This is done by means of a keyboard similar to,
and played upon like, the piano. But the writer has found with numbers
of experiments that the same colour does not give the same emotion to all
people alike. In the chapter on “Colour Psychology” the reason has been ex¬
plained for this divergence of feeling in regard to all colours. But, in addition
to this, it has also been found that all eyes do not see colour in the same pro¬
portion. In certain eyes the green which is sensitive to the green light is more
developed than in others; and then again the violet is more developed, and in
others the red.
All things in nature are relative. By the law of relativity we know that
there is no positive time or space. Things are measured, seen, or felt by the
relationship of one thing to another. Colour or music is no exception to this
law. If a red light is thrown on to a crimson, scarlet, red, orange, or yellow
picture, and if no other rays of light are visible to the eye, the picture so
painted will appear to be a perfectly white canvas. It is the same as if we draw
66 THE ART OF COLOUR
with red crayon on red paper. The retina of the eye is covered with red rays,
and therefore no red sensations are possible while the red light enters the eye.
This, of course, applies to all the other colours of the spectrum. If we have
another coloured ray by which to compare this red we will immediately
become conscious of the red reflections from the picture. It can be seen by
this argument that it is necessary to have something with which to compare
one colour with another. One note in music in itself has no beauty, but by
the sequence of tones we can create harmonies or discords. So in colour,
more than one tone or hue must be visible at the same time so that we can
appreciate the relative sequence. I reiterate, colour is a graphic art. One
colour wave after another thrown on a screen in flat masses would create no
emotion, but if colours are thrown on a screen even in clouded masses or uneven
forms with different colours showing at the same time we are able to feel
a sensation which, perhaps, some day may be developed into a colour poem.
(9See Appendix.)
 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: DICTIONARY OF COLOURS—
THEIR PLACE IN THE SPECTRUM AND THEIR CHEMICAT
COMPOSITIONS

HE following dictionary of colour has been compiled from knowi¬

ng6 gleaned from many sources, for ready reference. The
chemical consistencies of each pigment have been compiled
from the latest chemical researches and ancient data. The
placing of the colours in their relative position on the Spectrum
Chart has been done so that the artist or layman can under¬
stand how to mix them to get hues, tones, and tints; how to
neutralize them with their complementary; to make colour
combinations and their accepted psychological significance.
Many paints are named after the ancient colours which were not permanent
which are now made permanent by using a different chemical, such as the
madders, Indian yellow, lakes, etc.
I give here a suggestion for a permanent palette for the artist:

Zinc white or the new titanium whites which are approximately 25% ti¬
tanium dioxide and 75% precipitated barium sulphate.
Alizarin crimson
Aureolin, barium yellow, zinc yellow, or pale cadium called daffodil
Emeraude green or veridian
Light ultramarine
Yellow ochre
French vermilion )
Cobalt violet f ^at tlmeS when a brilIiant colour is desired)

Black is made by the mixture of two complementaries only.

67
68 THE ART OF COLOUR
Name of Colour Number of Page Name of Colour ' Number of Page

00
Al'zarin Crimson. 73 Intense Blue.

OO OO'-J NO 'vj
qo On NO NO O vj
Asphaltum. 7® Italian Pink.
Aureolin. 8o Ivory Black.
Azure Blue. 86 King’s Yellow.
Barium Yellow. 7^ Lamp Black.
Bitumen. 7^ Leitch’s Blue..
Black Lead. 90 Lemon Yellow.

m
Blue Black. 90 Light Red.
Bone Brown. 77 Madder Carmine... .

to u>
Brown Madder. 77 Madder Lakes.
Brown Pink. 77 Malachite Green....
Mineral Gray.

to to co h s) ^
Burnt Sienna. 74

CO QO OO OONl
Burnt Umber. 76 Mummy Brown....
Cadmium Yellow (pale). 79 Naples Yellow.
Cadmium Yellow (middle) . 79 Neutral Tint.
Cadmium Orange (deep). 80 Olive Green.
Caledonian Brown. 76 Olive Lake.
Orange Vermilion . .

CO CO-vJ OO'vJ'-vJ
NO NO O
Cappagh Brown... 75
Cassel Brown. 75 Orpiment..
Chinese Blue. 85 Payne’s Gray.
Chrome Green 1. 83 Permanent Crimson

On 4* 4- CO
Chrome Green 2. 83 Permanent Mauve. .
Chrome Green 3. 83 Prussian Blue.
Chrome Yellow (pale) . 80 Raw Sienna.
Chrome Yellows, Middle, Deep, and Orange . 80 Raw Umber.
Rose Madder. ......

On b) U
Cinnabar.-.~.. 70
Cobalt Blue. 85 Scarlet Lake.
Cobalt Violet. 88 Smalt.
Strontium Yellow. .

OO CO oovj vj
Coelin Blue. 87

HHVO
Coeruleum. 87 Terra Rosa.
Cologne Earth.- 75 Terre Vert.
Crimson Lake. 72 Ultramarine Ash....
Cyanine. 86 Ultramarine Blue...
Emerald Green. 81 Vandyke Brown....
Field’s Orange Vermilion. 70 Venetian Red.
French Ultramarine...1 87 Vermilion.

o
Gamboge.!. 81 Verdigris.

^ Oh bO
Green Oxide of Chromium, Emeraude. 83 Verona Brown.

Oh CO OO vj
Harrison Red. 72 Veronese Green.
Indian Brown. 75 Viridian.
Indian Red. 71 White.
Indian Yellow. 81 Yellow Ochre. C04-
Indigo. 85 Zinc Yellow....
 DICTIONARY OF COLOURS
White
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Reflects all colours. If white light is decomposed it will separate into red, green, and
violet rays.
History
In early times there were the following whites:
Flake White, which was made by the acid of grapes with lead.
White Lead, which was the rust of lead formed with vinegar.
Horn White, which was the earth calcined from horn.
Pearl White, which was the powder of pearl or fine parts of oyster shells.
Troy White, which was chalk neutralized by the addition of water in which alum was dis¬
solved.
Eggshell White, which was powdered eggshells.
Chemical properties
The modern colourman makes the following:
Flake White, good for painting primer on canvas or painting ground. Foundation white,
Cremnitz white, and flake white mixed with turpentine only are good for priming
canvas or painting ground previous to painting on it as it gives a tooth on which sub¬
sequent painting will take hold.
F[ew White is a mixture of zinc white and Cremnitz white. All mixtures of lead white
and zinc white are more permanent than lead whites alone.
Silver White, French White, and Blanc d’Argent are all carbonates of lead. Less body
than flake white but otherwise similar in their characteristics.
Zinc White, oxide of zinc. Present mode of manufacturing makes this a very pleasant
white to handle. It has been improved upon within the last few years so that
the working body is the same as lead white. It will mix with all pigments that are
in themselves permanent and is much, the safest white to use, unless some
manufacturer will make a white of calcined horn, as the writer believes the ancients
used.
Chinese White is another white that comes from zinc.
Permanent White or Baryta White, precipitated sulphate of barium, is not satisfactory
because of its lack of opacity.
Winton White, a combination of lead and zinc white, is permanent and very pleasant to
work with.
Hamburg White is a mixture of two thirds barium sulphate and one third white lead.
It is permanent but is apt to become transparent.
Cremnitz White is similar to flake white. Inferior in body though superior in whiteness.
Dutch White contains one fourth white lead and three fourths barium sulphate. It is
permanent and good for priming canvas.
Permalba. This is a new white made by Weber & Company which is made approxi¬
mately of 25% titanium dioxide and 75% precipitated barium sulphate.
White Lead, which is carbonate and hydrate of lead, is very much used by modern print¬
ers. It has a tendency to become yellow or brown with age or exposure to sulphur
fumes. It undergoes a gradual loss of opacity. Not good to mix with many other

69
 70 THE ART OF COLOUR
colours, such as vermilion, chrome, or cobalt. White lead is sometimes known as
flake white.
Psychology
It is the symbol of purity and sacrifice to the Occidental; a sign of mourning to some
Orientals, such as the Javanese and Koreans.

REDS

Vermilion or Cinnabar
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Reflects the red rays of the spectrum. There are slightly different hues, some more toward
the orange, and others more toward the scarlet. Chinese vermilion is scarlet in hue;
English vermilion has an orange hue; and French vermilion is the true red of the spectrum.
It is claimed by the Chinese to be found in natural state. It can be imitated to a more or
less brilliant degree by the mixture of crimson and yellow, or orange, chrome, and alizarin
crimson, but no mixture of two colours can equal the brilliancy of vermilion itself. French
vermilion is one of the primaries of the spectrum as near as the colourman has been able
to make. Its complementary is blue.
History
It is a very ancient colour and was used by the sixteenth-century painters as a ground
on which to glaze other colours. It has been used by the Chinese for centuries.
Chemical properties
If it is pure it is made of sulphide of mercury, which is sulphur and quicksilver. There
is also black sulphide of mercury known as sethiope mineralis. Vermilion is a permanent
colour; is not good to use in fired enamel because it is volatile. Not good to mix with
white lead, as the sulphur and lead combine in time to make a dark mud colour.
Psychology
It is the symbol of war, passion, danger, and courage.

Orange-V ermilion
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a bright red-orange very nearly the colour of orange in the Spectrum Chart. Mix¬
tures can be made as with vermilion. Its complementary is a slightly violet-blue.

History
Same as vermilion.

Chemical properties
Same as vermilion.

Psychology
Is a symbol of glory, heat, laughter, harvest, and plenty, autumn, happiness, and warmth.

Field’s Orange-Vermilion
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
The same as orange-vermilion, a little more brilliant but not so opaque. ’
 THE ART OF COLOUR 7i
History
See vermilion.
Chemical 'properties
Same as vermilion.
Psychology
Same as vermilion.

Light Red
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized red and can be mixed with vermilion with a little blue and white, or
crimson, yellow, blue, and white.
History
See Venetian red.
Chemical properties
It is an oxide of iron or ochrous earth, and is permanent.
Psychology
The same as red only in a milder degree on account of its neutralization.

Venetian Red, Terra Rosa, or Light Red

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized scarlet. Its complementary is blue-green. It can be mixed with crim¬
son and yellow and neutralized with emeraude green.
History
A very ancient colour used for underpainting especially by the northern Italians in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The picture was painted in monochrome of this
colour. Perhaps this is the reason why some of these pictures get brown in later years,
as the underground always works up to the surface.
Chemical properties
Venetian red is an oxide of iron; is permanent.
Psychology
Same as red.

Indian Red
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized scarlet and can be made from a mixture of alizarin crimson and a little
yellow or vermilion and crimson, or crimson and orange—each combination being neu¬
tralized with blue-green. Its complementary is blue-green.
History
A very old pigment. See Venetian red.
Chemical properties
Indian red is an oxide of iron. It is very strong and will work through the other colours.
It is permanent, but when used on the palette it modifies all colours.
 72 THE ART OF COLOUR
Psychology
Same as scarlet.

Crimson Lake
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Is a crimson tending slightly toward purple. Its complementary is green tending
slightly toward yellow-green.
History
It is an ancient colour but was found by the old masters to vary greatly in its value in
regard to permanency, some standing well as a glaze, others made in the same way being
fugitive.
Chemical properties
At present this colour is made with alizarin crimson instead of as was formerly done
with cochineal bugs the same as carmine.
Psychology
Denotes beauty, glory, courteousness, and generosity.

ffarrison Red
Its place in the spectrum, and its complementary
It is a scarlet. Its complementary is a blue-green.
History
This is a new combination of pigments, and its permanency is considered good, but as it
has been used for a very few years, what it will be after being painted many years is im¬
possible to tell.
Chemical properties
A semi-transparent lake colour of scarlet hue, made from a product of the modern dye
industry. Unsafe in mixtures with certain metallic pigments and ochrous earths, as this
colour dries exceptionally slowly, taking perhaps one, two, or three weeks to dry, and in
the drying it throws off oil into other colours surrounding it, changing their colour by
the addition of oil—therefore it is not recommended.
Psychology
Denotes blood, anger, beauty, glory.

Scarlet Lake
Its place in the spectrum, and its complementary
Is a modified crimson alizarin; semi-transparent. Its complementary is blue-green.
History
See alizarin crimson, of which it is now made.
Chemical properties
Less permanent than either of its components. Harrison red is now used for this colour,
but it dries very poorly and takes about six weeks sometimes to dry.
Psychology
Denotes blood and anger.
 THE ART OF COLOUR
/ 73
Permanent Crimson or Alizarin Crimson
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Is the true crimson in the spectrum. Red light and violet light will produce crimson
light. Its complementary is emerald green.
History
A modern discovery of Dr. Caro of Mannheim.
Chemical properties
Perfectly permanent under all conditions, it is very powerful, and for that reason many
artists prefer the diluted colour such as the madders which are now made from alizarin.
It is the only coal tar colour which is really permanent.
Psychology
It symbolizes beauty, glory, and generosity.

Madder Lakes and Alizarin Lakes

Their place in the spectrum and their complementary
They are crimson, slightly scarlet. Their complementary is emeraude green.
History
See alizarin crimson.
Chemical properties
The madder lakes are the most permanent of the rich red lakes. These pigments were
obtained by precipitating colouring matter extracted from the root of theRubia tinctorum
plant on an aluminum or tin base, but now generally made from alizarin.
Psychology
Same as crimson.

Madder Carmine
Its place in, the spectrum and its complementary
It is crimson; its complementary is green.
History
A very old dye. See Crimson Lake.
Chemical properties
Madder carmine is the richest of the lakes and is the only comparatively durable car¬
mine if made with alizarin, but if made with the cochineal bug not so durable.
Psychology
Denotes bloodshed and anger.

Rose Madder
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a pale crimson, slightly scarlet. Its complementary is green, slightly blue-green.
Pink madder and madder lake are other names for rose madder.
History
See other Madders.
 74 THE art of colour

Chemical properties, whether permanent or not.

See other madders and alizarin crimson of which, it is now made.
Psychology
Signifies anger and bloodshed.

YELLOWS

Yellow Ochre
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Is a neutralized yellow-orange. Its complementary is blue-violet, more violet than blue.
Native and Roman, ochre, burnt and brown ochres, transparent golden ochre are only
fancy names for varieties of yellow ochre, the tints and methods of production varying
slightly.
History
One of the oldest colours used.
Chemical properties
Yellow ochre is a native oxide of iron and is permanent. It can be mixed with yellow
andorange, yellow and red, or yellow and crimson—each combination neutralized by blue-
violet and white added. Native and Roman ochre, burnt and brown ochres, trans¬
parent golden ochre are all permanent oxides of iron. When the ochre is burnt and
turns more red it becomes a neutralized orange or neutralized red and gets its psychologi¬
cal properties from the colour it most resembles.
Psychology
As it is more yellow than orange it signifies decay, deceit, indecency, inconsistency, and
sickness. The orange gives a slight suggestion of plenty and harvest.

Raw Sienna
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Is a grayed-yellow-orange the same as yellow ochre. Its complementary is blue-violet,
more violet than blue.
Chemical properties
It is ferrous hydroxide of iron and clay. It is permanent, and is nearly transparent,
similar to golden ochre.
Psychology
Same as yellow ochre.

Burnt Sienna
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized red and can be mixed from crimson and yellow or vermilion neutralized
by its complementary, blue.
Chemical properties
It is raw sienna calcined. This earth dries badly in oil and cracks if the picture is var¬
nished too soon. As it can be mixed with the colours of the regular palette there is no use
having it, especially as the artist is apt to use it in any and all kinds of mixtures, making
the picture all “Brown Sauce.”
 THE ART OF COLOUR 75
Psychology
Symbolizes in a modified degree war, passion, danger, and courage.

Vandyke Brown
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized orange. Can be mixed with orange neutralized with its complemen¬
tary, blue-violet.
History
A very old colour.
Chemical properties
It is a brown earth, but does not dry well; in fact, the writer believes it cracks very badly
if varnished before the picture has been dry for a year or so.
Psychology
Same as orange only very weak in its effect because of its deep neutralization.

Cassel Brown
Their place in the spectrum and their complementary
Is a neutralized orange. Its complementary is blue-violet.
Chemical properties
An earth which differs from Vandyke brown only in tint and name.
Psychology
Same as Vandyke brown.

Indian Brown and Cologne Earth

Their place in the spectrum and their complementary
Are more neutralized than Vandyke brown. Complementary is blue-violet.
History
Ancient colours.
Chemical properties
Cologne earth is a fossil substance. Very good for making illustrations for reproduc¬
tions as the camera photographs a deep rich shadow, and the high-lights look bluish when
this colour is mixed with any white, especially zinc white.
Psychology
Same as Vandyke brown.

Cappagh Brown
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Is a neutralized orange made by the admixture of blue-violet and orange. Its comple¬
mentary is blue-violet.
History
An ancient colour.
Chemical properties
It is a combination of oxides of iron and manganese; fairly permanent.
 76 THE ART OF COLOUR

Psychology
Denotes warmth, plenty, contentment, and harvest.

Verona Brown
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Is a yellow-orange neutralized with violet-blue-violet. Its complementary is violet-blue-
violet.
History
An old colour.
Chemical properties
Is obtained by calcining the native earth (terre verte); consists chiefly of magnesium
silicate coloured with oxide of iron; fairly permanent.
Psychology
Being more orange than yellow it symbolizes warmth, plenty, and contentment in a
lesser degree than Cappagh brown.

Raw Umber
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a yellow-orange more neutralized than Verona brown. Its complementary is violet-
blue-violet.
History
A very old colour.
Chemical properties
It is a compound of iron and silicate, an ochrous earth. Permanent under all conditions.
It has a good drying quality, better than other ochrous colours.
Psychology
Same as Verona brown.

Burnt Umber
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized orange a bit redder than Cappagh brown. Its complementary is
blue-violet. It can be mixed with red and a little light ultramarine.
History
A very old pigment.
Chemical properties
It is the raw umber calcined.
Psychology
Signifies happiness, contentment, warmth, plenty, and harvest.

Caledonian Brown
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized reddish orange. Its complementary is blue-violet. Can be mixed
with red and green.
 THE ART OF COLUUR 77
Chemical pnrr/perties
It is a useful colour, made by mixing two brown earths, and is therefore reliable.
Psychology
Signifies happiness, contentment, warmth, plenty, and harvest.

Bone Brown and Mummy Brown

Their place in the spectrum and their complementary
They are a highly neutralized orange. They are complementary to blue-violet. Can
be mixed with orange and blue-violet.
History
Very old colours.
Chemical properties
They are of organic origin. The first is obtained by a particular calcination of bones,
while the latter is actually the ground-up body of a mummy. Both are bad driers in oil,
and not particularly desirable.
Psychology
Same as orange.

Brown Madder
It: place in the spectrum and its complementary
11 is -scarlet neutralized with blue-green. Its complementary is blue-green.
lliit'/ry
An ancient colour.
Chemical properties
formerly made from the madder root. It has been proved to be impermanent by official
trial. Can l>e made with alizarin crimson, barium yellow, and blue ultramarine, which
would then be permanent.
Psychology
To a very limited extent it expresses rest and studiousness.

Brown-Pink
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized orange. Its complementary is blue-violet.
History
A comparatively modem colour.
Chemical properties
It is obtained from the quercus nigra (quercitron) bark. Not permanent.
Psychology
Symbolizes the same as orange.

Italian Pink
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is an orange-yellow, not pink at all. Its complementary is a slightly blue-violet.
78 THE ART OF COLOUR
History
A comparatively modern colour.
Chemical properties.
It is made of quercus nigra bark. Not permanent.
Psychology
Being more yellow than orange it symbolizes the psychological properties of yellow?
cowardice, indecency, decay, deceit, inconsistency, and sickness.

Yellow Lake
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is yellow with just a small amount of orange. Its complementary is violet.
History
A comparatively modern colour.
Chemical properties
It is a colour of vegetable extraction; not permanent.
Psychology
It has the psychological properties of yellow.

Asphaltum or Bitumen
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Its colour is a neutralized yellow-orange. It can be mixed with orange with a little yel¬
low neutralized with blue-violet. A slightly violet-blue-violet is its complementary.
History
A very old paint, and the cause of much of the “Brown Sauce” of some of the old masters.
Chemical properties
It is a natural pitch, unchangeable in colour but affected by the temperature so that it
runs on the canvas in warm weather.
Psychology
Same as orange.

Lemon Yellow or Barium or Zinc Yellow

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a pale yellow with a greenish tinge. It can be made from the mixture of chrome
yellow, a very small amount of yellow-green, and white. Its complementary is violet
with a very small amount of crimson added.
History
A comparatively modern colour.
Chemical properties
This colour when compounded from zinc yellow or barium salts is permanent. Also pale
•admium or daffodil yellow is, to all intents, permanent.
Psychology
Denotes cowardice, indecency, decay, deceit, inconsistency, and sickness.
 THE ART OF COLOUR 79
Strontium Yellow
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Is slightly greened yellow with violet slightly purple for its complementary.
History
A modern colour.
Chemical properties
It is a chromate of strontium. It is more brilliant than but inferior in permanency to
lemon-yellow.
Psychology
Same as yellow.

King’s Yellow or Orpiment

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is almost the true spectrum yellow in colour. Its complementary is violet.
History
A very ancient colour.
Chemical properties
It is made of sulphide of arsenic and is a deadly poison. It is not permanent.
Psychology
Symbolizes same as yellow.

Cadmium Yellow; pale or Daffodil Yellow

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is yellow, very slightly orange. Its complementary is violet.
History
A modern colour.
Chemical properties
It is a sulphide of cadmium and because of the sulphur in its composition it is not perma¬
nent in mixtures that are affected by sulphur (lead chromes, white lead, etc.) Not reliable
only on account of manufacturers not being careful in using an oil in which acid has been
the bleaching agent. Also made by mixture of cadmium, middle, and chromate of zinc.
Psychology
Same as yellow.

Cadmium Yellow (middle)

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is an orange-yellow. Its complementary is violet with a very small amount of blue-
violet added.
History
A modern colour.
Chemical properties
It is sulphide of cadmium and is more orange than pale cadmium yellow. See pale cad¬
mium.

I
8o THE ART OF COLOUR
Psychology
Same as yellow-orange.

Cadmium Orange (deep)

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a yellow-orange. Its complementary is violet, slightly more blue-violet on account
of the orange tone. It will not make a brilliant green.
History
A modern colour.
Chemical properties
It is made of sulphide of cadmium. A permanent colour except in lead mixtures. See
pale Cadmium.
Psychology
Tending more toward orange than toward yellow, it symbolizes warmth, laughter, and
plenty.

Chrome Yellow (pale)

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is yellow with a small amount of white. Its complementary is violet.
Chemical properties
It is a chromate of lead and other lead salts of a lemon hue; good covering power but not
permanent. This pale chrome is not nearly as permanent as the deeper shades. In water
colours it is too opaque for use with transparent colours.
Psychology
Denotes same as yellow.

Chrome Yellows, Middle and Deep, and Orange

Their place in the spectrum and their complementary
Are similar gradations to cadmium yellow. Their complementary is violet going
toward blue-violet as the chromes deepen.
History
A comparatively modern colour.
Chemical properties
They are liable to be decomposed by chemical reactions occurring in mixtures, but when
mixed with an oleoresinous medium (varnish) they will probably be permanent under all
conditions. With the palette suggested in the first part of this chapter these chromes
will stand indefinitely if a varnish medium is used.
Psychology
They denote the same as yellow for the chrome yellows, and as orange for the chrome
oranges.

Aureolin
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a true yellow. Violet is its complementary.
 THE ART OF COLOUR 81

Chemical properties
It is composed of the nitrates of cobalt and potassium. It is permanent, and safer than
gamboge or Indian yellow.
Psychology
Denotes cowardice, indecency, decay, deceit, inconsistency, sickness, sunlight, and
brightness.

Gamboge
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is yellow with a touch of orange added. Its complementary is violet with a very small
amount of blue-violet mixed with it.
History
A very ancient colour, formerly brought by camels from the East.
Chemical properties
It is a kind of resinous material better in water than in oils. Not permanent.
Psychology
Means, in a slightly modified degree, the same as yellow.

Indian Yellow
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is very much like gamboge in colour and can be made from the addition of a small
amount of orange to yellow. Its complementary is violet with a tinge of blue-violet.
History
Formerly known to the old masters as gallstone; it was made from bile of oxen.
Chemical properties
If made from animal excrement substances, as was formerly done, it is not permanent,
but if made from bichromate of potassium it is fairly permanent. Also made of naph-
thol yellows.
Psychology
Same as yellow-orange.

Naples Yellow
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
A light orange-yellow. Its complementary is violet with some blue-violet.
Chemical properties
Naples yellow in pure form is made of lead antimoniate, but as this is not permanent, a
mixture of cadmium yellow and zinc white is invariably substituted. The colour can be
made by a mixture of yellow, orange, and white.
Psychology
Same as yellow and orange.

GREENS
Emerald Green
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is the lightest and most brilliant green. Its colour is nearly the true green of the
spectrum. Crimson is its complementary.
82 THE ART OF COLOUR
History
It has been used for many centuries. The old Italian masters used it, but only in varnish
painting, which protects it from the air; used in this way will change but very little if not
mixed with any other colour.
Chemical properties
It is composed of arsenic, copper, and acetic acid. It is not permanent in mixtures.
Psychology
Denotes victory, contemplation, immortality, and faith.

Malachite Green
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a slightly neutralized green. Its complementary is crimson. It can be made with
emeraude, a little yellow, and white.
History
Supposed to be, in the ancient times, ground stone called malachite.
Chemical properties
It is obtained from the mineral malachite.
Psychology
It denotes victory, faith, immortality, and contemplation.

Verdigris
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Its colour is green with a little yellow-green and white added. Its complementary is
crimson with a bit of purple added.
History
A very ancient colour, but never found to be permanent.
Chemical properties
It is compounded from acetic acid and copper. It is fugitive and liable to change more
than those greens first mentioned.
Psychology
Same as green.

Olive Green
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a colour between yellow and yellow-green neutralized a little. Its complementary
is a colour between violet and purple.
Chemical properties
It is a mixture of yellow and blue pigments; dependable on its brilliancy as to what colours
it is made of.
Psychology
So strongly yellow it partakes in a modified degree of the psychological meaning of yellow.

Olive Lake
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized yellow-green. Its complementary is purple.
 THE ART OF COLOUR 83
History
See other lakes.
Chemical properties
It is a mixture of yellow and blue pigments and is not dependable.
Psychology
It symbolizes youth, cheerfulness, peace, faith, and springtime.

Chrome Green 1
Its place in the spectrum and. its complementary
It is a yellow-green; purple is its complementary. It is used a great deal by house paint¬
ers, and the colours that it makes in later years are sometimes interesting to give an an¬
tique effect.
History
A modern colour.
Chemical properties
It is a double precipitate of chrome yellow and Prussian blue, and on account of the
impermanency of Prussian blue turns black in the course of years. For the artist this
colour is not necessary, as the real chromium green, known as emeraude or viridian,
takes its place, and is permanent.
Psychology
It symbolizes youth, cheerfulness, peace, and faith.

Chrome Green 2
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a trifle bluer than green. Its complementary is crimson with a touch of scarlet
added.
Chemical properties
Same as Chrome Green 1.
Psychology
It signifies faith, immortality, and contemplation.

Chrome Green 3
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is blue-green. Its complementary is scarlet.
Chemical properties
Same as Chrome Green 1.
Psychology
Denotes semi-mystery, song, poetry, and high thinking.

Green Oxide of Chromium, fimeraude

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a colour between green and blue-green, just a shade neutralized. Its complementary
84 THE ART OF COLOUR
lies between crimson and scarlet.
Chemical properties
Unalterable under all conditions; mixes well with white. It will stand the fiercest heat
unchanged. It is a chromium oxide.
Psychology
Denotes faith, immortality, and contemplation; also mystery, poetry, and song.

Veronese Green or Viridian

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
In France it is known as vert emeraude (emeraude green). It is a blue-green not quite
as blue as Chrome Green 3. Its complementary is scarlet with a little of crimson.
History
A comparatively new colour to the artist’s palette, mistaken by one noted chemist of
artists’ colours for the same as emerald green which is an entirely different thing; this
colour has taken the place of green ultramarine.
Chemical Properties
It is a brilliant hydrated oxide of chromium. It is perfectly permanent and very useful,
particularly to make a very near approach to the brilliancy of emerald green by mixing
with zinc yellow and white. '

Psychology
It symbolizes semi-mystery, song, poetry, and high thinking.

Terre Vert
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized green mixed with white. Its complementary is crimson.
History
A very ancient colour used in olden times as a body colour on which to glaze the more
brilliant.
Chemical properties
It is a sober green earth or ochre, thoroughly permanent. It can be made with emeraude
green with a little crimson and white.
Psychology
Signifies same as green in a minor tone.

BLUES
Prussian Blue
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a deep tone of blue. Its complementary is vermilion. Sometimes nearly green-blue,
and at other times blue-violet.
History
Used in the sixteenth century and never considered permanent, but on account of the high
price of ultramarine in those days it was substituted for that colour.
 THE ART OF COLOUR 85
Chemical properties
It is a ferri ferro cyanide of iron. It is unsafe as it turns itself and other colours green.
A very powerful colour, and if used for house decorating will turn quickly to all shades of
blue and green, which gives a very beautiful antique look to shutters, doors, etc.
Psychology
Denotes coldness, spirituality, severity, mystery, and truth.

Chinese Blue
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Also called Antwerp blue. Chinese blue has a little blue-green mixed with it. Its
complementary is vermilion with a small amount of scarlet.
History
A modern colour, which does not come from China.
Chemical properties
Same as Prussian blue. It is unsafe as it turns itself and other colours green. If mixed
with lead white it turns a neutralized yellow-green; if mixed with blue-black, it turns
brown in time.
Psychology
Denotes coldness, spirituality, severity, mystery, and truth.

Indigo
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a blue neutralized by vermilion. Vermilion is its complementary.
History
As a dye a very ancient colour.
Chemical properties
Indigo is a vegetable blue obtained by macerating the Indigofera plant in water. It
fades under exposure to light.
Psychology
Same as Prussian blue.

Intense Blue
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a deeper toned variety of indigo blue.
History
Same as indigo.
Chemical properties
Same as indigo.
Psychology
Same as Prussian blue.

Cobalt Blue
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Its colour is the true blue. Its complementary is vermilion.
 86 THE ART OF COLOUR
History
Used as an underpainting in the sixteenth century.
Chemical properties
Cobalt blue is a combination of a salt of the metal cobalt with alumina. It is thoroughly
reliable, but is now imitated by light ultramarine mixed with white which is sold foi
a high price, whereas ultramarine is much cheaper. The so-called cobalt should be
cheaper than ultramarine.
Psychology
Signifies coldness, spirituality, severity, mystery, and truth.

Azure Blue
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a lighter variety of cobalt blue.
History
Same as cobalt blue.
Chemical properties
Same as cobalt blue.
Psychology
Same as cobalt blue.

Smalt
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
In colour it is blue-violet. Its complementary is yellow-orange.
History
A very ancient colour used to get a shiny surface by dusting on wet paint.
Chemical properties
Smalt is made from cobalt and is a vitreous compound. It is not considered permanent
and is unpleasant to work with, but can be used for painting on glass if burnt in. It is
not generally known, but ancient stained glass was sometimes made with this colour,
and it was guarded by the Saxons from being carried out of the country.
Psychology
Same as ultramarine.

Cyanine or Leitch’s Blue

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is deep cobalt blue in colour, and its complementary is vermilion.
History
Modern colour.
Chemical properties
Cyanine or Leitch’s blue is a mixture of cobalt and Prussian blues. The cobalt part
alone is permanent.
Psychology
Signifies coldness, spirituality, serenity, mystery, and truth.
 THE ART OF COLOUR
«7
Ultramarine Blue
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
In colour it is blue-violet, slightly more blue-although ultramarine blue can be made
violet to blue-green. Its complementary is orange. The “light ultramarine" is a true
blue, a deeper colour than cobalt, which can be made by the addition of white.
History
The genuine ultramarine has been used since ancient times, but in 1826 J. B. Guimet of
Lyons succeeded in making it artificially.
Chemical properties
Genuine ultramarine blue is made of lapus lazuli by an elaborate process and is therefore
costly, but to-day the ultramarine sold is made artificially, which is practically the same
as the genuine, just as permanent, and almost as brilliant.
Psychology
It is supposed to signify the ocean.

French Ultramarine
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
Permanent blue, new blue, French blue, and light ultramarine are shades of French
ultramarine.
History
Same as ultramarine.
Chemical properties
It is, roughly, a combination of alumina, silica, soda, and sulphur.
Psychology
Same as ultramarine blue.

Ultramarine ash
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is slightly neutralized blue-violet with white and a very small amount of orange. Its
complementary is orange. Can be made with ultramarine blue mixed with orange and
white.
History
An ancient colour.
Chemical properties
'Ultramarine ash is supposed to be made from the refuse of genuine ultramarine. It is
permanent.
Psychology
Same as ultramarine blue.

Coelin Blue or Coeruleum

Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a colour between blue and blue-green with a complementary between vermilion
and scarlet.
88 THE ART OF COLOUR
History
It is a very ancient colour and was used by the sixteenth-century painters as an under¬
ground on which they painted transparent blues.
Chemical properties
It is a combination of the oxides of cobalt and tin with silica. It is semi-opaque and
permanent. At the present time much of the coeruleum is made of light ultramarine
and zinc yellow.
Psychology
Same as blue.

Permanent Mauve
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a variety of French ultramarine. Its colour is violet. Yellow is its complementary.
Permanent mauve, mineral violet, and permanent violet are all varieties of French
ultramarine.
History
A modern colour.
Chemical properties
If this colour is made of ultramarine it is perfectly safe, but if made by the method of
making mauve it is absolutely impermanent. The method of making ultramarine
mauve is that when the ultramarine chemicals are heated they are allowed to cool very
slowly—the more slowly they cool the more violet or purple will the result be.
Psychology
It signifies sadness, piety, sentimentality, royalty, and wealth.

Cobalt violet
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a purple colour, very brilliant, and has the power to show under artificial light a
little more toward the crimson than in the daylight. Its complementary is yellow-green.
History
Has been known for about a hundred years.
Chemical properties
It is a chemical precipitate made with phosphate of cobalt.It has the same semi-
transparency of cobalt blue and is not absolutely permanent unless locked up irr a
varnish medium.
Psychology
Denotes royalty, richness, and wealth.
I ■

Neutral Tint
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a highly neutralized blue-violet. Its complementary is highly neutralized orange.
Chemical properties
Neutral tint is a compound colour of no permanence. This colour can be made with a
mixture of any two complementary colours and can be made permanent by this method.
 THE ART OF COLOUR 89
The mixture of blue-violet with a little orange and white will give a perfect neutral and
will be permanent.
Psychology
Denotes quietness, piety, and calmness.

GRAYS AND BLACKS

Payne’s Gray
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a highly neutralized blue. Its complementary is red.
History
A modern colour.
Chemical properties
Payne’s Gray in water colours is not permanent under exposure; but if made with light
ultramarine blue and vermilion is permanent in oil.
Psychology
Denotes same as mineral gray.

Mineral Gray
Its place in the spectrum and its complementary
It is a neutralized blue. It can be made with light ultramarine, French vermilion, and
white. Its complementary is red.
History
A modern colour, very expensive, but not at all necessary as it can be made as above.
Chemical properties
Mineral gray is made of the residue of lapis lazuli obtained from the making of ultra-
marine ash and gang rock. It is permanent. This is now made from the by-product in
the making of an artificial ultramarine.
Psychology
Denotes coolness, calm, and quietness.

Lamp Black
Its place in the spectrum
In colour it is a bluish neutral, and can be made from blue and vermilion. If this colour
is used on the artist’s palette and mixed with red to make a dark red it will make a dark
purple instead. If mixqd with yellow to make dark yellow it will make a green instead.
It is good for house painters to use this colour, as they can mix large quantities at one
time and add other colours to get the desired hue, but it is not good to use as a
universal medium of darkening all colours as it will change the hue besides the tone.
History
An ancient colour.
Chemical properties
Lamp black is the soot of resinous matter and consists chiefly of carbon. It is per¬
manent but dries badly in oil.
 90 THE ART OF COLOUR
Psychology
Sign of mourning to the Occidental; sorrow; despair.

Blue-Black
Its place in the spectrum
Its colour is a bluish neutral and can be reproduced from the mixture of blue and vermilion.
History
An ancient paint.
Chemical properties
It is made from wood charcoal. It is permanent but a bad drier in oil.
Psychology
Same as ivory black.

Ivory Black
Its place in the spectrum
In colour it is a neutral made from blue and vermilion. It is perhaps the blackest of all
of the blacks, especially in a north or blue-white light, but in a warm light it is not so dark.
History
It is a very ancient colour, and in the sixteenth century it was made in a blue-black colour.
Chemical properties
Ivory black is calcined ivory, ground, and/mixed as a paint. It is permanent but dries
very slowly in oil. The writer believes this is the cause of cracking in many pictures.
Psychology
Denotes sorrow, death, and despair.

Black Lead
Its place in the spectrum
It is a dark neutral having a somewhat metallic surface.
History
An ancient colour.
Chemical properties
Black lead is a permanent pigment of a dull black hue. It is manufactured from carbon
in the form of graphite. So-called lead pencils are black lead. Is found in native state.
Psychology
Same as ivory black.

EXERCISES IN COLOUR

Exercises have been planned with the object of teaching this system of colour perception and
execution. The lessons are so arranged that by progressive exercises the student is able to adapt
the knowledge gained for use in portrait painting, figure painting, landscape painting, interior
decoration, costume design, poster, batik, stage design, textiles, and other arts.
These exercises also teach the student something of design which is so important to modern
portrait and landscape painters.
METROPOLITAN ART SCHOOL
58 W 57th St.,
New York.
 APPENDIX
leaning responsive.

2This doesn’t mean a chemical reaction but a mixture of chemical pigments.

3This refers to pigments, as the complimentary colours in light makes white light.

4Since the printing of the first edition the Pri-matic Art Company of New York have made
m all mediums the twelve colours of the spectrum, following the system, including white.

6This refers to the finished printing plate, as it will be understood that the reproduction from
which the printing plate is made is transparent on the negative and positive on the printing
plate. Thus, with the red filter all reds, oranges, and yellows act on the negative, making it
opaque, and all the complementaries are transparent. This is obvious because it is the shadow
or more or less bare glass of the negatives that print on the metal plate, thus forming a resist
to the etching bath, and it is these parts which take the ink, being raised up above the etched-
out parts, and impart the ink to the paper.

'Printing inks are now made to correspond with this system by the Pri-matic Art Company of
New York.

7It might be more proper to call this hand-etching, or fine-etching, or burnishing, or any
other means by which the plate maker uses his personal discretion.

8This refers to the swelled gelatine or collotype process.

9It does not mean that the paper is white, but to all intents and purposes is the same as white,
no image being reflected. This is the same as when looking through the red filter on Plate
XXII which looks like a scene seen through the filter, but the snow is really red and the comple¬
mentary colours are dark, which gives the illusion of snow in light and shadow.
 ixAJt W

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*
 The Study of Colour
JVith Lessons and Exercises
2nd Edition in Two Volumes
by

'Michel Jacobs
For the Artist For the Student For the Craftsman

The lessons in this book are the development of years of

experience in the Metropolitan Art School, the result of careful
selection, graded in order of difficulty, and covering the subject
thoroughly and carefully. It is a theoretical textbook on colour
with practical lessons and exercises, and covers the course taught
today in the Metropolitan Art School of New York.

Those who are familiar with Michel Jacobs’s first book, “The
Art of Colour, cannot afford to be without this new work. “It is
no longer a theory, it is a proven fact.”

The price has been made moderate so as to be within the reach

of all.

t^* ^essons> bound Separately. . . .$2.50 For Instructors

Vol. II. Charts, Bound Separately. 1.00 For Classes
Vol. I and II. Bound in One Volume. . . 3.00

If the a.rt student would execute the lessons which the book
includes, he is bound to see colour and to learn how to use it in his
work.

Five hundred thousand colour combinations.

Sixteen coloured illustrations.
Sixty-four black and white illustrations.
All charts for colouring.
Published by

Doubleday, Page & Company

Garden City New York
ANOTHER BOOK BY MICHEL JACOBS
Author of “The Art of Colour” and “The Study of Colour”

# * #

THE ART
OF COMPOSITION
A Simple Application of Dynamic Symmetry
# # #

WRITTEN IN A VERY SIMPLE AND INSTRUCTIVE FORM

NO MATHEMATICS NO GEOMETRY NO ALGEBRA

* # #

A book no artist can afford to be

without.
Written in a clear and under¬
standable manner for artists and,
students.
The explanations of all Roots
and Layouts are given in progres¬
sive stages.

& % %

Published by
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK