Color bearer

“ It becomes positively lost in artificial light, and should never be used or introduced into an evening dress.
Neutral colors are mostly suitable for the ruddy blonde; when light they increase the color, when dark they reduce it by contrast. Russet, gray, slate, maroon, and all shades of brown are the most pleasing of the dark neutrals, and gray, drab, fawn, and stone color, the most desirable of the light neutrals. ”

“ Caution must be exercised in using colors in their full intensity, as scarlet, emerald green, electric blue, etc. A child or a savage revels in violent and garish colors, while refined people instinctively choose the subdued tones. Large amounts of violently contrasting color are never beautiful.
It is well to remember that reds and yellows are affected more by artificial light than the violet and blue shades. Often, red or yellow will seem to change its shade under an electric or gas light. ”

“ But we meet with slighter degrees of color-blindness, where the perception of red is not entirely wanting, but only considerably diminished; so that, for instance, an intense or strongly illuminated red can be perceived as such, while a less intense red appears green. This moderate degree of color-blindness does not always deter people from painting. A proof of this I saw at the last year's Exhibition, in a picture which represented a cattle-market. ”

“ In the combination of pigmentary colors a tint of a color is the pure color mixed with white, a shade is the color mixed with black, and a broken color is a pure color mixed with both black and white, which is a neutral gray. Therefore if with red, for example, we mix a certain amount of a given neutral gray and call that the normal tone of a broken scale of red, for the tint in that scale we must mix with the standard red a lighter gray and for the shade a darker gray. ”

“ In consequence of this law of contrast of tone the contrast of black with active colors generally tends to intensify the black and lower the tone of the color, i.e., to weaken it as though white or light gray was mixed with it, but this effect is modified by contrast of color. ”

“ The color is, of course, a matter of taste. Black is always stylish, and is particularly becoming to a stout person. Dark blue, hunter's green, and dark brown are also becoming colors, especially for slender, youthful figures. ”

“ Contrast of color is perceptible in black when combined with color simply because the black is not perfectly black but a very dark gray, and hence there is the same complementary effect which shows in white and the lighter grays, but in a smaller degree. This effect is most clearly seen when the color used in combination is blue or blue-green, which induces in the black, yellow or red complementaries and gives the black a "rusty" appearance. ”

“ A person totally color blind would see in the solar spectrum a band of gray in various tones, and hence if a red and a green should seem to be of the same tone of gray he would call both either red or green, and after much experience would come to give color names to various tones of gray. ”

“ In transparent color this has more the effect of a dark gray than a brilliant black, such as is produced with body colors. When you want a very dark black, it is better to use a little India ink with it. It is used in the skies of landscapes when you wish a gray effect, or to subdue a too strong blue color or red, and in foregrounds for rocks. In connection with yellow it will make a sombre green for trees, mountains, etc. In portraits it is used for the hair and eyes, in the shadows around the mouth, and in drapery in connection with the other colors. ”

“ As an artist's color, it replaces almost all the other red pigments which we have inherited from the past. The same chemists have an equally powerful yellow and blue under careful observation, and it is highly probable that in another year or two these, also, will be given to the world. Now it is evident that if painters can secure these three primary colors in two values, a light and a dark shade, they will, with the addition of white and black, have a perfect palette ”

“ All the recent scientific writers on color treat this three-color scheme as already exploded, because the simplest as well as the most complex experiments with colored light prove its falsity. Nevertheless, the fact that yellow and blue, which with light make very nearly white, do in the mixture of pigments produce a green, has deceived many persons. ”

“ The vermilion shade of red is approximated by mixing white with orange-red.
The colored crayons with which the layout man should be supplied are exceedingly useful in determining color combinations. The eye is a reliable guide in this matter, if it is carefully trained to recognize color harmonies. It should be easy to distinguish the right from the wrong color treatment in Examples 5 and 6. The colder color should always predominate; backgrounds of bright red and bright yellow are difficult to harmonize with any color of ink excepting black. ”

“ Why was his hair tinted with gold? An evil omen was golden hair in my life. Why had not the brown of his eyes crushed out and killed the blue?—for brown were his father’s eyes, and his father’s father’s. And thus in the Land of the Color-line I saw, as it fell across my baby, the shadow of the Veil. ”

“ In pigments these effects are imitated by the mixture of white with a color to produce tints, and black for shades, or more generally instead of black some dark natural pigment approaching the hue of the color, may be preferred because a black pigment will too often impart an unexpected and undesirable hue to the color. As for example, in making shades of red some natural brown pigment is better than black, and so various dark browns and grays are used for different colors. ”

“ This is because it is what the geneticist calls a recessive character. A man may have a color-blind father and still not transmit the defect. But a color-blind woman, married to a color-blinded man, transmits the defect to all off-springs, both sons and daughters.
ALTERING COLOR To brighten color, add yellow; to give it warmth, add red. To brighten and warm, add orange. To deepen and cool, add blue. To cool and lighten, add green; to deepen and warm, add purple.
Ultramarine blue contains sulphur and will tarnish with admixtures of pigment containing lead. Substitute zinc white. ”

“ They seem, too, to have a fancy for certain colors, particularly bright red, and will soon make away with garments of this color, and attach them to their nests. There may be something attractive in the dye, but, knowing their partiality for glittering, shining objects, I am inclined to think they have also an eye for color. ”

“ "Color makes no difference: the peeps are gray, the seals black, and the crabs yellow; but we don't care, and are all friends. It is very unkind to treat you so. ”

“ White is worn universally by men and women next to the face, in collars or in neckwear, and the reason for it is that the contiguous white intensifies whatever color they may possess. Black, on the other hand, lessens the color or lowers its tone.
32. Gray is a medium between the two. While it renders an adjacent color less brilliant, it takes to itself at the same time a tint that is a complement of that adjacent color. ”

“ In brief, then, darkness of color is not the cause of deliberation and conservatism, but both darkness of color and conservatism are results of the same causes, namely, a heredity and environment which produce these characteristics. Blonde coloring is not a cause of restless activity, but both the color and the activity are the result of evolution in a cold, dark, rigorous climate. ”

“ Pigments that are jet black and pure white either vegetable or mineral are unknown. It takes the addition of blue to alter the yellowish cast of white, and blue to deepen the brownish cast of any so called black pigment.
White being a neutral color, will harmonize with most any color combination.
NEUTRAL HUES AND TINTS Neutral hues are made by a 50–50 mixture of warm and cold colors. White added to neutral hues produce neutral tints. ”

“ All spectrum colors are pure, while no pigmentary color is absolutely pure, but the pigmentary color which approaches most nearly to the corresponding color in the spectrum must be selected as the pigmentary type of purity of that color. For example, the standard for green must be the best possible pigmentary imitation of the spot in the spectrum which by general consent is called green, and so not only for the six standards but for all their combinations which produce the other colors in nature. ”

“ After having accepted this fiction as a scientific theory for so many years, it is very difficult to convince the artists and colorists that in it all there is nothing of value to any one, but such is practically a fact, because from no three pigmentary effects in red, yellow and blue can the three colors orange, green and purple of corresponding purity be produced, neither are the primary colors complementary to the secondaries as claimed nor are the so-called tertiaries new and distinct colors but simply gray spectrum colors. ”

“ Yellow in dress, as well as orange, is also more becoming to dark than to fair persons.
2401. Primrose is becoming to fair persons. The trimmings of this color, the flowers and ribbons, should be violet, such contrast being agreeable to art and nature.
2402. Maize color is becoming to all complexions, especially to those which are brilliant.
2403. Grain is more becoming to fair than to dark persons, because in the fair complexion, brilliancy and depth of color are more frequently found. ”

“ And when he put into rhythm that "any color, so long as it's red, is the color that suits me best," he spoke not only as a poet but as a man, for red conveyed to him the idea of warmth and cheeriness, and seemed to express to him in color his temperamental demand. ”

“ In an elaborate chart of colors highly recommended for primary color instruction a dozen years ago no correct understanding of the classification of colors is shown, the tints and shades being indicated by a very decided change of hue rather than a [Pg 38] consistent modification of tone. For example, in the red scale the standard or normal red is vermilion, i.e., an orange red; shade No. 1 is simply a red less orange in hue than the standard, and shade No. 2 a shade of the standard red advocated in this system; while tint No. 1 is a broken yellow orange and tint No. ”

“ It is a sad thing to think of, that when we put the candle out, and step into bed, we become blacker than the blackest negro that was ever emancipated. But without light there can be no colour, for there is no material, so to speak, from which to manufacture it. White light, as we have said before, is made up of red, blue, and yellow, and it is by the absorption of one or all of these that all tints are formed. ”

“ These six bright colours, when used in conjunction with black and white, with each other, or with their complementaries, will strengthen, intensify and enrich each other without altering their true value—when such vivid effects and sharp contrasts offend the taste of the worker, when they appear too crude, too conspicuous and too obtrusive—which they are apt to do—they may be harmonised quite simply, either by modifying the complementaries or by using a tint or a shade, that is, a lighter or a darker tone of the same colour. ”

“ Impure black is brown, but black in its purity is a cold colour, and communicates a coolness to all light colours; thus it blues white, greens yellow, [388] purples red, and cools blue. Hence the artist errs with ill effect who regards black as of nearest affinity to hot and brown colours, and will do well to keep in mind—"The glow of sunshine and the cool of shade."
It is a fault of even some of our best colourists, as evinced by their pictures, to be too fond of black upon their palettes, and thence to infuse it needlessly into their tints and colours. ”

“ Hence the judicious artist purveys for his palette at least two pigments of each colour, one eminent for delicate beauty, the other for richness and depth.
Truth of hue is a relative quality in all colours, except the extreme primaries, in the relations of which, blue, being of nearest affinity to black or shade, has properly but one other relation, in which it inclines to red and becomes purple-blue: it is, therefore, faulty or false, when, tending to yellow, it becomes of a green hue. ”

“ The Three Primitive Colours, by the endless varieties of their solvents, regulate, more or less, the whole economy of a picture; and the abundant stores of nature are faithfully imitated by their agency. Thus, the Primitives being red, blue, and yellow, the colours produced by their combination are purple, orange, and green; these, in their turn, may be extended to every tint that exists. The junction of the Three Primitives absorb all, and form neutral tint, which, by the addition of quantity, produces black. ”

“ Black and white are in some respects complementary to each other, and when in contact, appear to differ more from each other than when viewed separately: both show with best effect when harmonised by a medium of grey, normal or otherwise. The primary colours, also, gain in brilliancy and purity by the proximity of grey. With dark colours, such as blue and violet, and deep tones in general, grey forms assortments of analogous harmonies; while with the luminous colours, such as red, orange, yellow, and the light tints of green, it forms harmonies of contrast. ”