Colorant

“ 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. ”

“ The colour of a pigment, it must be recollected, is a complex one. If we analyse a yellow—a yellow glass will be just as good an example as anything else—we find it is made up of green, yellow, orange, and red. A blue is made up of blue and green. If a yellow is placed behind a blue glass, and we look at a white surface through them, the only light that can get through the glass is the green. If the light, coming through each glass separately, falls on the same spot on a white surface, it will be either colourless or bluish white, or yellowish white, whichever colour preponderates. ”

“ Nothing so nearly approaches pure white as the palest blue; nothing is so nearly black as the darkest.
Green has been assigned by nature the place of the universal background. It is the complementary colour of red, softening and assimilating it by reflected shadows, and setting off the glory of every flower and fruit. The expression of green is gaiety and modesty, light and tenderness, shadow and repose, to both the eye and the mind. ”

“ Its colors, then, come from the play of sun-light among the yellow and violet substances distributed very curiously under its wrinkled skin. It passes from orange to yellow, from green to blue, through a series of wavering and rainbow-like shades, determined by the state of the light's radiation. Darkness blanches it, twilight gives it the most delicate marbled tints, the sun turns it dark. A part of the skin bruised or rubbed remains black, without growing white in the dark. ”

“ You may melt your crimson into purple, your purple into blue and your blue into green, but you must not melt any of them into black. You should, however, try, as I said, to give preciousness to all your colours; and this especially by never using a grain more than will just do the work, and giving each hue the highest value by opposition. All fine colouring, like fine drawing, is delicate; and so delicate that if, at last, you see the colour you are putting on, you are putting on too much. ”

“ Combined with the primary blue, yellow furnishes all the variety of the secondary green, as well as, subordinately, the tertiaries russet and olive. It also enters in a [82] very subdued degree into cool, semi-neutral, and broken colours, and assists in minor proportion with blue and red in the composition of black.
As a pigment, yellow is a tender delicate colour, easily defiled, when pure, by other colours. In painting it diminishes the power of the eye by its action in a strong light, at the same time becoming less distinct as a colour ”

“ Group A consists of those dyes which can be used in dyeing self-colours on gloria from acid baths. It includes Alkali Blue, Naphthylamine Blacks, Naphthol Green B, Indian Yellow, Croceine A Z, Croceine Orange, Orange R, Brilliant Croceine M, Rose Bengale, Thiocarmine R, Soluble Blue, Formyl Violet S 4 B, Acid Green, Croceine Orange G, Carmoisin, Acid Violet 5 B, Fast Acid Violet 10 B, Fast Green Bluish, Rhodamine, Silk Blue, Victoria Black, Archil, Turmeric, Safranine, Auramine, Quinoline Yellow, Azoflavine, Victoria Blue and Bismarck Brown. ”

“ Repeatedly have colours to be coaxed to behave themselves as pigments, coaxed not to 'run,' to work well, to dry well, &c.; and in the humouring of their likes and dislikes the skill and patience of the artist-colourman are sometimes severely taxed. Given a colour, it might puzzle most chemists to convert it into a pigment; luckily Commerce lends her aid. Lasting success, it is true, does not always follow, and oils will rise to the surface now and then, giving green hues to blues, orange hues to reds, and buff hues to yellows. ”

“ Green is very becoming, but it must be of the darker shades, and not the delicate green that is so becoming for the fair blonde. If the complexion is light and can use more red, without being overcharged, rich, full-toned green, such as grass or moss green, may be used, as, although sufficiently bright to yield color to the skin, it is not so powerful a contrast as to bleach it. In proportion as the complexion increases in color a deeper green may be selected, passing from the positive to the neutral hues, as sage, tea, or olive green. ”

“ Coloring matter, dissolved in alcohol, may be put in and made of any shade you like. Spanish brown stirred in will make red-pink, more or less deep, according to quantity. A delicate tinge of this is very pretty for inside walls. Finely pulverized common clay, well mixed with Spanish white, makes reddish stone color. Yellow ochre stirred in makes yellow wash, but chrome goes further, and makes a color generally esteemed prettier. In all these cases the darkness of the shade is of course determined by the quantity of the coloring used. It is difficult to make rules, because tastes differ. ”

“ The Palette.—You try to attain nature's effects of light with pigment. Pigment is less pure than light. You cannot have the same scale, the same range, but you must do the best you can, and the arrangement of your palette will help you. As you have not a perfect blue, a perfect red, and a perfect yellow, you must have two colors for one. ”

“ Colors which harmonize with each other by analogy, reduce each other's brilliancy to a greater or less degree, as white and yellow, blue and purple, black and brown.
The various shades of purple and lilac, dark blues and dark greens, lose much of their brilliancy by gaslight, while orange, scarlet, crimson, the light browns and light greens, gain brilliancy by a strong artificial light. ”

“ They display so many different colour-shades on their bodies that an artist would be delighted with the effect. From that peculiar milky hue which, by reason of some pigment, contrives to resist the rays, the tints diverge; the reds, the scarcer group, traversing every gradation from pale rose to the ruddiest of copper--not excluding that strange marbled complexion concerning which I cannot make up my mind whether it be a beauty or a defect; while the xanthous tones, the yellows, pass through silvery gold and apricot and café au lait to a duskiness approaching that of the negro. ”

“ 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 a most effective colour for illuminating. When judiciously toned with white, it furnishes a series of useful shades. Mixed with lemon yellow it produces a range of clean vivid tints. It does not, however, make good greens—they are dingy. Mixed with carmine, or glazed with it, it gives a series of strong luminous shades.
Mars Yellow.—A semi-transparent warm yellow, of slightly russet tone, but clean and bright in tint. Useful where a quiet yellow is required; mixes well with gamboge; does not make good greens. ”

“ A like deposit of pigment, in greater amounts, in the skins of races who live in or near the tropics, gives rise to the characteristic coloring of the black, brown, and yellow races. The pigment, or coloring matter, is of exactly the same kind in all, from the negro to the white. The brown race having a little less of it than the negro, the yellow race a little less yet, and the white least of all, though there is some of it in even the whitest of skins. ”

“ Burnt Sienna.—A deep rich orange, transparent and effective; works well and mixes freely.
PURPLES.
Indian Purple.—A rich deep-toned violet, or cold purple colour; most effective when used alone. Can be lighted with French blue or cobalt, and the tints will be found useful.
Burnt Carmine.—A rich deep-toned marone or warm purple colour; transparent and brilliant; luminous and effective when used alone; mixed with orange vermilion, it produces a strong rich colour, and a quiet fleshy one when mixed with cadmium yellow. ”

“ These leaves are not many dipped in one dye, as at the dye-house, but they are dyed in light of infinitely various degrees of strength, and left to set and dry there.
Shall the names of so many of our colors continue to be derived from those of obscure foreign localities, as Naples yellow, Prussian blue, raw Sienna, burnt Umber, Gamboge?— (surely the Tyrian purple must have faded by this time) —or from comparatively trivial articles of commerce,—chocolate, lemon, coffee, cinnamon, claret?— (shall we compare our Hickory to a lemon, or a lemon to a Hickory?) ”

“ The lighter shades of Tone in this sense are technically included under the term Greys; warm, as they contain Orange; cool, as they contain Purple or Green. Tints and Tones are further classed as pure, as they approach purple, and those tints observed in Mother of Pearl, hence, also pearly tints; warm or hot as they approach Orange; heavy, and unless they are exceedingly transparent, muddy, as they approach Green.
Half-tints express those gradations of colour, and HALF-LIGHTS those gradations of light, between the greatest brilliancy and the shadows. ”

“ Dark colours are best calculated for varnishing; the lighter colours, such as sky-blue, apple-green, rose-colour, delicate yellow, &c., will not bear varnishing so well, and in spite of the greatest care are liable to get dirty. ”

“ Being quite permanent, a good drier, and working most kindly, it is a pigment which cannot be too strongly recommended to the landscape painter's notice. Containing a large proportion of red, it is eligible, with yellow or blue, for mixed orange or mixed purple of a subdued tone. It may be used to [366] lower red curtains or draperies, and for the darkest touches in flesh. Mixed with cobalt, it forms a fine shadow colour for distant objects; and with indigo or Prussian blue and black, is serviceable for the shades of those nearer the foreground. ”

“ The colouring is wonderfully rich and varied—black, grey, violet, brown, red, green—due, one would think, to the complex stratification and to the stains oozing from the soft ores, clays, and mosses impinging between the layers. ”

“ Those tints which contain the element of red are by painters called warm, and those in which the element of azure abounds are termed cold.
Red is the strongest and the most vivid colour: it is the colour of fire and of blood, and it warms and inflames all the tints into which it is introduced. ”

“ Again, there have been works of art in which the white of lead has retained its freshness for ages in a pure atmosphere, but has been changed to blackness after a few days' or even hours' exposure to foul air. These and other peculiarities of colours will be noticed, when we come to speak of pigments individually; not for the purpose of destroying the artist's confidence, but as a caution, and a guide to the availing himself of their powers properly. ”

“ Of great depth and power in its full touches, the pale washes are marked by that clearness and delicacy which are so essential in painting skies. As day declines, and blue melts into green, green into orange, and orange into purple, the proper use of this pigment will produce effects both glowing and transparent. Transparency signifies the quality of being seen through or into ”

“ There are some who paint themselves with a blackish pigment; their natural colour being neither black nor white, but similar to that of the inhabitants of the Canary islands; some paint themselves with white, some with red, or any other colour, either covering the whole body with it, or the whole face, or perhaps only the eyes, or the nose. They do not carry arms like our people, and do not even know what they are. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Only arsenical green is impracticable and repulsive. Yellow, pale as a primrose, glowing as gold, or tender as butter, is always beautiful; but one tint we would exclude from our list, called “buff,” which never can assimilate with any other colour, and is often the refuge of the weak-minded man that cannot face the responsibility of choosing an atmosphere in which he will have to spend many hours of his existence, when the walls, the ceiling, and the hangings will inevitably obtain a subtle, but real influence on his nerves ”

“ Orange and violet make russet, violet and green make olive, orange and green make citron.
Black, white and gray are natural tones in which no color is apparent: White pales but does not brighten any color. Yellow is the brightening color and always stands out strong and advancing; to deepen a color, use its complementary color; to deepen yellow add purple; to deepen red add blue; to deepen blue add burnt sienna, then you will have purity of color.
THE TWO EXTREMES OF WARM AND COLD Vermilion or any other red of orange hue (warm) . ”