Primary color

“ Therefore, if the coloring process of a hot climate, applied to the white man over 1500 years, has made no perceptible change in his complexion—and, as it is a poor rule that wont work both ways—I am curious to know how long the process will require to protuburate the features, straighten the wool, and bleach the black man white? or to flatten the features, and color the white man black? ”

“ White and black represent extremes in color. Mixing of all the color rays of the solar spectrum produces white, and mixing of all the colors in the solid form of printing ink produces black. From this contrast of white and black maybe drawn a lesson in color. (Example 31.) Light represents warmth, darkness cold. As the colors are toward light they are warm; as they are toward darkness they are cold. Red becomes warmer as it takes on an orange hue, and colder as it takes on a purple hue. A warm color should be contrasted with a cold color—as orange with black. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For this purpose white, black and the neutral gray papers are included in Selection No. 2 of the paper tablets and should be made familiar to the children while the tints and shades are being studied. The suggestion that a neutral gray is a tint of black or a shade of white may or may not aid a child to better understand the relation of the neutral grays to the color chart, but it is a thought worthy of the attention of the teacher, as expressing a fact important in the consideration of color impressions. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Alas! if color could disgrace a people, how deep in the nethermost regions of shame, would that color be, which is called white in the United States; frequently with such utter recklessness of truth. White! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ White, which is also a cold color when added to black makes a cold gray. Yellow added to red forms a warm orange.
MEANING OF COLORS White is said to mean purity; blue, fidelity or truth; red, love or sacrifice; green, envy; pink, modesty; violet, innocence; yellow, jealousy; black, sorrow or distress, and lavender, passion.
4 ART OF COLOR MIXING Mixing colors is an art in itself. With a combination of the chief colors—red, yellow, blue (and black and white) , thousands of shades and hues may be produced. ”

“ We must expect, then, in painting, to find that neutral gray will be more altered by pale tints of red, orange, or yellow, which are slightly lighter than itself, and that the gray will be less altered by these colors when differing considerably from it in luminosity; analogous conclusions with regard to green, blue, violet, and purple, can also be drawn. Saturated or intense colors in a painting have less effect on white or gray than colors that are pale; this was shown in the preliminary experiment when gray was placed on a ground of strong color. ”

“ The question whether persons are colored or white, where color or feature is doubtful, is for the jury to determine by reputation, by reception into society, and by their exercises of the privileges of a white man, as well as by admixture of blood. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Christian America created the color line; and all the great currents of critical opinion, from the eighteenth century to our time, have found the great barrier impassible and well-nigh impervious. Behind the color line one has to think perpetually of the color line, and most of those who grow up behind it can think of nothing else. Even when one essays to think of other things, that thinking is tinged with the shades of the surrounding atmosphere. ”

“ But what is the Color Line? It is the practice of the theory that the colored and “weaker” races of the earth shall not be free to follow “their own way of life and of allegiance,” but shall live, work and be governed after such fashion as the dominant white race may decide. ”

“ White is a collective effect, whilst black is the antithesis of white and the very negation of colour. The first four are called primary colours, for no human eye ever detected in them two different colours, while all of the other colours contain two or more primary colours. If we mix the following tints of the spectrum, i.e. the following rays of coloured light, we shall produce white light, red and greenish-yellow, orange and Prussian blue, yellow and indigo blue, greenish-yellow and violet. All those pairs of colours that unite to produce white are termed complementary colours. ”

“ The idea that all color is derived from the three primaries, red, yellow and blue, is so generally believed that our best writers among artists, colorists and educators have repeated it for many years. George Barnard, an English artist, in a very valuable book on water color painting, speaking of the colors of the spectrum which may be re-combined to form white light, says that if the yellow and blue rays are combined they produce green. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It appears that those complementary color schemes which can be perfectly justified are such as reflect light rays nearest like the rays that show us white. Red and58 green, the two most pronounced and vigorous colors, are complementary. When mixed in the proper proportions they produce white, but this does not mean that they weaken each other when otherwise used; when placed side by side they enhance each other's power and brilliancy by reflection. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Owing to the increase of the Negro population and for other causes which I have already mentioned, sentiment in the North toward the Negro has been undergoing a swift change.
How Colour Lines Are Drawn
Now the tragedy of the Negro is the colour of his skin: he is easily recognisable. The human tendency is to class people together by outward appearances. When the line began to be drawn it was drawn not alone against the unworthy Negro, but against the Negro. It was not so much drawn by the highly intelligent white man as by the white man. ”

“ Nature provides pigments of color to guard the skin against the inclemencies of sun and weather. Every modern man knows and 70has experienced the result of strong sun and wind in his own skin. “Tan” it is called, and sometimes, within a few weeks the color of a white man’s skin is transformed into a yellow or a dark brown. If the exposure continues, the color remains.
In the opinion of noted scientists, it is certain that the difference between the races as to color is merely skin deep. ”

“ Color preferences are often determined in this way; yet sometimes they spring from another and more radical source—an affinity between personal temperament and the feeling tone of the preferred color. A consistent choice of blues and grays indicates a specific kind of man or woman, very different from the chooser of yellows and reds.
Although single color tones are expressive, they seldom exist alone in works of art. Significant expression requires variety. The invention of original and expressive color combinations is a rare gift of genius. ”

“ Now, if blackness were the complete absence of light, the question as far as it is concerned would be much simplified; but I shall endeavor to show that black is not a negative impression. All black pigments and materials reflect light, and many of them to an extent which makes the fact readily demonstrable. Compare under a bright illumination half a dozen black things to be found in any home—cloths, book-covers, etc.—and it will be seen on a more or less close examination that they are not identical in appearance. Color-makers have their blacks of various intensities and shades. ”

“ The family relations of red are the things which go with red. We may have a harmony of analogy in violet which includes the relations of red and blue. We must not attempt to carry the family relationship too far. There is a wide range of variety in these combinations of analogy because they may include not only all scales of each color from the darkest tones to the lightest tints but they include tertiaries and quaternaries.
[Pg 70] Each man must establish his own standard, and by establishing it he forms unconsciously a very comprehensive understanding of color. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But the term 'color' is nowhere defined in the Constitution or the law. We apply the term to persons who are of African descent, whether their color is whiter or darker than ours. Every one who is familiar with the ethnological condition of things here in the United States, and who sees the general mixing up of colors, particularly in the Democratic portion of the country—I allude to that portion south of Mason and Dixon's line—must say with me that the word 'color' has no very distinct meaning when applied to the different peoples of the United States of America. ”

“ When the eye has been fatigued by looking intently for a few seconds at a red spot on a white wall and is then slightly turned to the wall, a faint tint of a bluish green is seen, and this is called the accidental color of the red, and is supposed to be identical with its complementary color. If with the disks we determine a color which with a given color will produce by rotation a neutral gray, we have the complementary color more accurately than by any other means at present known in the use of pigmentary 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. ”

“ In combination with black the density and richness of the other colors will be intensified in the effectiveness of the display. Where black is laid over the supplementary colors it often gives the effect of an added color. ”

“ That white stands for purity or blue for fidelity is a conventionalized and attached conception. But the pleasure which a man has in some colors or his dislike for others depends upon the effect each color has upon his emotions, and this effect determines for him the symbolic value of the color. ”