PREFACE.

Ever since Newton discovered the solar spectrum it has been referred to

in a poetic way as Nature's standard of color. But as soon as the author

attempted, some twelve years ago, to use it practically by making

pigmentary imitations of the spectrum colors as standards they were

decried as vulgar and inartistic. Under such circumstances it was a

great pleasure to him to hear a celebrated art professor answer his

inquiry if the solar spectrum is the proper place to look for standards

of color with the emphatic assertion, "Certainly, there is no other

place to go."

Where there are no standards there can be no measurements, and if in

color we have no measurements of effects, no records can be made, and

hence no comparisons of results at various places and times, and

consequently no discussion and little progress. Because there have been

no accepted standards and no measurements of color very little has thus

far been decided regarding psychological color effects.

In drawing, as at present taught in our best schools from the

kindergarten to the university, the foundation of art in black and white

is laid in form study. From the drawing teachers we learn that a good

touch and a fine sense for light and shade in all their subtle relations

to each other are without value, unless due care has been given to the

commonplace consideration of lengths and directions of lines, that is to

say to the measurement of lines and angles, and to the laws of

perspective. We cannot have measurements without standards. By the foot

or the metre we measure lines and by the divided circle we measure

angles.

Geometrical forms have already been so definitely analyzed by

the science of mathematics that if destroyed to-day these solids and

surfaces could be reconstructed at any future time from written or

printed directions. But suppose all material samples of color to be

lost, it would be impossible by the ordinary system of color

nomenclature to even approximately restore a single one from written or

verbal descriptions.

Color is one of the first things to attract the attention of the infant,

almost as soon as a sound and long before form appeals to him, so that a

collection of colored papers will often prove more interesting and

instructive than a picture book to the baby, while the graduate from a

two year's course in the kindergarten may have a better color sense than

is at present enjoyed by the average business or professional man.

If we could determine the colors used by the great masters in the past,

we could add much to our knowledge of the fine arts; and if we knew what

colors Chevreul, the master dyer of the Gobelins Tapestry works, refers

to in his writings, and which he indicated by hundreds of numbered

samples filed away in his cabinet, we should in this generation have a

wonderful fund of information to increase our knowledge of harmonies, on

which to base our study of color in the industrial arts.

But alas! the paintings of the old masters have faded and the great dyer

had no language in which to describe his colors in his writings, and

therefore it is claimed that little or no advance in color perception

has been made in modern times, if indeed we have held our own. The

further assertion is made that those semi-civilized nations whose

drawings are the least artistic greatly surpass us in natural color

perceptions. If color is the one thing in which we are deficient and in

which we are making no advance, is it not necessary that we adopt a new

line of operations for our color instruction in the primary grades? It

is self-evident that in primary work highest art is not expected in

either literature, music, drawing or painting, but as has been the aim

in literature for a long time and in drawing and music more recently, so

in coloring, our instruction should be based on those principles on

which highest art must rest.

When through the introduction of colored papers in the kindergartens and

primary schools the teachers began to call for better assortments of

colors in their papers than were to be found in the market, and some of

us in the field attempted to meet their wants, the solution of the

problem seemed almost a hopeless task, because no two wanted the same

colors; each teacher was a law to herself and one thought a color "just

lovely" which another declared "perfectly horrid." According to the

early theories then in vogue the first colors called for were red,

yellow and blue for primaries, but no two persons were sure just what

they wanted for either of these, and there was no authority to be

referred to for a decision.

In this strait, which was practically a serious difficulty, the artists

were appealed to for a decision as to the three "primary colors," and

also for examples showing in what proportions the "ideal primaries" must

be mixed to produce the "ideal secondaries." But in this there was no

satisfaction because hardly two agreed in the primaries and necessarily

the secondaries were much less definite, which was the result that

should have been expected.

It is a self-evident proposition that if two indefinite primaries are

combined in indefinite proportions the possible secondaries which may

thus be produced must be exceedingly numerous, and if this idea is

carried out in the production of tertiaries by the combination of the

secondaries the resulting colors may be almost infinite. In view of the

indifference of the artists and the popular ignorance regarding the

subject the solution of this question and the discovery of any solid

basis on which to formulate a system of elementary color instruction

seemed very problematical. But after much experimenting and many

conferences with artists and scientists a basis for operation was

decided upon and at the end of fifteen years the efforts begun in doubt

have resulted in a definite system of color instruction which it is the

purpose of this book to concisely set forth.

It is prepared in response to inquiries from primary school teachers for

a clear and condensed explanation of the Bradley System of Color

Instruction. The aim is to offer a definite scheme and suitable material

for a logical presentation of the truths regarding color in nature and

art to the children of the primary schools. Much of this instruction is

so simple that it should be familiar to children who have had

kindergarten training and has therefore already been explained in

substantially the same form in "Color in the Kindergarten."

A few years ago it might well have been thought necessary to preface a

treatise on the subject with arguments to prove that color is a

legitimate object for school instruction, but to-day this is not a

question with thoughtful educators, whether considered from the

practical, industrial or æsthetic standpoint. With the establishment of

professorships of practical psychology and the equipment of

laboratories, provided with delicate and expensive apparatus for making

and recording tests, there comes with increasing force the demand for

some means by which the experiments in color made in various localities

may be unified both as to the colors used and the terms and measurements

for recording the result. It is the hope of the author that the system

here outlined may be the initial step in gathering together such facts

regarding color effects as will form a fund of knowledge little dreamed

of at the present day.

[Illustration]

The Theory of Color.

In order to place the study of color on a broad and safe foundation, the

work must commence at the bottom with a rational presentation of the

subject, based on experiments and the use of color material. We must

intelligently consider the relation that exists between the pure science

of light which is the source of all color and the use of color materials

with their effect on our color perceptions. While it is true in all

study that there is here and there found a natural genius in some line

of work who seems to have such inborn perceptions as to require little

or no logical instruction in his special line, it is also manifest that

the masses must gain their knowledge through a systematic presentation

of the subject, if they secure it at all. Therefore with the growth of

modern pedagogics the laboratory work of the psychologist has become a

necessity. This consists in collecting and tabulating the results of

hundreds and thousands of experiments regarding any subject under

investigation, and the averaging of these to form theories and laws. In

making these experiments there must be standards and measurements on

which they may be based and some nomenclature in which to make the

records; and the standards, measurements and nomenclature adopted must

be common to those who desire to compare their results made in different

places at different times.

From the results of many physical experiments properly measured and

recorded certain psychological theories are deduced. These experiments

are tried on hundreds and thousands of individuals and the average

results establish the theories, which will ultimately stand or fall

according to the truth and accuracy with which the experiments have

been made. Experiments are useless for formulating any exact theories

unless they can be recorded in some generally accepted terms for

comparison with other experiments made under similar conditions and

recorded in the same terms.

So in color perceptions it is not necessary that we know anything of the

theories of color in order to see colors, and if endowed by nature with

a natural genius for color, education in color may not be necessary, but

if there is to be education in color which can be transmitted to a

second party there must be some standards of colors and some measurement

of color effects which can be recorded in accepted terms.

Why Artists and Scientists Have Disagreed.

In the realm of art there is no necessity for any purely scientific

analysis of sunlight, which is the origin of natural colors, because all

the practical value of color is found in its æsthetic effects on the

mind, and in order to enjoy these even in the highest degree it is not

necessary that we understand the scientific origin of the colors, any

more than it is necessary for the artist to know the chemical

composition of his pigments in order to produce best effects with them

on his canvas. Because of this almost self-evident fact, artists have as

a rule been very impatient when any reference has been made to the

science of color in connection with color education, believing that

color is an exception to the general subjects of study to such a degree

that it lies outside of all scientific investigations. Consequently they

have not been in sympathy with the physio-psychological investigations

which have been prosecuted with such promising results in other lines,

when such investigations have been proposed regarding color. While it is

not essential for best results in his own work that an expert artist

shall know anything of the science of color, still if he is to

communicate his knowledge of art to any others except his personal

pupils, he must have some language in which to make known his ideas, and

on the same grounds if any psychological tests are to be made regarding

color, it is evident that there must be some accepted terms in which to

record the results, which has not hitherto been the case.

When the well known Newton and Brewster theory of three primary colors

red, yellow and blue, was advocated by those scientists there appeared

to be something of interest and value in it for the artists also,

because with the three pigments red, yellow and blue, they seemed to be

able to confirm the truth of the scientific theories regarding the

spectrum colors. But the scientists have long been convinced that there

is no truth in this theory and have quite generally accepted the

Young-Helmholtz idea of three other color perceptions red, green and

violet, from which they claim all color vision is produced, and which

they call fundamental colors.

This more modern theory has seemed so far removed from the realm of the

artists and the colorists that they have not been able to see anything

in it of truth or value to them, and so have continued to repeat the

old, old story of the three primaries red, yellow and blue, from which

the secondaries orange, green and purple are made etc., etc., all of

which is the more pernicious when accepted as a correct theory because

of its seeming approximation to the facts. And yet there is not in it

all any scientific truth on which to build a logical system of color

education, and some of the effects which are considered prominent

arguments for the system are directly opposed to well known facts in the

science of color. Consequently, the artist has failed to gain from the

investigations of the scientists anything to aid him in his pigmentary

work, and the scientist has not been interested in the æsthetic ideas of

the artists which in fact he has generally been unable to fully

appreciate, from lack of training and associations.

The system of color instruction here presented for primary grades is

based on the results of careful study and experiment for many years in

which the attempt has been made to bring the scientist and the artist on

to common ground, where they may work in sympathy with each other

instead of at cross purposes as has been the case heretofore, and the

results with children have already been such as to testify fully to the

efficiency of this line of work.

Thus the feeling for color which every true artist has, may be to a

certain extent analyzed so that it can be understood by the scientist

and recorded for the benefit of fellow artists one hundred or a thousand

miles away and in time an aggregation of facts regarding the

psychological effects of color collected which will form the beginning

of a valuable fund of color knowledge to be increased from age to age.

The Speculations of the Past.

Ever since Newton produced the prismatic solar spectrum, the so-called

science of color as applied to pigments and coloring, has been a most

curious mixture of truth, error and speculation. It was supposed by

Newton and Brewster that in the solar spectrum the colors were produced

by the over-lapping of three sets of colored rays red, yellow and blue.

The red rays at one end were supposed to overlap or mix with the yellow

rays to make the orange, and on the other side of the yellow the blue

rays were supposed to combine with the yellow to produce green.

Following the same theory in pigmentary colors, it has been claimed that

all colors in nature may be produced by the combination of pigments in

these three colors red, yellow and blue, and hence they have been called

primary colors. It is still claimed by the advocates of this theory that

from the three primaries red, yellow and blue the so-called secondaries

orange, green and purple can be made, and that the secondaries are

complementary to the primaries in pairs; the orange to the blue, the

green to the red and the purple to the yellow.

By similar combinations of the secondaries it is claimed that three

other colors, in themselves peculiar, and different from the first six,

may be made, the orange and green forming citrines, orange and violet

russets, and green and violet olives and these are called tertiaries.

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.

Because the red, yellow and blue theory would not stand the test of

scientific investigation the Young-Helmholtz theory of three other

primaries red, green and violet, has been quite generally adopted by the

scientists of the past generation.

What the Primary Teacher Needs to Consider.

All these discussions of the scientists are intensely interesting and no

doubt of great importance in the line to which they pertain, but

practically neither the artists nor the primary school teachers care for

all these theories and discussions and because the scientists have

closely confined themselves to these lines, the artists and teachers

have seen nothing of value to them in their theories.

In going to the solar spectrum for standards on which to base pigmentary

standards, we have given little attention to these various theories in

their details, but the one fact of science has received careful

attention, namely, that all color effects in nature and art are produced

by light reflected from material surfaces. Therefore, inasmuch as the

light reflected from any surface must be affected by both the material

color of the surface and the color of the light which illuminates the

surface, it is necessary that every one having to do with this subject

be informed as to what color must be expected to result from given

conditions.

In order that this phase of the subject be discussed and thus more fully

understood, there must be a terminology or nomenclature in which to

express the results produced by given conditions, and also standards by

which to analyze, measure and record these results. In selecting these

standards more regard must be given to the æsthetic or psychical effect

of the pigmentary standards than to the purely scientific or physical

properties of colored light. This selection is of great interest to the

physiological psychologist because it is only by the comparison and

averaging of thousands of experiments made on different people that

valuable theories can be formulated.

With standards and a nomenclature, color will be placed on an equal

footing with other subjects, so that perceptions of color effects may be

recorded and discussed with much of the definiteness with which we treat

form and tone. Because this has not heretofore been possible,

comparatively little advance has been made during the last two decades

in the æsthetic consideration of material color _which is the only

practical phase of the subject_, and if any greater progress is to be

achieved in the future it evidently must be along new lines.

From the nursery to the university we are constantly asking two

questions, "What is it?" and "Why is it?" and this is what the educator

from the Kindergarten to the College is called upon to answer. In his

laboratory the psychologist is collecting physical facts by tests

regarding the powers of the eye and the ear, the sense of touch, weight,

memory, etc., and these experiments when classified, arranged and

averaged, furnish a basis for formulating theories, all of which is

called psychology.

In vision, form and color play the principal parts, in fact cover the

whole ground if we include light and shade in color where it belongs.

Experiments regarding form can be and have long been very definitely

recorded but this has not been true with color.

To Froebel must be given the honor of introducing logical form study

into primary education, and on this has been built the present admirable

system of drawing in our higher grades of schools, and the introduction

of the standard forms in solids and surfaces has brought about a

definite use of geometrical terms by young children which would have

seemed very unnaturally mature a generation ago. But in color no

corresponding advance has been made because there have been no generally

accepted standards in color to correspond to the sphere, cube, cylinder,

circle, ellipse and triangle in form, nor any means for measurements to

take the place of the foot or metre for lengths and the divided circle

for angles.

It is not expected that the children in the lowest grades will learn

much of the science of color, but it is desirable that the teachers have

such knowledge of it that they will not unconsciously convey to the

children erroneous impressions which must be unlearned later in life.

Concerning the Solar Spectrum.

More than two hundred years ago Sir Isaac Newton discovered that a

triangular glass prism would transform a beam of sunlight into a

beautiful band of color. If the prism is held in a beam of sunlight

which enters a moderately lighted room, there will appear on the walls,

ceiling or floor, here and there, as the glass is moved, beautiful spots

in rainbow colors. If the room is darkened by shutters, and only a small

beam of light is admitted through a very narrow slit and the prism

properly adjusted to receive this beam of light, a beautiful band of

variegated colors may be thrown on to a white ceiling or screen, and

this effect is called a prismatic solar spectrum. A perfect solar

spectrum once seen under favorable conditions in a dark room is a sight

never to be forgotten.

The accompanying illustration shows the relative positions of the parts

named. A is the beam of light as it enters the room. B is the triangular

prism. The dotted lines represent groups of rays extending to the

vertical band of colors indicated by the letters V for violet at the

top, then blue, green, yellow, orange to red at the bottom.

The explanation of this phenomenon is that the beam of sunlight is

composed of a great number of different kinds of rays, which in passing

through the prism are refracted or bent from their direct course, and

some are bent more than others, the red least of all and the violet

most. It is supposed that light is propagated by waves or undulations in

an extremely rare substance termed ether which is supposed to occupy all

space and transparent bodies. These waves are thought to be similar to

sound waves in the air or the ripples on the smooth surface of a pond

when a pebble is thrown into it. Because so many of the phenomena of

light can be satisfactorily explained by this theory, it has been very

generally adopted by the scientists. The amount that rays of light are

refracted from a straight line in passing through a prism is in

proportion to the number of waves or undulations per second, and in

inverse proportion to the length of the waves. The red waves are

refracted the least and are the longest, while the violet rays are

refracted the most and are the shortest.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

Whether this theory of the spectrum formation is absolutely correct or

not, the fact is established that the colors found in a prismatic solar

spectrum are always the same under the same conditions and the order of

their arrangement is never changed. By means of the quality of spectrum

colors called the wave length, a given color can always be located in

the spectrum, and hence if a spectrum color is selected as a standard it

can always be determined by its recorded wave length.

Six Spectrum Standards of Color.

Therefore it seems possible to establish certain standards of color by a

series of definitely located portions of the solar spectrum and in the

system here presented six have been chosen, namely red, orange, yellow,

green, blue and violet. These six are more distinctly recognized than

the others, and from them by combination in pairs of colors adjacent in

the spectrum all the other colors can be very closely imitated, and

hence these six are selected as the spectrum standards. In these

standards the most intense expression of each color is chosen i.e. the

reddest red, greenest green, etc. which by the closest scientific

investigation have been located by their wave lengths so that if they

are in doubt in future they can be re-determined by individuals or if

disputed, may be corrected by any authoritatively established congress,

selected for the purpose. The wave lengths of our six standards are

represented by the following numbers in ten millionths of a millimeter.

Red, 6571; Orange, 6085; Yellow, 5793; Green, 5164; Blue, 4695; violet,

4210. Having thus scientifically established these unchangeable

standards the attempt is made to secure the best possible pigmentary

imitation of each.

To any one who has ever compared a piece of colored material with a good

presentation of a spectrum color, it is unnecessary to say that the

result in an attempt to match the spectrum color with the material or

pigmentary color is a very weak approximation, but the one thing aimed

at is to secure nearly as possible the same kind of color. For example

in the red, it is the aim to obtain the same _kind_ of red, by which we

mean the same location in the spectrum, i.e. a red neither more orange

nor more violet than the reddest spot in the spectrum. This selection

must be based on a purely æsthetic perception or impression of color.

The same is true of each of the six standard colors, as for example, for

orange we select the location which has seemed to a large number of good

judges to best represent the feeling of orange as between the quite

well defined red on one hand and the equally definite narrow band of

yellow on the other, and it is quite wonderful what unanimity of opinion

there is on this particular color which would naturally seem to be the

one most doubtful in its location. On the other side of the yellow the

green seems to offer little difficulty and the pure Paris or emerald

green is very nearly the standard. The violet being at the other end of

the spectrum is as easily decided as the red, but the blue between the

green and violet is not so easily determined, because, from the best

blue the hue runs so imperceptibly into the violet on one side and the

green on the other. Pure ultramarine blue is the nearest approach to the

spectrum standard of blue of any of the permanent pigments, but even

this is a trifle too violet.

For educational purposes papers coated with pigments afford at once the

purest colors and the most economical and useful material, and on this

plan a line of colored papers has been prepared for color instruction in

the kindergartens and primary schools in imitation of the above

described spectrum standards.

From the pure spectrum standards it is possible by reflected light to

combine the two standards to produce a color between them, for example

if two small mirrors are held in a spectrum one at the "red" and the

other at the "orange" and the two reflected on to the same spot on a

white surface, the result is a color between the red and the orange. So

also if we mix red and orange pigments together we may produce colors

between the two which may be termed orange-red or red-orange; but

unfortunately there is no means known by which we can measure the

proportion of the red and orange color-effect which is produced by any

given mixture of these two pigments, because color-effect cannot be

measured by the pint of mixed paint or the ounce of dry pigment.

The Color Wheel and Maxwell Disks.

We, however, have another means for measuring color effect which just in

this emergency seems providential. It is a fact well known to every boy

that if he rapidly whirls a lighted stick the fire at the end produces

the effect of a circle of light, which phenomenon is explained by a

quality of the eye called retention of vision, by which the impression

made by the point of light remains on the retina of the eye during an

entire rotation. It is a fact, based on the same quality of vision, that

if one color is presented to the eye, and instantly replaced by another

the effect is a combination of the two colors. Therefore if one-quarter

of the surface of a disk of cardboard is covered with orange paper and

three-quarters with red paper, and then the disk placed on a rapidly

rotating spindle, the color effect is a mixture of red and orange, and

the effect is exactly in proportion to the angular measurements of the

two sectors, so that if the circumference is divided into 100 equal

parts the resultant color will be definitely represented by the formula

"Red, 75; Orange, 25."

Less than forty years ago an English scientist named J. Clerk Maxwell

while making experiments with such painted disks happily conceived the

idea of cutting a radial slit in each of two disks from the

circumference to the center so that by joining the disks they could be

made to show any desired proportion of each and hence they are called

Maxwell disks. With such disks made in the six pigmentary standards red,

orange, yellow, green, blue and violet, the intermediate pigmentary

spectrum colors may be very accurately determined by combination and

rotation. If we give to each of these standards a symbol as R. for red,

O. for orange, Y. for yellow, G. for green, B. for blue, V. for violet,

we then have the basis for a definite nomenclature of colors in

imitation of the pure spectrum colors. As all pigmentary or material

colors are modified by light and shade thus producing in high light

tints and in shadow shades of the colors, we must seek for some means of

imitating these effects, and fortunately find them in white and black

disks. If with a standard color disk we combine a white disk we may have

a line of tints of that color, and with a black disk, shades. Giving

this white disk a symbol of W. and the black disk N. we complete our

nomenclature. We cannot use B for black because B has already been used

for blue, and therefore we use N. for _niger_, the Latin word for black.

The Bradley System of Color Instruction.

Briefly stated then this system of color instruction is comprised under

the six general heads: Spectrum Standards; Pigmentary Standards based on

the spectrum standards; Maxwell Rotating Disks in the pigmentary

standards and Black and White; a Color Nomenclature based on the

accepted standards and their disk combinations; and Colored Papers and

Water Colors made in accordance with these standards.

For spectrum standards, six definite locations expressing the natural

æsthetic or psychological impressions of red, orange, yellow, green,

blue and violet are selected. Six standards are chosen instead of a

larger number as for example twelve, because for the purpose of a

nomenclature the smaller number is more convenient than a greater

number. The six are selected rather than three, four or five, because

while in the consideration of colored light alone the smaller number

would possibly suffice to form by combinations imitations of all other

colors, any number smaller than six is entirely inadequate to form by

pigmentary or disk combinations fairly good expressions of the

corresponding spectrum color combinations.

In selecting the spectrum standards special prominence has been given to

the psychological color perceptions of experts in determining those

locations in the spectrum best expressing the color feeling of red,

orange, yellow, green, blue and violet, while the purely scientific

consideration of these several questions has not been ignored or lightly

treated.

For pigmentary standards the best possible pigmentary imitations of the

six spectrum standards are secured and to these are added the nearest

approach to white and black that can be produced in pigments.

Pigmentary standards on which to base a nomenclature are valueless

without some means by which measurements of standards embraced in a

given compound color can be expressed.

The Maxwell color disks are the only known means by which we may measure

the relative proportions of color effect embodied in a given color, and

therefore the eight color disks are the foundation of the original color

nomenclature herein advocated.

Colored papers are chosen for primary color instruction because paper is

a valuable medium for simple schoolroom manual training and because no

other pigmentary medium is at once so economical and affords such pure

colors as may be secured in specially prepared colored papers, without a

glazed surface.

Before leaving this part of the subject we do well to remember that in

the present conditions of chemistry as applied to the preparation of

pigments it is not possible to establish any absolutely definite science

of such color combinations. Nor is it possible to establish permanent

pigmentary standards without great expense, but if the locations of the

standard colors in the spectrum are established by wave lengths the

pigmentary standards may be re-determined at any time and produced, in

the purest pigments available at the time. In art or harmony effects,

the purity of the pigmentary standard is not so important as its hue,

i.e. its location in the spectrum, which may always be determined by the

established wave length. This last statement may be illustrated by the

investigations regarding complementary harmonies. Scientifically one

color is not considered complementary to another unless when combined in

equal quantities they produce white light, or in other words when

combined by the rotation of disks each color must occupy a half circle

and the result must be a neutral gray. But this is not essential in

considering a complementary harmony, as harmonies in different tones and

in various proportions are pleasing and as yet the proportions and tones

which produce the best combinations have not been determined.

The entire question of harmonies or pleasing color effects is dependent

on individual color perception, and the establishment of rules and laws

on these points can result only from a comparison of the opinions of

many experts in various localities and at different times. This cannot

occur without some means for recording these opinions in generally

accepted terms. It is too late for any individual opinion to be accepted

as authority regarding the relative values of two different harmonies in

color and this will be still less possible as we become better educated

in color and able to sense finer distinctions in color combinations.

[Illustration]

Color Definitions.

Among other advantages to be gained by a logical study of the psychology

of color is the establishment of more accurate color terms and

definitions. If experiments and discussions based on accepted standards

and methods of comparisons can be carried on we may hope in time to have

as definite expressions of color terms as we now have in music and

literature.

All color terms used by artists, naturalists, manufacturers, tradesmen,

milliners and the members of our households are as indefinite as one

might naturally expect from the utter lack of a logical basis for the

whole subject.

Without definitions or means for intelligently naming any color, it is

not strange that the terms used in speaking of colors and color effects

are so contradictory as to lose much of their force, if perchance they

retain anything of their original meaning. For example, probably most

people apply the term SHADE to any modification of a color, either a

hue, tint or shade.

It is true that a concise and reasonably full dictionary of color terms

must be the outcome of long experience in the logical study of the

science of color and its use in our every-day lives, and at the best

only suggestions can be made at present. But as there must be a

beginning and some terms seem to be fairly well established, the

following incomplete list of definitions is offered, always subject to

amendment by the majority vote, for whenever such changes indicate

advance they should be welcomed.

_Ray of Light._--The finest supposable element of light impression in

the eye.

_Beam of Light._--A number of rays. _Standard Colors._--As used in this

system of color nomenclature, the best pigmentary imitation of each of

the six spectrum colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet and

black and white. These are more specifically called _Pigmentary

Standards_ in distinction from spectrum standards.

_Spectrum Standards._--The six colors found in the solar spectrum and

definitely located by their wave lengths, as follows in the ten

millionths of a millimeter. Red, 6571; Orange, 6085; Yellow, 5793;

Green, 5164; Blue, 4695; Violet, 4210.

_Pigmentary Colors._--All colors used and produced in the arts and

sciences. This is in distinction from colors seen in nature, as in

flowers and the solar spectrum. The term refers not only to pigments in

the strictest sense but to all surfaces coated, painted or dyed

artificially.

_Pure Colors._--A pure or full color, also called a saturated color, is

the most intense expression of that color without the admixture of white

or black or gray. 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.

In pigmentary colors the term pure is entirely one of relative degree.

As processes of manufacture are improved and new chemical discoveries

made, there is good reason to believe that we shall have much more

intense colors and hence much better imitations of spectrum colors than

are at present possible. Therefore as our pigments become purer those

now accepted as full colors will in time become tints or broken colors

and new standards will be adopted.

_Hue._--The hue of a given color is that color with the admixture of a

smaller quantity of another color. An orange hue of red is the standard

red mixed with a smaller quantity of orange. With the disks, pure hues

are secured only by mixing two standards _adjacent_ in the spectrum

circuit.

For convenience in speaking and writing about colors in this system of

color instruction, all the spectrum colors other than the six standard

spectrum colors are designated as intermediate spectrum hues, and often

for convenience in speaking of them they are called simply spectrum

hues. To these are also added the colors between red and violet which

are not in the spectrum. When so used the term must be considered as

purely technical in this particular relation, because a color between

the standard blue and the standard green is in the abstract no more a

hue than either of these colors. If two standards not adjacent in the

spectrum circuit are combined the result is not a _pure_ spectrum hue

but always some _broken_ spectrum color.

_Local Color._--A term applied to the natural color of an object when

seen in ordinarily good daylight and at a convenient distance, as a

sheet of paper at arms length, a tree at twice its height, etc.

_Tint._--Any pure or full color mixed with white, or reduced by strong

sunlight. In the disk combinations a spectrum color combined with white.

_Shade._--A full color in shadow, i.e., with a low degree of

illumination. In disk combinations a spectrum color combined with a

black disk produces by rotation a shade of that color. In pigments the

admixture of black does not usually produce as satisfactory shades of a

color as may be secured with some other pigments, and each artist has

his own preferences in making shades of the various colors on his

palette.

_Scale._--A scale of color is a series of colors consisting of a pure or

full color at the center and graduated by a succession of steps to a

light tint on one side and a deep shade on the other.

_Tone._--Each step in a color scale is a tone of that color, and the

full color may be called the normal tone in that scale. In art this word

has had such a variety of meaning as to render it very convenient for

Amateur Art Critics, together with such terms as breadth, atmosphere,

quality, values, etc., but in the consideration of color it should have

this one definite meaning.

_Warm Colors._--Red, orange and yellow, and combinations in which they

predominate.

_Cool Colors._--Usually considered to be green, blue and violet, and the

combinations in which they predominate. But it is, perhaps, questionable

whether green and violet may properly be termed either warm or cool. The

term cool as applied to colors is quite indefinite, except in a general

way, but red, orange and yellow are universally considered as warm, and

blue and green-blue as cool.

_Neutral Gray._--White in shade or shadow. Pure black and white mixed by

disk rotation. Black and white pigments mixed do not usually produce a

neutral gray, but rather a blue gray.

_Warm Gray._--A neutral gray with the admixture of a small quantity of

red, orange or yellow.

_Cool Gray._--A neutral gray with a small quantity of blue or

green-blue.

_Green Gray._--A neutral gray having combined with it a small quantity

of green. As this color could hardly be classed with either warm or cool

grays this fourth class of grays is suggested as helpful in giving

definiteness to the more general color expressions.

_Broken Colors._--Gray colors, often improperly called broken tints. For

simplicity, a tint of a color is described as the pure color mixed with

white and a shade as the color mixed with black, and the corresponding

broken color is the same color mixed with both white and black or with

neutral gray. A tint of a color thrown into a shadow or a shade of a

color in bright sunlight gives a broken color. For various reasons a

very large proportion of the colors in nature are broken. Broken colors

are much easier to combine harmoniously than full colors, or even tints

and shades.

In disk combinations when a pure color is combined with both a white and

black disk the result will be a broken color. When a color is mixed with

both black and white, i.e., with gray, and becomes thereby a broken

color, it then belongs to a broken scale and educationally has no place

in any pure scale, i.e., a scale in which the key tone is a pure color.

Neither has a broken scale of a color any place in a chart of pure

scales or spectrum scales.

_Neutral Colors._--A term often improperly applied to grays, white,

black, silver and gold. See passive colors.

_Passive Colors._--A term suggested as covering black, white, silver,

gold and very gray colors. The term "neutral colors" is often used in

this sense but this is evidently improper if we are to confine the term

"neutral gray" to the representation of white in shadow because as soon

as a gray has any color in it, it is no longer neutral.

_Active Colors._--Those colors neither passive or neutral. Necessarily

both the terms "active" and "passive" used in relation to colors must be

quite indefinite.

_Complementary Colors._--As white light is the sum of all color if we

take from white light a given color the remaining color is the

complement of the given color. 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.

_Harmony._--Two colors are said to be in harmony or to combine

harmoniously if the effect is pleasing when they are in juxtaposition or

are used in a composition.

_Spectrum Circuit._--If a pigmentary imitation of the solar spectrum

with the addition of violet red at the red end and red violet at the

violet end be made, and the two ends joined, we shall have a spectrum

circuit. This may be in the form of a circle, an ellipse or an oval.

_Primary Colors._--In the Brewster theory red, yellow and blue. In the

Young-Helmholtz theory red, green and violet are termed primary colors

because it is supposed that from these three sensations all color

perceptions are experienced. In purely scientific investigations of

color perceptions these last three or others which are supposed to serve

the same purpose are also called fundamental colors. Practically every

spectrum color is a primary, because each has its own wave length.

_Secondary Colors._--In the Brewster theory orange, green and purple

have been called secondary because it is claimed that they are produced

by the combination of primary colors in pairs.

_Tertiary Colors._--A term used in the Brewster theory to denote three

classes of colors called russet, citrine and olive, made by mixing the

secondaries in pairs. These are all broken spectrum colors. The orange

and purple produce russet; the orange and green form citrine; the green

and purple, olive. There seems to be no good reason for perpetuating the

indefinite terms secondaries and tertiaries as applied to color.

_Values._--This word is very freely used in discussing effects in works

of art, both in color and in black and white. At present it seems to be

a very difficult term to define, and yet each artist is quite sure that

he can "feel" it, although few will attempt to put into words a

definition satisfactory even to themselves. When an engraver, who is

also an artist, attempts to interpret nature in black and white on the

metal plate or wooden block, he endeavors to reproduce the "values" of

the various parts of the subject before him. In doing this he, for one

thing, attempts to produce a variety of neutral grays which will express

to the eye by means of black and white lines the same tones of color

effect as are seen in the several parts of the subject under

investigation. If this were the whole problem the matter would be

easily expressed by the disk nomenclature. For instance, if we are to

consider a certain red object which may be represented by the standard

red disk, we place a medium sized disk of that color on the spindle, and

in front of it, smaller disks of white and black united. By rotation the

white and black disks become a neutral gray at the center of the red

disk. If this gray is made nearly white all observers will agree that

the gray is lighter than the red, and if it is nearly black the opinion

will be equally unanimous that it is darker than the red. Consequently

there evidently must be a gray somewhere between these two extremes

which a large majority of experts may agree to be equal in depth or tone

to the red, i.e., neither lighter nor darker. But the artist-engraver

will insist that to him the term "value" expresses much more than this

and that he must use different lines in the sky or distance from those

which he uses in the foreground; and some engravers will also insist

that two different colors in the foreground must receive different

treatment with the graver in order to express their true values. We know

that true values of colors are not expressed in a photograph, as the

warm colors are too dark and the blue far too light. If the term "value

of a color" is to be used as expressing something more than a neutral

gray of such a tone as to seem equal to it, then possibly this latter

quality must be expressed by the word tone, and yet this use of that

word will seem to enlarge its scope beyond its present limits as it now

is used to express the relations between the different localities in

_one_ scale of color, while this new use will extend to the comparison

of tones in various color scales, including neutral grays.

_Luminosity._--The luminosity of a color is determined by comparing it

with a neutral gray. When a color seems to be of the same brightness as

a given neutral gray, i.e., not lighter nor darker, then that gray is

its measure of luminosity.

A noted authority says: "No colored object can have the luminosity of a

white object reflecting practically the whole of the light impinging

upon it. Therefore if we take absolute reflection as 100 a fraction of

100 will give the relative luminosity of any body." Luminosity is

another expression of the quality above described as forming a prominent

feature in the term values.

_Potentiality._--The ability or strength of a color to affect other

colors by combinations with them. For example, white has a greater

potentiality than black, yellow greater than red, and violet the least

of all the spectrum colors.

It is a pertinent question whether any quality is involved in this term

which is not found in value, tone and luminosity, but it expresses a

somewhat different phase of a line of color effects.

_Quality._--This term seems to be used rather indefinitely when applied

to color, but perhaps it is not far removed from the term hue or kind of

color.

[Illustration]

Practical Experiments

Illustrating the Theory of Color.

In the foregoing pages an attempt is made to explain clearly and as

briefly as possible the principles on which the Bradley system of color

instruction is based, and also to suggest a few definitions necessary to

an intelligent discussion of the general subject of Color. Owing to the

peculiar nature of the questions involved, demonstration by actual

experiment is more convincing than the mere statement of theories can

possibly be, and therefore a few of the following pages will be devoted

to the explanation of some valuable experiments, all of which may be

tried by the teacher in private, while many of them can be shown the

pupils with great advantage.

In this system the Maxwell color disks are the means for color

combinations and the basis for measurements, and therefore for a color

nomenclature. For this reason the present chapter treats largely of the

proper use of the wheel and incidentally the theory of red, yellow and

blue primaries with combinations to produce secondaries and tertiaries.

No teacher using the material connected with this color scheme can hope

to meet with success without a knowledge of the principles on which it

is based, and in this subject as in all others, it is essential that the

teacher shall know much more of it than he or she is ever required to

teach.

[Illustration: FIG 2.]

The Color Wheel.

For most convenient use the machine should be clamped to the front of a

table and near one end, so that the speaker using it can stand at the

end of the table and operate it with the right hand. Fig. 2 represents

the Normal School Color Wheel showing the face of the disks as seen by

the audience. Facility in the operation of the Color Wheel is rapidly

acquired by practice and the exact position is easily determined by the

operator after a few trials.

Fig. 3 shows the Primary School Color Wheel, which has only two sizes of

disks, while the largest machine has four sizes and is much finer in

construction. The smaller machine does not require clamping to a table,

but may be steadied by the left hand while being operated by the right

hand.

[Illustration]

The Color Top.

Many of the experiments of the color wheel can be produced with a small

toy called a Color Top, which is shown in Fig. 4. It is composed of a

thick cardboard disk forming the body of the top and a central wooden

spindle on which the disk closely fits. A number of colored paper disks

are provided with this top so that very many of the experiments

performed before a class can be repeated individually by the pupils and

in this way the facts which may have been demonstrated to the class with

the color wheel can be fixed in the minds of the pupils by their own

experiments with the top. Also as a home toy in the hands of the pupils

it can be of value, not only to the children, but to the parents as

well.

[Illustration]

Use of the Disks.

Fig. 5 shows the method of joining two Maxwell disks and Fig. 6 their

appearance when properly joined to be placed on the rotating spindle of

the color wheel. In joining two or more disks for use on a color wheel

or top, care should be taken to place them in such relation to each

other that when rotated the radial edges exposed on the face toward the

audience will not "catch the wind." With small disks on the color wheel

this is not important, and if there is no whole graduated disk on the

arbor behind the slitted disks there is no advantage, but in using the

larger disks it is well to put the graduated disk behind the others for

this purpose, as at best it is quite laborious to keep up speed when

using several of the large disks, even with the best possible

conditions. With the thin paper disks of the color top this is an

important matter. It will be noticed that the method of joining the

disks for use on the Color Top is the reverse of that to be observed

with the disks of the Color Wheel as shown in Fig. 5.

[Illustration]

Fig. 7 shows the same two color disks placed in front of a large white

disk having its edge graduated to one hundred parts, so that the

relative proportions of two or more colors to be combined can be

determined accurately.

As the smaller disks offer so much less resistance in rotation than the

larger ones they are most desirable in private experiments or before a

small class, and the largest disks of the Normal School Wheel are

necessary only when more than three expressions of color are required to

be shown at the same time. In making experiments before an audience

those persons in front should if possible be at least ten feet from the

color wheel. From ten to forty feet there seems to be but little

difference in the color perception, but for best tests fifteen to twenty

feet is the most desirable position.

For private practice with the color wheel a small mirror may be placed

five or six feet in front of the wheel in such position as to furnish an

image of the disks to the person operating the machine. Owing to a

slight loss of light by reflection the closest criticism may not be

possible when working with a mirror in this way, but if a plate mirror

is used the results are very good and a bevel plate mirror about 7 x 9

inches without frame, can usually be procured at small cost; this method

is much more satisfactory for personal experimenting than an assistant

to turn the wheel.

These disks have heretofore been used as a curious piece of

philosophical apparatus rather than because they have been supposed to

have any practical value in color training, but in establishing a color

nomenclature based on six spectrum colors the disks at once assume a

great value and are indispensable in a system of color instruction

founded on the science of color and on the psychological perception of

colors.

Let us suppose that the two disks shown in Fig. 7 are yellow and green,

80 parts yellow and 20 parts green; then by rotation we shall have a

green yellow indicated by the symbol Y. 80, G. 20. No argument is

necessary to prove that when an exact expression of color effect is

required this is better than the simple statement that it is a greenish

yellow.

How to Begin the Experiments.

For practice it is profitable to commence with the red and orange disks

combined on the spindle, with a smaller red disk in front of them, the

smallest being preferable. Begin by introducing say five per cent of

orange and notice that a change from the standard red at the center is

visible. Gradually increase the orange until it seems difficult to say

whether the resulting color is more like red or orange, and then

exchange the small red disk for an orange disk of the same size, and

continue adding orange in the larger disks until the difference cannot

be detected between the small disk and the larger combined disks.

The standards may be combined in pairs, as has been indicated with the

red and orange, to produce all the intermediate hues throughout the

spectrum, but it must be remembered that these combinations are to be

made by joining in pairs, colors adjacent in the spectrum, red and

orange, orange and yellow, yellow and green, green and blue, blue and

violet. We then shall have representations of all the spectrum colors,

but there are still the colors between violet and red, known in nature

and art as purples, which must be produced by uniting the red and violet

disks, thus completing a circuit of colors containing all the pure

colors in nature.

In nature all colors are modified by light and shade, strong light

producing tints and shadows more or less deep forming shades.

These effects are imitated on the color wheel by the use of a white disk

combined with a disk of a standard color for tints and a black disk for

shades, and can be tested in the same order as indicated for the hues,

by combining each standard disk with a white or a black disk in varying

proportions. It will be noticed early in disk experiments that a very

small amount of white produces a decided effect in the tone of a color

while a comparatively large amount of black is necessary to produce a

marked change. As this is exactly the reverse of the effects of white

and black pigments it is always a subject of remark. 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. Even with the disks it

is impossible to imitate purest tints of all the standard colors,

because in some of the colors, as peculiarly in red and blue, the

rotation of the white disk seems to develop a slightly violet gray, for

which effect there has as yet been no scientific explanation. This gray

dulls the purity of the tint as compared with that which is found in the

color under a bright illumination, but on the whole both tints and

shades as well as the hues can be better illustrated with the disks than

in any other way, and in addition, the advantage is secured of being

able to measure and record the tone by the graduated disk in the same

way as the hues are measured and recorded. A further advantage is

secured in the use of disks in color instruction because with pigments,

the only other method by which colors can be combined, much time must be

lost not only in the mixing and applying of the colors but in the delay

necessary to allow them to dry before the true results can be seen.

The shades of yellow as shown on the wheel will not be generally

accepted without criticism, but careful comparison with yellow paper in

shadow will prove the substantial truth of the disk results. This

experiment may be tried as follows: Join two cards with a hinge of paper

or cloth to form a folding screen like the covers of a book as in Fig.

8. On the surface A, paste a piece of standard yellow paper and on B, a

piece of yellow shade No. 1. Hold these two surfaces toward the class in

such a position that the strong light will fall on B, which is the

yellow shade, and thus bring the face A, which is a standard yellow, in

a position to be shaded from the light. By varying the angle of the

covers with each other and turning them as a whole from side to side, a

position will be secured in which the two faces will seem so nearly

alike as to convince the class that this color which they may have

thought to be green, is not green, but a color peculiar to itself, a

shade of yellow; because the darker paper when in full light appears

substantially the same as the standard yellow in the shade or shadow.

[Illustration]

In our experiments thus far with the wheel we have combined the

standards in pairs to produce the colors of the spectrum between the

standards, which for convenience may be called intermediate spectrum

hues, and also have combined a white disk with each of the standards to

produce tints of the standards and a black disk to make shades.

By combining a white disk with an orange and a yellow disk, for example,

forming a trio of disks, a variety of tints of orange yellow and yellow

orange may be made. Also by the use of the black disk instead of the

white a series of shades of the intermediate hues may be produced, and

thus a great variety of tints and shades of many spectrum colors shown.

Now if the white and black disks are combined with each other the result

will be a shade of white, i.e., a white in shadow, which is an

absolutely neutral gray. As the experiments progress it will be seen

that this neutral gray is a very important feature in the study of

color, and therefore it may be well at this point to make sure that the

disk combinations give the true gray of a white in shadow by a test

similar to the one used for the shade of yellow, thus disarming

criticism. Such a test may conveniently be made by covering the reverse

sides of the folding covers with white on one cover and "neutral gray

paper No. 1" on the other. As the neutral gray papers are made in

imitation of combinations of black and white disks this experiment is as

convincing as the one regarding the yellow shade. This is but one of

many examples of the value of disk combinations in the classification

and analysis of colors.

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 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. 2 is much more yellow and more broken than No. 1.

Similar inconsistencies occur in all the other scales, showing that the

author had no correct knowledge of the analysis of colors, and yet this

was the best and practically the only aid offered for instruction in

color at that time.

Neither were there any true standards for neutral grays and the term

"neutral" was used in such an indefinite way as to rob it of all actual

value, until by the aid of disk combinations it came to be confined to

white in shadow as closely imitated by the combinations of white and

black disks.

[Illustration]

With colored papers made in imitation of the six standards and two tints

and two shades of each, six scales of colors may be produced by

arranging the five different tones of each color in a row, as in Fig. 9,

which represents the orange scale with tints at the left and shades at

the right. If, in addition to these six scales, we have two scales

between each two of the standards, we may have between the orange scale

and the yellow scale a yellow orange scale and an orange yellow scale,

and if we thus introduce the intermediate scales between each of the

other two standards, and include the red violet and violet red, we shall

have eighteen scales of five tones each.

The eighteen scales as above named may be arranged as shown in Fig. 10

to form a chart of pure spectrum scales which is very valuable for study

and comparison and especially so in the study of the theory of

harmonies. All these tones are called pure tones and this chart is

therefore called a chart of Pure Spectrum Scales.

The idea that soft, dull, broken colors produce best harmonies when used

in combination may or may not be a universally accepted truth, but there

is a general belief that it is much easier to make acceptable

combinations with broken colors than with pure spectrum colors and their

tints and shades, and therefore the temptation has been strong to select

a general assortment of colors which easily harmonize because of the

pleasing effect, instead of having regard solely to the educational

value of colors.

Truth in education requires that when colors are classified as spectrum

colors they shall all be the nearest approach possible to the true

spectrum colors, and in the spectrum there are no broken or impure

colors. Therefore, whenever the spectrum is set up as nature's standard

or chart of colors and an imitation is made in pigments or papers, great

care should be used to secure the most accurate imitation possible, but

in the past this has not been the case, because of the prevailing idea

that the colors must all be possible combinations of three primaries,

and hence the orange, green and violet have often been very broken

colors. While pure colors and their tints and shades may be

advantageously combined with various tones of broken colors in one

composition for artistic effect, they should be definitely divided when

classified for educational purposes, and their differences clearly

explained to students.

In a scale of tones in any color the several papers will harmonize more

easily if the tints and shades are not too far removed from the

standard, but it is thought by many good judges that the educational

advantage in learning to see the relationship of color in the more

extreme tones is of greater importance in the elementary grades than the

facility for making most pleasing combinations. Consequently in the

Bradley colored papers the tints are very light and the shades quite

dark.

If, instead of adding either a white disk or a black disk to a spectrum

color, by which we make pure tints and shades, we add both white and

black, a line of gray colors or so-called broken colors is formed. This

is most beautifully shown with the disks, and in this way a line of

_true broken colors_ is secured, because in each case a true neutral

gray has been added to the color, which cannot be insured in the mixture

of gray pigments. As an example, this may be shown with the three

smaller sizes of the orange disks. With the medium size of these three

make the combination Orange, 35; White, 10; Black 55. With the larger

size disks make the proportions Orange, 16; White, 5; Black, 79, and

with the smallest size Orange, 43; White, 33; Black, 24. Place these

three sets of disks on the spindle at one time and you have the three

tones of a broken orange scale.

With similar combinations applied to the six standards and one

intermediate hue between each two, there will be material for a chart of

Broken Spectrum Scales, as shown in Fig. 11, including twelve scales of

three tones each. These are the most beautiful colors in art or nature

when combined harmoniously. Because of the loss of color in broken

colors it is not advisable to attempt so many different hues or so many

tones of each hue as in pure colors, for slight differences in either

hues or tones are not as readily perceived.

In these two charts of color scales two distinct classes of colors are

represented, namely, pure colors and broken colors. The pure colors

consist of the purest possible pigmentary imitations of spectrum colors,

with their tints and shades, and the broken colors are these pure colors

dulled by the admixture of neutral grays in various tones. This

distinction is readily recognized under proper training, so that if a

broken color is introduced into a combination of colors from a pure

scale it will be readily detected, which always occurs when the attempt

is made to produce a series of spectrum scales by the combination of

the three primary colors red, yellow and blue. By this method, if

logically carried out, the orange, green and violet are dark broken

colors, and hence to a less extent the intermediate colors also, because

each of these is a mixture of a pure color with a broken color. The

usual result, however, is that the orange made from the red and yellow

seem so out of place in the warm end of the spectrum that it is modified

and made much nearer the pure color, usually, however, too yellow, while

the greens and violets, which are deep and rich broken colors, may seem

more harmonious, but are so dark as to be out of place among spectrum

colors.

[Illustration]

If light broken colors are properly combined a beautiful imitation

rainbow is produced, which is more harmonious than the spectrum made

from full colors. A series of such colors combined in spectrum order

produce a more pleasing effect when separated by a small space of white,

black, gray, silver or gold. The reason for this may be found in the

discussion of simultaneous contrasts.

In nature nearly all colors are broken. First, there is always more or

less vapor together with other impurities in the air, so that even in a

clear day objects a few hundred feet from us are seen through a gray

veil, as it were, and in a misty or hazy day this is very evident. In

the case of somewhat distant foliage the general color effect is

produced by the light reflected from the aggregation of leaves, some of

which may be in bright sunlight and others in shadow, with a mixture of

brown twigs. All these tints and shades of green and brown are mingled

in one general effect in the eye. Also, owing to the rounded forms and

irregular illumination of objects, we see very little full or local

color in nature.

Therefore the study of broken colors becomes the most fascinating branch

of this whole subject, and it also has an added interest because nearly

all the colors found in tapestries, hangings, carpets, ladies' dress

goods, etc., come under this head. In fact it would be hazardous for an

artisan or an artist to use any full spectrum color in his work, except

in threads, lines or dots. A considerable quantity of pure standard

green, for instance, would mar the effect of any landscape.

It is a very interesting diversion to analyze samples of the dress goods

sold each season under the most wonderful names. For example:--

"Ecru," a color sold a few seasons ago, is a broken orange yellow with a

nomenclature O. 12, Y. 15, W. 17, N. 56, while this year "Leghorn" and

"Furet" are two of the "new" colors, the former having a nomenclature of

O. 16, Y. 54, W. 19, N. 11, and the latter O. 18, Y. 18, W. 8, N. 56,

all of which are very beautiful broken orange yellows.

"Ashes of Roses" of past years is a broken violet red which can be

analyzed as follows: R. 8-1/2, V. 2-1/4, W. 15-1/4, N. 74.

"Anemon" of this season is R. 28, V. 7, W. 5, N. 60, which is another

broken violet red.

"Old Rose" is a broken red: R. 65-1/2, W. 24-1/2, N. 10.

"Empire" of past seasons is G. 18-1/2, B. 11, W. 16-1/2, N. 54, while

"Neptune" of this season is G. 13-1/2, B. 2-1/2, W. 11, N. 73, both

being broken blue greens.

"Topia," a beautiful brown, is O. 10, N. 90, a pure shade of orange,

while "Bolide" is a lighter yellow orange with a nomenclature of O.

18-1/2, Y. 2-1/2, W. 1-1/2, N. 77-1/2.

We might analyze "Elephant's Breath," "Baby Blue," "Nile Green,"

"Crushed Strawberry" and others common in the market, but while the

names will no doubt occur each season the colors will change with the

fickle demands of the goddess of fashion and the interests of the

manufacturers and dealers. In writing any color nomenclature the letters

should be used in the following order: R.-O.-Y.-G.-B.-V.-W.-N., thus

always listing the standard colors before the white or black. For

example, never place Y. before O. or R., and never use N. before W. If

this order is strictly adhered to the habit is soon acquired and a

valuable point gained.

It has been shown that combined white and black disks form neutral

gray, which is a white in shadow or under a low degree of illumination.

If to such a gray a very small amount of color is added, as orange for

example, by the introduction of an orange disk, this neutral gray

becomes an orange gray, but unless the amount is considerable it can not

be detected as an orange, but the gray may be termed a warm gray,

denoting that it is affected by some one of the colors near the red end

of the spectrum. If blue instead of orange is added to the neutral gray,

a cool gray is produced. When green is added to a gray the result can

not fairly be called either warm or cool, and hence we have termed it a

green gray. According to this plan we have four classes of grays,

Neutral, Warm, Cool and Green grays. As there may be many tones of each,

and many intermediate combinations from red to green, or green to blue,

the number of grays in nature is infinite, but these four classes with

two tones of each in the papers form what may be called standards or

stations from which to think of the grays, the same as the six standards

in the spectrum constitute points from which to think of pure colors.

A careful consideration of the foregoing pages, accompanied with a color

wheel or even a color top, can hardly fail to give a student who will

make the experiments a clear idea of the use of the disks in the system

of color education in which they form such an important feature, and

therefore the old theory of three primaries, red, yellow and blue, and

all that it leads to can be very intelligently considered and tested by

them in the experiments which follow.

This old theory briefly restated is as follows: It is said "there are in

nature three primary colors, red, yellow and blue; and by the mixture of

these primary colors in pairs, orange, green and violet may be made." In

fact leading educators have said that "in the solar spectrum, which is

nature's chart of colors, the principal colors are red, orange, yellow,

green, blue and violet; _of these_ red, yellow and blue are primaries

from which may be made the secondaries, orange, green and violet." All

such statements as heretofore made in any popular treatment of the

subject are understood to mean that in a pigmentary imitation of a

spectrum the secondaries as enumerated may be produced by the mixtures

of the primary pigments, because pigmentary mixtures are the only

combinations generally recognized.

This theory has also included the statement that the primaries are

complementary to the secondaries in pairs, and that the combination of

the secondaries in pairs may produce a distinct class of colors called

tertiaries.

It will be the aim of the following pages to demonstrate that in all

this there is neither scientific or æsthetic truth nor educational

value.

The Old Theories Tested by Mixture of Three Pigments.

Experiments in mixing the three pigments, red, yellow and blue, to

produce the secondaries, orange, green and violet, have been very

carefully made with interesting and instructive results. All such

experiments are valueless unless made with one accepted set of primaries

for the three combinations, because it is self-evident that if we select

a vermilion red which is very decidedly an orange red, and choose for

our yellow one of the orange yellows, the mixture will more nearly

approach a true orange than if a standard red and standard yellow are

used. Also in making a violet, if we mix a carmine, which is a violet

red, with a decidedly violet blue, of which there are many, the result

will be a better violet than the combination of the standard red and

blue. So also in the mixing of blue and yellow to make green, a greenish

yellow and a greenish blue will necessarily produce better results than

the standards. Therefore, to test the matter fairly, the same pigments

which are used to coat the standard red, yellow and blue papers have

been combined so as to produce the best possible orange, green and

violet, and these results when analyzed on the color wheel are as

follows:--

The orange made by mixing standard red and yellow pigments in the best

proportions is equal to O. 46, W. 2, N. 52. The violet is equal to V.

20, W. 1, N. 79, and the nearest approach to a standard green is shown

by disk analysis to be G. 37, W. 7, N. 56, which is better than the

violet and nearly as good as the orange.

These experiments show that heretofore when a line of standards of six

colors has been prepared from three primaries, red, yellow and blue,

even though the purest possible colors may have been selected for the

primaries, the secondaries have not been in the same class of colors,

and that all of them are very dark broken colors. Therefore, in using

educational colored papers based on such a scheme, the pupil has

received no correct impressions of the relative values of the several

colors involved in pure spectrum scales, but has been shown at the

outset a mixture of pure and broken colors _as standards_.

This is not a matter of opinion regarding best harmonies, because it is

easy to demonstrate that less skill is required to combine broken colors

harmoniously than pure colors, but it is a choice between truth and

error in the early education of color perception.

Old Theories Tested by the Color Wheel or Color Top.

While it may be impossible for the reader to secure pigments exactly

like the standards, red, yellow and blue, used in the above experiments,

and therefore the statement here made can not be accurately verified,

any one having a color wheel or even a color top may test the same

combinations by use of disks. If it is true, as claimed, that a good

standard orange can be made by mixing red and yellow, then it should

follow that when a red and yellow disk are combined and a smaller orange

disk placed in front of them, that it ought to be possible to so adjust

the proportion of red to yellow that by rotation the outer ring of color

will match the central orange disk.

A trial of this experiment will show that while the color resulting from

the best possible combination of red and yellow is a kind of orange, it

is not even an approximation to the standard orange, but is a shade of

orange which may be matched by combining the smaller orange disk with a

black disk in the proportion of O. 45, N. 55, the larger disks being R.

89, Y. 11.

In combining red and blue disks to make a violet the result is more

satisfactory, while if we attempt to produce a green by combining the

yellow and blue disks the result will be surprising, but probably not

convincing, because the statement that yellow and blue make green has

been so persistently reiterated as a fundamental axiom that people who

have given the subject but little attention will feel that to doubt it

is rank heresy. In a text book treating of color is found the following

passage: "Green substances reflect the green, i.e., the blue and yellow

rays of the sunlight and absorb all the others." It is a fact, however,

that in the mixture of blue and yellow light there is little or no trace

of green, as a single experiment with a color top or color wheel will

readily demonstrate.

In response to this convincing experiment a colorist of the "old

school," (and there are few others) will doubtless say, "Such an

assertion seems to be true when applied to these rotating disks, but we

see no practical value in experiments of this kind, because in the use

of color we must depend on pigmentary combinations, and in pigments

yellow and blue do make green." The author of a statement of this kind

is always honest in making it, and yet it is absolutely untrue, because

as has already been shown, the green resulting from the mixture of

yellow and blue can not be placed even approximately in the same class

as the yellow and blue of which it is composed.

In accepting the disk combinations of standard pigmentary colors we are

assuming a system of color investigation based on the combination of

colored light rather than the mixture of pigments, and to an artist who

has given the subject little thought this seems quite radical, not to

say startling. But, logically, why is it not the most natural as well as

the correct basis for this work?

Art in color must be based on the imitation of natural color effects.

We must first learn to see color correctly and to know what we see, and

after that it is a very simple matter to learn which pigments to combine

for producing any desired result which is already clearly defined in the

mind. In fact the best selection of pigments must often be based on

their chemical and mechanical qualities as much as on their peculiar

hues.

All color impressions of material substances are produced by colored

light reflected from a material surface to the retina of the eye,

through which by some unknown means it is conveyed to the brain. When

the white sunlight falls on a material substance a portion of the rays

are absorbed and others are reflected to the eye, thereby conveying

impressions of color. If on a surface of yellow material we throw a

strong orange light through a colored glass, some of the orange rays

from the glass will mingle with the yellow rays and the two are

reflected to the eye, thereby producing an orange yellow or yellow

orange effect where before it was yellow. So in a summer evening

landscape when there is a so-called red sunset, everything is

illuminated by an orange light and each color in the landscape is

affected by the orange rays which mingle with the rays of the local

color and are reflected to the eyes of the observer, producing the

effect of local colors mixed with orange.

In a room where the windows open on to a green lawn with many trees in

close proximity to the house, nearly all the light is reflected from

green surfaces, and hence is green light. In such a case a correct

painting of objects in that room would have a general green effect.

The afternoon light in a room on the west side of a city street may be

nearly all red light, reflected from an opposite red brick wall, and

such a room would be ill-adapted to showing fine dress goods, because

the hues of the more delicate colors would be entirely changed, and

hence would give a false impression as to the relations of the several

colors in combination as seen in white or clear daylight. If a piece of

light blue silk is illuminated by sunlight passing through a bit of

yellow glass, no trace of green effect will be produced, but a gray

either slightly yellow or blue, according to the relative strength of

the colors in the glass and the silk. This same effect would be secured

if the yellow light of the setting sun illuminated the same material,

but under such conditions everything else would be similarly affected so

that the effect would not be so apparent.

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.

Chevreul also states in his invaluable book on color contrasts that

yellow and blue threads woven into a texture, side by side, produce

green. This statement is the more remarkable because the writer was a

very careful investigator and is but another evidence of the strong hold

which the Newton and Brewster theory has had on the public mind for so

many years.

The story is told of an artist who wished to introduce into a

composition of still life a blue vase with a bit of yellow lace thrown

over a portion of it, and having been educated to believe that yellow

and blue made green, gave a green effect to the portion of the vase

covered by the lace. Had he known that blue and yellow light combined

make gray instead of green he would have avoided the error.

The fact that gray is the product of blue and yellow light is sometimes

taken advantage of in forming backgrounds in lithographic printing, in

which a stippling of alternate dots of yellow and blue, very close

together but not overlapping, is used to produce a beautifully

transparent gray much more pleasing than any one tint of gray. This

result is due to the blending of the two colors in the eye with the same

effect as the colors of two rotating disks are mingled. The fact that

there is a difference between the color effects produced by mixing two

pigments and the mixing of the light reflected from similar colored

surfaces is a very strong argument for a system of color instruction

based on disk combinations, rather than on pigmentary mixtures.

In order to obtain the most truthful effects of color in nature the

artist should have sufficient knowledge of the principles which govern

the combination of colors by reflected light, so that his reason may aid

his eyes.

A little experimenting with the rotating disks and with pigments will

convince any one that the disk combinations form the only possible basis

at present known for logical color instruction.

Concerning the Complementary Colors.

Having shown that the three colors, red, yellow and blue, can not be

combined to make an orange, a green or a violet of a corresponding

degree of purity, we will consider the other claim which is set up by

the advocates of the Brewster theory, namely, that the secondaries are

complementary to the primaries in pairs, the green to the red, the

violet to the yellow and the orange to the blue.

As all color is contained in white light, if we take from white light

any given color, the color remaining is the complementary. If a small

disk of standard red paper is placed on a white wall and the eyes fixed

intently on it for a few seconds, and then the eyes slightly moved back

and forth, a ring of a bluish green tint will be seen surrounding the

red paper, or if the eyes are fixed intently on the disk for a short

time and the paper suddenly removed, a disk of the same blue green tint

will be seen in place of the red disk. This is called the accidental

color and is supposed to be identical with the complementary color,

although the image is too faint to give any very exact effect, but it is

sufficient to furnish a clue to the complementary, and we may infer that

a color between green and blue is that which is required. Now if we can

determine in what proportions red, blue and green must be united to

produce white light we may solve the problem. This is not possible in

the use of any pigmentary colors, because of the impurity of all

pigments as compared with spectrum colors. Although the mixture of

colored light reflected from the disks, which are made of pigmentary

colors, gives much purer color than the actual mechanical mixture of the

two pigments, still, because it is a reflection of pigmentary colors, it

is far lower in tone than the corresponding mixture of spectrum colors.

Therefore it can not be a pure white, but may be white in shade or a

neutral gray, which, as already shown, can be produced by the

combination of a white and a black disk.

Therefore if red, blue and green disks of medium size are joined on the

wheel and in front of them small white and black disks are combined, we

have a means for solving this problem. If these various disks can be so

adjusted that when rotated the effect of the three colored disks is a

neutral gray, (or white under a low degree of illumination) exactly

matching a gray that may be obtained by adjusting the small black and

white disks, then one step in the solution is taken, as shown in Fig.

12.

[Illustration]