When the children have advanced far enough to understand the analysis of
a color, i.e., to correctly name a color, exercises which may be called
color puzzles can be introduced from time to time with great interest
and profit.
The idea is simply to suddenly show to the class a series of disks in
rapid rotation and ask them to guess what colors it is composed of,
i.e., what the definite name of the color is.
The following is a suggestion for this exercise, supposing that a broken
green yellow is to be shown:--
Select a green, a yellow, a white and a black disk of medium size and
combine them as follows: Y.20, G.10, W.10, N.60. Then, having previously
removed the nut from the spindle of the wheel and laid it in a
convenient place, take the combined disks and lay on the top of them any
other disk of a larger size, with the center holes of all corresponding
with each other and place all these disks on the spindle of the wheel
with the larger disk still covering the face of the others. Having
previously furnished an assistant with a sheet of cardboard of
sufficient size to conceal the disks from the class have it held in
front of the wheel while the disk which conceals the combination is
removed, the nut screwed to place and the disks put into rapid rotation;
then order the card taken away and ask the class what color they see,
still continuing the rotation.
The correct answer should be broken green-yellow, and not a shade of
green-yellow, a broken yellow-green, a tint of yellow or a yellow shade;
for there is but one true name and that should be stated. Definite
expressions of color are as possible as the terms used regarding other
scientific subjects, and should be encouraged.
Much interest can be inspired and valuable instruction imparted to the
children by experiments with the color wheel, but whenever color
analysis is the object in view, if disks of more than one of the
standard colors are used in the same combination they must be of colors
adjacent to each other in the spectrum.
For example, if a blue and a yellow disk are united and placed in
rotation the result may be a blue gray, a yellow gray, or perhaps very
nearly a neutral gray, because blue and yellow are so nearly
complementary to each other. But a nomenclature of the resulting color
effect expressed in terms of blue and yellow is not of practical value,
because it is evident that in the analysis of a gray-blue, yellow has no
logical place. If in an attempt to match a color which seems to be a
broken blue, something else besides the blue, white and black is
required, it must be either green or violet, i.e., one of the two
standard colors adjacent to the blue in the spectrum. In other words,
every color in nature is a spectrum color, i.e., either a pure spectrum
color, a tint or a shade of a spectrum color, or a broken spectrum
color. Hence every color can be matched, and therefore analyzed by the
combination of one disk of a standard color with a white disk, a black
disk or both, or else by two adjacent spectrum standards with white and
black or both.
There are many combinations of disks outside the limitations above
named which are valuable and interesting in color investigation when not
used for simple analysis, but if they are presented as pleasing
experiments before the pupils can understand their logical relation to
the subject of color education, the result may be entirely misleading
rather than instructive.
In making experiments in broken colors with the wheel the most
satisfactory results are secured in orange, violet, green and yellow,
while the red is fairly good and the blue less satisfactory than the
others because of the slight effect of gray or violet which comes into
the lighter tones by rotation, to which reference has already been made.
As explained on Page 54, the so-called tertiary colors, russets,
citrines and olives were formerly supposed to be classes of peculiar
colors to which these names were given. The fact that these are all
broken spectrum colors was first demonstrated by the use of the color
wheel and they are now quite generally accepted as such by those who
have given heed to modern methods of color instruction.
As already shown the disks have also seemed to correctly define the
several scales of colors, so that in contrast to the color charts of a
dozen years ago a distinction is clearly drawn between the colors in the
yellow and the orange scales, or even between the yellow-orange and the
orange-yellow scales, so accurately do the disks determine the hue of a
color.
When the pupils have progressed so far that they can arrange the paper
tablets to form the Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales in three tones and
also the Chart of Broken Scales, they will be prepared to intelligently
begin the use of papers in cutting and pasting designs in the several
classes of harmonies, but before most effective results can be produced
the lightest tints and deepest shades of the full chart of pure scales
in five tones must be considered.
Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales Completed.
The entire mastery of these extreme tones will be quite difficult
because they are so far removed from the standards, and the children
can hardly be expected to recognize and name them when seen separately.
If a pupil is able to correctly arrange them in connection with the
other tones of the chart, his accomplishment will show a high grade of
color perception. But these extreme tones are introduced because their
use in the more advanced work of paper cutting and pasting produces
stronger and more beautiful harmonies and a higher degree of color
training than would result were the tints and shades nearer the
standards in tone.
No detailed rehearsal of the lessons for this work is necessary to
enable a teacher who has pursued the course of instruction thus far to
complete it in a logical way, and relatively little time will be
required by the pupils to become sufficiently familiar with these tones
for practical purposes, because of their more acute color perception
which will be developed at this period.
The Work of Cutting and Pasting.
In the study of color the work of cutting and pasting designs in
educational colored papers affords the earliest and best practical
expression of the color feeling which has been acquired and stimulates
the further development of color perception. The order in which the use
of these papers can be most profitably taken up in the occupations of
cutting and pasting may be determined by a careful consideration of the
subject of harmonies as explained quite fully in the foregoing section
entitled "Practical Experiments," Pages 67 to 73.
The first in order is Contrasted Harmony, in which cut papers in one
color may be mounted on a ground of some passive color as white or gray.
In selecting the gray, analogy is usually preferable to contrast, while
neutral gray is fairly safe for all colors. According to this suggestion
the warm grays may be used with the warm colors and the cool grays with
the cool colors, and in a majority of the cases the lightest tone of
gray is preferable.
Without question Dominant Harmonies or the arrangement in families are
the most profitable and safe for early practice. In this class a light
tint may be used for the background on which to mount any of the other
tones of the same scale. Beyond these two classes of harmonies the order
of presentation must be determined by the teacher. If the complementary
is attempted with simple geometrical forms a light tint may most safely
be selected for a background in the least aggressive of the two colors
and the design or pasted forms in some of the complementary tones other
than the normal color. Do not attempt to combine full complementary
colors in elementary work.
The Analogous Harmony may be used in simple designs with beautiful
effects when judicious selections are made, but owing to the latitude
necessarily involved in the definition of this class of combinations the
children cannot very early be trusted to make their own selections.
It is evident that nothing can be attempted in the Perfected Harmonies
in any of the ready-cut forms, but beautiful results can be produced in
this class with well-drawn and accurately cut ornamental designs in
colored papers, which may even surpass in strength and beauty any
effects which can be produced in water colors such as can be used by the
children.
For earliest practice in making designs in colored papers the ready cut
forms of the kindergarten, technically called "parquetry papers" are
very convenient and may be procured either with or without gum on the
back. These are prepared in various geometrical forms based on the
one-inch standard, among which the most useful for pasting decorative
designs are the circle, half-circle, square, half-square and equilateral
triangle. Where models and tablets are used in form study the tablets
may serve as patterns from which the children can mark out the papers
which they can then cut for themselves, and thus the oval and ellipse
may be added to the forms, and also practice in accurate cutting
secured.
In the use of tablets as patterns the outlines should be made on the
backside of the paper, by holding the tablet in place with one finger
and working carefully around it with a well-pointed pencil. The marking
to the pattern and cutting to the line provides valuable elementary
practice in manual training. As it is the prime object of these papers
to treat of color no attempt is here made to give directions for
designing units of ornament or for folding and cutting designs. All such
exercises furnish the best possible practice in both designing and
manual work, but they belong more directly to the department of drawing
and are fully treated in the hand books explaining modern systems of
drawing. We offer here a number of simple arrangements of such forms as
may be found in ready-cut papers or may be marked from the form study
tablets as before mentioned, with the addition of a few other figures
which involve some very simple designs for free-hand cutting.
A Variety of Designs.
The accompanying illustrations show a number of simple arrangements of
such forms as are found in ready-cut papers or may be marked from the
form study tablets already mentioned, with the addition of a few other
figures which include some very simple forms requiring free-hand
cutting. Suggestions for more elaborate designs and specific directions
for paper cutting can be found in elementary books treating of
decorative drawing and those devoted solely to paper cutting.
[Illustration]
Figs. 17 to 25 show arrangements of one-inch kindergarten parquetry
papers in one color, used as units to form border designs in contrasted
harmony on a white or a gray ground, in all of which there is repetition
of form as well as color. A narrow strip of paper in the same color as
the units may be used at top and bottom to finish the design.
[Illustration]
Figs. 26 to 37 show border designs, each of which is made with one form
in two colors or tones in alternation.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Figs. 38 and 39 show border designs in one color, with forms marked from
the elliptical and oval tablets and cut by hand. In Fig. 39 borders are
made by combining half-squares which may be used with or without narrow
strips of the same color.
[Illustration]
Figs. 40 and 41 are made by using one form with alternation of tone and
of position. Fig. 41 is derived from Fig. 40 by laying the dark squares
with the corners in contact and placing the light squares over them.
Fig. 42 shows alternation of form and color or tone, which is also the
scheme employed in Fig. 43 in a design less simple with the addition of
the half-circles.
Figs. 44 and 45 show two other simple and pleasing designs with
alternation of both form and tone or color.
Figs. 46, 47, 48, and 49 comprise designs in two forms and two tones or
colors, in which some hand cutting is necessary on the part of the
pupils.
[Illustration]
Figs. 50 to 54 are rosettes made from parquetry papers with the addition
of a small circle or square at the center cut by hand.
[Illustration]
Figs. 55 to 60 are principally hand-cut forms, and 61, 62 and 63 show
surface patterns made from parquetry squares and half-squares.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Colored papers can be used more advantageously in decorative designs
than in imitations of natural objects, for which water colors are much
better suited, but some copies of natural flowers and autumn leaves have
been made in colored papers which were exceedingly close imitations of
water color paintings when seen at a little distance, rivaling in the
case of the autumn leaves the best water color effects in brilliancy and
depth of color.
There need be no definite rules governing the continuation of color
study from this point by a teacher who is interested in the subject and
has tried the experiments suggested in the preceding pages. The work
will become very interesting at this stage, because now all sorts of
material may be introduced for analysis and classification and from this
point forward, to the highest achievements of the artist, nature will
furnish abundant stimulus to color thought and investigation, if the
foundation has been laid according to the true theory of color
perception which it is the object of this system to explain.
Analysis of Color Materials.
A valuable and interesting phase of color investigation and color
training may be found in the analysis and naming of the natural colors
found in flowers, minerals and the plumage of birds. The necessity for
a definite and adequate nomenclature which naturalists experience in
this department of education has been emphasized by the publication
within a few years of a book entitled "A Nomenclature of Colors for
Naturalists, and a Compendium of useful knowledge for Ornithologists."
This book has been prepared with great care by Robert Ridgway of the
United States National Museum, and contains a large number of
hand-painted plates showing nearly two hundred colors which represent
selections from three hundred and fifty names of colors which are given
in English, Latin, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Norwegian or
Danish.[D]
[D] A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists and Compendium of useful
Knowledge for Ornithologists by Robert Ridgway, Curator, Department of
Birds, National Museum. Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1886.
The fact that a book involving so much technical knowledge and the
expenditure of so much time and money was deemed justifiable is an
evidence of the great need for some definite nomenclature.
In the introduction the author says: "Undoubtedly one of the chief
desiderata of naturalists, both professional and amateur, is a means of
identifying the various shades of colors named in descriptions, and of
being able to determine exactly what name to apply to a particular tint
which it is desired to designate in an original description. No modern
work of this character it appears, is extant,--the latest publication of
its kind which the author has been able to consult being Syme's edition
of 'Werner's Nomenclature of Colors,' published in Edinburgh in 1821. It
is found, however, that in Syme's 'nomenclature' that the colors have
become so modified by time, that in very few cases do they correspond
with the tints they were intended to represent."
The following are the opening sentences of the preface: "The want of a
nomenclature of colors adapted particularly to the use of naturalists
has ever been more or less an obstacle to the study of Nature; and
although there have been many works published on the subject of color,
they either pertain exclusively to the purely scientific or technical
aspects of the case or to the manufacturing industries, or are otherwise
unsuited to the special purposes of the zoologist, the botanist and the
mineralogist."
In the same book the Chapter on Principles of Color opens with the
following sentences: "The popular nomenclature of colors has of late
years, especially since the introduction of aniline dyes and pigments,
become involved in almost chaotic confusion through the coinage of a
multitude of new names, many of them synonymous, and still more of them
vague or variable in their meaning. These new names are far too numerous
to be of any practical utility, even were each one identifiable with a
particular fixed tint. Many of them are invented at the caprice of the
dyer or manufacturer of fabrics, and are as capricious in their meaning
as in their origin; among them being such fanciful names as 'Zulu,'
'Crushed Strawberry,' 'Baby Blue,' 'Woodbine-berry,' 'Night Green,'
etc., besides such nonsensical names as 'Ashes of Roses' and 'Elephant's
Breath.'"
These extracts from this valuable and interesting book by an author of
large experience are quoted here to emphasize the practical necessity
for more definite color education based on analysis and nomenclature.
With the color wheel or color top, the colors of flowers and leaves as
well as all other objects in nature and art may be analyzed and named,
and the names definitely recorded in the terms of a nomenclature based
on permanent standards.
The following list of flowers and leaves of plants and trees with their
analyses in terms of our nomenclature is taken from a recently published
paper entitled "On the Color Description of Flowers," by Prof. J. H.
Pillsbury, to whom the writer is indebted for some of the earliest
suggestions regarding the practical application of the scientific facts
of color to color teaching, and also for valuable scientific work which
he has done including the exact location of the six color standards in
the solar spectrum by their wave lengths:--
"With these standards to work from, I undertook to determine the color
analysis of certain of our common flowers. The following results, will,
I think, be interesting to botanists. The numbers given indicate per
cent. of color required to produce the hue of the flower:--
Common forsythia, F. viridissima: Pure spectrum yellow.
Fringed polygala, P. paucifolia: R. 48, V. 52.
Wistaria, W. frutescens, wings: R. 11, V. 89.
Wistaria, W. frutescens, standard: R. 9, V. 79, W. 12.
Flowering quince, Cydonia japonica: R. 95, V. 2, W. 3.
Wild cranesbill, Geranium maculatum: R. 28, V. 66, W. 6.
The variations of color in the early summer foliage is also interesting.
The following analyses are for the upper side of fresh and well
developed healthy leaves. It is not impossible that a little attention
to these variations in the color of foliage on the part of artists would
save us the annoyance of some of the abominable green which we so often
see in the pictures of artists of good reputation:--
White oak: Y. 7.5, G. 11.5, N. 81.
Apple: Y. 5, G. 13, W. 2, N. 80.
Copper beech: R. 17, V. 2, N. 81.
Hemlock: Y. 2, G. 9, N. 89.
White pine: Y. 2.5, G. 11, N. 86.5.
White birch: Y. 5.5, G. 11.5, W. 1, N. 82.
Hornbeam: Y. 5.5, G. 12.5, N. 82.
Shagbark hickory: Y. 4.5, G. 9.5, N. 86.
These analyses were made in a moderately strong diffused light with
Maxwell disks of the standard hues referred to above."
These are but a few of the numerous flowers the colors of which may be
perfectly imitated and consequently analyzed and named with the color
wheel or the top. In fact for individual work in natural history the top
is more convenient than the wheel and sufficiently accurate for all
practical purposes, while it is a very fascinating occupation for child
or adult.
In the use of disks for analyzing colors it must be remembered that
every material color is some quality of some color in the spectrum
circuit, and therefore may be matched with not more than two standard
disks, either alone or with white or black or both. If more than two
color disks, besides white and black, are used they will neutralize each
other more or less, and a neutral gray or a gray and some spectrum color
will be the result. For example, if yellow and blue in nearly equal
parts are introduced in connection with red and orange, the yellow and
blue being nearly complimentary to each other will produce practically a
neutral gray, and the result will be the same as if only red, orange,
white and black were used.
[Illustration]
Owing to the recent advances in the art of dyeing there are some textile
goods which are too intense in color to be exactly imitated by the disk
standards, but this fact need not prevent a practical analysis of such
colors, because by very slightly reducing with white the color to be
examined the same color is retained, the modification making it, of
course, somewhat lighter. Fig. 64, showing a small circle representing a
disk of the material mounted on thick paper, illustrates this statement.
Suppose we have a piece of rich brown cloth, so intense in color that
when red, orange and black are combined in the proportions of R. 22, O.
16, N. 62, the material is still a little richer in color than can be
made with the disks of the color wheel. If we introduce a small amount
of white into the brown of the material we may hope to match it with the
disks and this may be done by cutting a bit of fairly heavy white paper
in the form shown in the diagram and loosening the nut of the color
wheel slightly, after which we insert the point of the triangle under
the nut so that when tightened the white paper may be held in front of
the brown disk, as in the illustration. Trim the outer end even with the
disk and then rotate. If the effect of the white is too great trim off a
little from the side of the white paper to make it narrower, until a
perfect match is secured.
The small disk in rotation is then of the same color but not quite so
intense as before, or in other words, is a very deep tint of the color.
In this way the Nomenclature can be recorded as follows: Brown 95, W. 5,
= R. 22, O. 16, N. 62.
This result does not often occur, but the subject is noticed here in
detail that no one may be in doubt when such cases do come to light, as
they will sooner or later.
The aniline colors give some purples which are much more brilliant than
either the violet or red which otherwise should by combination produce
them, so that with these standards they cannot be made, but must be
reduced with white, or possibly with white and black.
If a color wheel is not available many of these experiments may be tried
on the color top, but not as satisfactorily, because of the accuracy
necessary in cutting so small a disk in a woven material. In using the
top for analysis of all ordinary colors, the best plan is lay the
material on a table or other level surface and spin the top on it. If
quite an accurate test is desired the cardboard disk of the top may be
trimmed down to the size of the largest paper disk, so that there will
be no intervening ring of light color to separate the color of the
rotating disks from the material on which it is spun.
Practical applications of the color top are already being made, as for
example, in the selection of house furnishings. For this purpose disks
of the top are combined at home to produce the desired colors to match
the wood finishings and papers or draperies in a partially completed
room, the top being used as a guide in preliminary selections of
additional materials from the stores.
If a number of colors are required it is convenient to use several
combinations of disks, each set being slightly gummed together. In this
way standards for various colors with a top spindle for rotation in the
salesroom may be carried in a very small space.
The Bradley Colored Papers.
As every competent artisan must understand the use for which each
implement is designed, in order to secure the best results with it,
possibly a brief explanation of the principles on which the colors in
the Bradley Educational Colored Papers are selected and classified may
be of value. In the sample books of these colored papers there are four
sections. The first section of the book, following the title leaf called
"Pure Spectrum Scales" consists in part of the six standard colors, red,
orange, yellow, green, blue and violet, with two intermediate hues
between each two standards, which eighteen colors form the central
vertical column in the Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales shown on Page 41.
In addition to these eighteen normal spectrum colors, there are two
tints and two shades of each, thus producing eighteen spectrum scales of
five tones, in which the normal colors as indicated in the central
column aim to be the purest possible pigmentary expressions of the
spectrum colors represented.
In determining the number of colors to adopt in the preparation of the
papers enough have been selected to furnish types of all the colors in
the spectrum, and also the hues between red and violet, but at the same
time the number has been so restricted as to secure a reasonably simple
nomenclature of the intermediate hues. A hue of a color is defined as
the result of the admixture of that color with a smaller quantity of
another color; thus a hue of red approaching the orange is an orange hue
of red, or an orange-red. If a small amount of red is added to orange
the result is a red hue of orange, or a red-orange.
Therefore in selecting two hues between each two standards, rather than
a larger number, the simplest nomenclature possible is secured, and one
in which no mental effort is necessary to recall the color indicated by
each symbol. For example, we have four colors indicated as R, OR, RO, O;
red, orange-red, red-orange, orange; or more extended, red, orange hue
of red, red hue of orange, orange. Thus by using as symbols familiar
terms, no effort of the memory is required to recall the color indicated
by each symbol, as would necessarily be the case if there were a greater
number of hues and therefore more arbitrary symbols.
The use of rotating color disks on the wheel and the top by which an
infinite variety of intermediate hues can be made and accurately named
by the pupils reduces the required number of papers to those types
necessary for first primary work, and thus prepares the child for the
use of pigments at an earlier age than would be possible without such
color instruction.
The second section of the sample book contains white, black and grays as
indicated on the separating fly leaf. In these the best pigmentary
expression of black and white are furnished. In material colors as found
in industrial products, there are various so-called blacks and whites.
For black there are blue-black, green-black, and brown-black; and in
white, cream-white and pearl-white. Cream-white is a yellow-white and
pearl-white a blue-white. In fine white papers either blue, red or
yellow is generally added to the pulp to counteract or cover up the gray
tone of the natural material. The standard black here presented is the
best possible pigmentary imitation of a very deep black hole, as for
example, the projecting end of a large iron water or sewer pipe of
considerable length buried in the ground, which is the blackest thing
known. The white is an imitation of new-fallen snow. Neither of these
standards can be very nearly approached although we often hear of things
as "white as snow" and as "black as night." In the same group and
following the black and white are two examples each of the four kinds of
grays: Green gray, warm gray, cool gray and neutral gray. A pure white
in shadow is the true neutral gray and a perfect imitation of this is
made by the rotation of combined black and white disks on the color
wheel. If to the black and white disks we add a blue disk we have cool
grays. With red, orange or yellow the warm grays are produced, while the
use of a green disk gives green grays. In the papers two tones of each
gray are furnished.
The papers found in the first two sections comprise all the colors
necessary for earliest primary color instruction, and should become
familiar to the children before explanation is made of the colors in the
succeeding collections.
In the third section, designated "Broken Spectrum Scales" will be found
a collection of gray colors or broken colors. As has before been stated,
a broken color is a pure color mixed with a neutral gray. In the
combination of pigmentary colors a tint of a color is the pure color
mixed with white, a shade is the color mixed with black, and a broken
color is a pure color mixed with both black and white, which is a
neutral gray. Therefore if with red, for example, we mix a certain
amount of a given neutral gray and call that the normal tone of a broken
scale of red, for the tint in that scale we must mix with the standard
red a lighter gray and for the shade a darker gray.
When a comparatively small quantity of neutral gray is combined with a
pure color the result is a "gray color," as above described, because the
color is quite definitely retained, but more or less modified by the
gray. On the other hand, if a relatively small quantity of color is
added to a neutral gray, the resulting color is properly called a
"colored gray," because it is still a gray modified by color, and in
this class we have warm grays, cool grays, etc., according to the color
combined with the gray. The gray colors are quite generally termed
"broken colors" and this seems a very useful practice, because it avoids
the confusion of the somewhat similar terms "gray color" and "colored
gray."
By reference to the Chart of Broken Spectrum Scales on Page 41 it will
be seen that we have only twelve scales and but three tones in each
scale, instead of eighteen scales and five tones, as in the pure scales,
for which there is a good reason.
For educational purposes in the elementary grades, which is the only
place where there is a legitimate use for colored papers, the steps in
gradation of hue or tone must not be too short, and if the saturation or
intensity of the normal colors in the several scales is reduced by
adding gray, as in the broken colors, there is not the possibility for
as many steps in either hues or tones without leaving those colors
adjacent to each other too nearly alike. Therefore in the broken colors
there are but thirty-six, instead of ninety, as in the pure scales.
The distinction between pure colors with tints and shades, and broken
colors in various tones, should be made very plain to the children
whenever the subject is brought to their notice, because it is a vital
point in the classification of colors. Educationally this is one of the
most objectionable features in the old red, yellow and blue theory of
color composition, because no distinction is observed between pure and
broken colors in classification. In the Bradley colored papers the
distinction is made very decided for educational purposes, so that no
one would for a moment tolerate the mixture of the normal colors from
the pure scales with the normal colors from the broken scales in the
formation of a spectrum.
This may be illustrated by a selection as follows: First lay in order
the normal spectrum colors with the pure colors found in the first
section of the sample book, thereby forming the central vertical column
of Fig. 10. Then substitute for the orange, green and violet, those
colors selected from the collection of broken colors, and the result
will seem to render the operation absurd, but it is the same in
principle as the results produced in the attempt to form a spectrum by
the combination of three primary pigments, red, yellow and blue, because
so produced the orange, green and violet, show by disk analysis from 54
to 80 per cent of black and white and are therefore as much broken as
the corresponding colors in the papers of the broken scales, but not
exactly the same in tone.
Engine Colored Papers.
Those papers which are termed "Engine Colored Papers" are so named from
the process of manufacture as distinguished from "coated papers" which
comprise the first three sections of the book. In coated papers a white
paper is covered with a coating of colored pigment "fixed" with a small
amount of white gum, gelatine or glue, and in this way the pure color of
the pigment is obtained. In the engine colored papers the color is mixed
with the paper pulp in the process of making the paper. In a paper mill
the tub or vat in which the pulp is kept stirred up and perfectly mixed
is called the engine, and hence this technical term has been applied to
such papers as are colored in the pulp. In this class of papers both
sides are alike, and for this reason in some of the folding exercises
these papers are preferred, also because they are thinner and tougher.
Heretofore, it has been impossible to obtain engine colored papers in
"families" or scales, but in this assortment the numbers from one to
six, furnish six scales of three tones each, comprising the normal tones
with tints and shades. Following these from seven to sixteen are a
collection of unclassified colors including grays which are much used.
All these can be analyzed and classified by the color wheel. Black and
white complete this class. It is impossible to make any close
approximation to a black in this class of papers, as when they are
compared with the coated blacks the result is a very gray black, or very
dark gray. All the colors in these papers from No. 1 A to No. 13 are
quite light broken spectrum colors, but less broken than the coated
papers designated as broken spectrum colors. While great care has been
bestowed on the original selection of the colors of all these
above-described papers and every effort is constantly exercised to keep
them the same from year to year, the subject is materially complicated
by the guarantee required of the manufacturers that no arsenic colors
shall be used in the preparation of any of the papers. This guarantee is
strictly insisted on, because, while the writer has never been able to
learn of any authentic case where a child has been injured by the use of
plated or glazed papers, he believes that the opinions of parents and
teachers should be respected in the matter, although the arsenic colors
are often the most permanent and the aniline substitutes which are
necessarily used belong to a class which is the most fugitive of all
colors.
The line of colored papers now in use is the result of many experiments
on the part of the writer and careful tests by experienced teachers for
several years, and in its present condition affords but small indication
of the time and care which has been expended on it. This has been
inevitable, because the peculiar system on which the colors are based
has been one of growth and the papers have been designed to afford the
necessary material colors for this special scheme of instruction.
In preparing the tints and shades in the papers many experiments have
been made to determine the true effect of light and shadow on each
normal color, and then to imitate these effects in the papers.
All this is independent of the professional tricks which artists use to
heighten their effects, some of which are legitimate, while others may
be questionable on sound principles.
It is a common habit with artists to introduce very warm effects into
all sunlight by the use of orange or yellow in the warm colors. This
extreme tendency has been intentionally avoided in the preparation of
these papers, however desirable or allowable it may be considered in
heightening effects. So also in the shades as in the tints, the aim has
been to keep all the tones of one color in the same scale, even though
artists often run the various tones of the same piece of color into two
or three analogous scales.
It is the object of color education to train the eye to see color
wherever or however it may be produced, either by actual color
reflection or contrasted effects, and in order that these effects may be
understood as explained under Simultaneous Contrasts it is necessary
that the prepared material be truthful to nature, the more so because
these effects are sometimes greatly exaggerated by artists.
Water Colors.
When the subject of color was introduced into the curriculum of the
common schools of this country, the use of paints was a novelty. So
little was known regarding the possibilities of water colors as a means
of education, that the teachers may be excused for having had grave
doubts about the practicability of the scheme. Very few teachers in the
lower grades of schools had received at that time any definite
instruction in the harmonies of colors or the manipulation of pigments;
and what little thought had been given to the subject was based on the
three-color theory of Brewster, which was the only one available at that
time.
During the intervening years much has been done to make entirely
feasible the introduction into school and kindergarten of this pleasing
and educating occupation.
Color standards have been adopted, which are nothing less than
selections from the solar spectrum itself, and the manufacture of
pigments has improved so much that it may almost be said to be a new
industry. In the training of teachers, also, color instruction is now
given an important place, so that the kindergartner and primary teacher
can give the attention that it deserves to a subject which is so
interwoven with all that is beautiful in the material world around us.
Passing from one form of color work to another, it is exceedingly
important that children of any grade should find the same principles
obtaining in each step of the way, and also that the knowledge gained in
the earliest stages of the work should be available in the higher forms.
This is particularly true of color instruction as it is now found in the
best schools, and the principal reason why water colors are so much
better adapted to use in the schools to-day than in former years, is
because paints are now made to correspond in color with the standards
with which the children have become familiar in the colored papers and
other material of the kindergarten.
At present it is generally conceded that these six colors, Red, Orange,
Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet, which stand out so prominently in the
solar spectrum, are pre-eminently adapted to serve as standards and as
the basis of an alphabet of color. There should, therefore, be no
question as to the adoption of these same colors as the palette of
paints for the earliest color work, even with the babes in the
kindergarten, when anything beyond the colored papers and the usual
kindergarten occupations is wanted.
Not very long ago it was the practice to give the child a box of colors
and let him paint at random without any definite instruction as to the
relation which each color should bear to the others. In fact, with the
usual cheap box of paints then in the market there was no decided
correlation of the colors nor any educational selection, both of which
we have to-day.
Water colors are now furnished which so closely approach the standards
of the colored papers that they are of the greatest assistance in
developing the æsthetic taste and judgment of the pupils, and it is
remarkable how early in the training of children paints can be used with
advantage.
In some of the previous pages of this book we have treated of the false
theory of Sir David Brewster, who supposed that there were three primary
colors in the solar spectrum and that all the other colors were produced
by the overlapping or mixing of these in pairs.
This error, being applied to pigments, has worked much harm and has
greatly retarded the progress of color study. Even now some teachers
recommend the use of the red, yellow and blue palette on the ground of
simplicity and economy.
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. But the
best green that can be so procured is a very broken color and not to be
successfully compared with the beautiful and brilliant green of the
spectrum. Why then, should we not have in our paints imitations of the
solar green, orange and violet as well as the red, yellow and blue? It
is not well to sacrifice so much for alleged simplicity, and as for
economy, it will take but a moment's reflection to see that it would
take no more paint to cover a given surface with six colors than with
three.
Oil colors, of course, are out of the question and pastels almost
equally so, for although full colors may be produced in both these
mediums, they are not suited to the use of young children, and at best
are neither neat nor convenient, while colored pencils are not
sufficiently satisfactory in results. Therefore water colors seem to be
better adapted to primary work than any other pigmentary material.
Of necessity the pupil must later be able to recognize any pigment he
may meet and to classify it according to its color value and also to
give it a definite name, other than the one by which it is sold.
More than one professional artist has already worked successfully from
nature in oil colors with a palette consisting of only close
approximations to the six standard colors with white and a few grays. A
person whose color perception has been trained by the use of the color
disk in six standard colors with colored papers to correspond, will
undoubtedly be able to more truthfully reproduce the colors which he
sees in nature, on the canvas or paper by means of such a palette than
if he had been taught by any other system and used the ordinary
pigments.
Color Blindness.
The subject of color blindness has received much attention because of
its practical importance in the affairs of our daily lives. The use of
colored lights as signals on ships and railroads has necessitated very
strict regulations regarding the employment of persons whose color
vision is defective, and therefore in some states specialists have been
employed by the state authorities to examine from time to time the
school children regarding their perception of colors.
Possibly this condition of things may not at present be considered a
serious reflection on the methods of color instruction, or lack of such
instruction in our schools because it has become so common as to attract
little attention. But if it were necessary for the same course to be
pursued in any other department of our public education that fact would
not fail to occasion very uncomplimentary remarks regarding the methods
employed.
For example, if a state official were necessary to determine whether
pupils are deaf or not after they have been through our grammar schools,
and preliminary to accepting positions of responsibility, it would seem
that something was wrong, and yet after a child has had instruction in
color according to a logical system there should be no more necessity
for an examination regarding his ability to properly distinguish colors
than there should regarding his ability to hear.
Color blindness has quite generally been divided into three classes,
red, green, and violet blindness, those afflicted with red blindness
being most numerous, and the cases of violet blindness being very rare,
if indeed there are any which may properly be so called.
This classification, known as the Holmgren system, seems to have been
based on the Young-Helmholtz theory that all color perceptions are the
result of three primary effects in the eye, namely, red, green and
violet, rather than on any analytical classification of actual
experiments concerning color blindness.
Color tests should be so arranged as to detect either a defect in the
brain which renders it difficult for the pupil to remember the names of
the several colors, or in the eye, by which he cannot see a difference
between two dissimilar colors.
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.
Such cases, however, are exceedingly rare, if in fact they exist. Other
scientists and physiologists have doubted the truth of the claims made
by both Holmgren and Helmholtz, and some have made extended experiments
regarding color blindness which seem to oppose the Holmgren theory. In
view of these conditions it does not seem necessary for a teacher in the
elementary grades to attempt to grasp the situation very fully, and much
less to aid in the solution of the problem. Very fortunately this is
unnecessary, because in all the scientific tests proposed for adults
nothing is accomplished which any primary school teacher will not be
easily able to determine during the first two or three years of ordinary
school work, if the modern system of color instruction is pursued.
There is no better material than colored papers for testing the color
perceptions, and the exercises of selecting, matching and arranging the
spectrum colors by means of the small color tablets generally in use in
the first years of school are the very best that can be devised without
regard to any of the abstract theories concerning either the cause or
the possible classification of color blindness.
For some reason the most common form of color blindness occasions a
confusion between red and green, as for example, we are told, by some
people, that in picking wild strawberries in a field the fruit can be
distinguished from the leaves and grass only by the shape, and the green
fruit from the ripe by the touch or taste.
If a teacher discovers that a child is unable to readily give the name
of a color it may not indicate want of color vision, but merely
inability to remember names, and therefore various tests which will
naturally suggest themselves can be made to aid in reaching a decision
on this point. Should the results of the tests seem to indicate some
defect in color vision, the nature of the trouble should be sought and
memoranda made from time to time for future reference, and if the final
result shows a radical lack of color perception the parents should be
informed of the fact and a physician consulted.
It is probable that the number of color blind women is very much less
than that of men, and much time has been spent in debating the matter,
but some doubt remains as to whether this opinion does not obtain
because the girls are brought so much more intimately into relation with
colored materials in selecting their articles of dress, and consequently
come to know the names of colors much better, and in fact enjoy a much
better color education than the men. A more correct decision regarding
this question can better be reached when both the boys and girls receive
a systematic color education and their color sense is more equally
cultivated.
Outline of a Course in Color Instruction.
[Illustration]
The course of color instruction suggested in the preceding pages is not
arbitrarily divided into lessons or even years, because the conditions
in the city and rural schools in the various states of this country are
so varied that no uniform allotment or division of time can be suggested
which will be satisfactory to all.
The number of hours that can be devoted to any subject must be
determined by those who prepare the school programme and the progress
must be more or less rapid, with instruction correspondingly superficial
or complete at each stage, according to the time allowed, the
preparation of the teacher and the natural ability of the pupils.
The teaching of color is usually classed with drawing because both
relate directly to art, but inasmuch as color enters into our every day
experiences so much more largely than the graphic arts there seems to be
good reason for teaching it very fully where little attention is given
to drawing.
Every competent teacher can and will become expert and even enthusiastic
in teaching color, if she fully understands the system which it is the
object of the foregoing pages to explain.
The following brief outline suggests the order in which the facts
concerning color may be presented and the material which can be used in
an elementary course, beginning with the first primary grade pupils, who
for the most part have not had kindergarten training.
As a part of the material the Bradley Educational Colored Papers, cut to
tablets each 1 x 2 inches, are prepared and put up in four small
envelopes which are enclosed in one larger envelope. On the larger
envelope these words are printed: "The Bradley Paper Tablets for
Primary Color Education, Selections 1, 2, 3, 4 for Complete Course." The
four small envelopes are labeled in this way: "Selection No. 1, eighteen
pieces from Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales, the Normal Spectrum Colors."
"Selection No. 2, forty pieces from Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales, Tint
No. 1 and Shades No. 1, with White, Black and Neutral Grays." "Selection
No. 3, forty-two pieces comprising complete Chart of Broken Spectrum
Scales and Warm, Cool and Green Grays." "Selection No. 4, thirty-six
pieces from Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales, Tints No. 2 and Shades No.
2."
The Solar Spectrum.
MATERIAL.
A Glass Prism, the cost of which need not exceed a few cents, as almost
any lamp or gas pendent in the form of a prism will serve the purpose.
By the use of such a prism a small spectrum can be shown on the wall of
any schoolroom having a sunny exposure during any part of the day. This
spectrum will make plain the fact that sunlight is composed of many
colors.
METHOD.
Show to the pupils the best solar spectrum that can be produced under
the controlling conditions.
Call attention to the six colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and
violet, and the order of their arrangement in the spectrum.
Present the colors separately as far as possible, selecting the best
conditions available for each one.
Pigmentary Spectrum Colors.
MATERIAL.
Neutral gray or white card to cover desk top for a background.
Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales.
Colored Paper Tablets, Selection No. 1, embracing the six standards and
the intermediate spectrum hues, eighteen pieces.
Color Wheel or Tops.
METHOD.
Ask the pupils to separate the six standards from the twelve spectrum
hues. Standards to be arranged in spectrum order.
Teach the names of the standards.
Test natural color perceptions by the attempts of the pupils to lay the
spectrum in the eighteen papers.
Explain the intermediate hues by the color disks, and drill with the
tablets. Continue the practice of having the pupils lay the entire
spectrum with the papers until it is familiar to them.
PRACTICAL OCCUPATIONS.
Pasting simple designs in either of the six standard colors, on white or
gray background, with ready-cut papers. Marking forms from tablets and
cutting and pasting them on backgrounds.
Study of Tones.
MATERIAL.
Folding models to show light and shade. Crumpled satins and plushes.
Standard color disks with white and black, on wheel or tops.
Paper tablets, Selection No. 2, Tints No. 1, Shades No. 1, White, Black
and Neutral Grays.
METHOD.
Ask each pupil to lay spectrum in eighteen normal colors. Lay tints and
shades of the six standards.
Have the children complete tints and shades No. 1 of entire spectrum
circuit.
Illustrate neutral grays by white in shadow with folding model, also
with white and black disks combined.
Begin to classify into families the miscellaneous color material brought
by the pupils.
PRACTICAL OCCUPATIONS.
Pasting of ready-cut papers in standard and shade on a background of the
tint of same scale. Paste designs in three tones of one scale on white
or neutral gray background.
Mat weaving in tones of one scale.
Mat weaving in neutral gray and one or two tones of one color.
Broken Colors.
MATERIAL.
Disks on wheel or top. Paper tablets, Selection No. 3. Chart of Broken
Spectrum Scales.
METHOD.
Illustrate broken colors by disk combinations.
Let the pupils lay paper tablets to form Chart of Broken Scales.
Compare this chart with the Chart of Pure Scales laid with the papers.
Classifying of miscellaneous materials with reference to pure and broken
colors. Analysis of samples of pure and broken colors in cloths and
flowers.
PRACTICAL OCCUPATIONS.
Paper cutting and pasting to be continued.
Following the broken colors in three tones which form the Chart of
Broken Spectrum Colors, the three kinds of colored grays, warm, cool and
green, may be considered preparatory to their use in contrasted effects.
Complete Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales in Five Tones.
MATERIAL.
Paper tablets, Selection No. 4. Chart of Spectrum Scales in five tones
may be introduced for observation when the children are able to lay it
with their papers.
METHOD.
Continue the study of tones with pure spectrum scales in five tones, as
was done in the first three tones.
From the Chart of Spectrum Scales the study and classification of
harmonies can begin in a simple way.
From this time on free-hand paper cutting and pasting may be introduced
at pleasure, employing the colored papers in five tones when required.
Advanced Study of Harmonies.
By taking advantage of the instruction imparted in a course of color
study such as has been outlined in the preceding pages the pupil will be
able to advance in his ability to perceive colors and to make definite
analyses of colors in natural and manufactured material. In this way the
advanced study of harmonies can be greatly facilitated so that it will
be possible for the student to apprehend and appreciate many delicate
and subtle color effects in art and nature never before imagined. In
fact the foundation of color study will have been laid in such a logical
and fascinating manner that its further advance will be but a pleasure
to the pupil and teacher, so that no arbitrary plan will be necessary,
because so many lines of work will suggest themselves to all who are
interested in the subject.
Water Colors.
This outline would not be complete without a reference to water colors,
but this is not the place to give definite instructions as to their use.
Kindergartners and primary teachers are now generally competent to
direct the children in this work, if they will avail themselves of such
aid as is furnished by recently published books on the subject.
Non-poisonous paints, cheap and still of fair quality, can now be
obtained in standard colors and put up in various forms. The moist
paints in collapsible tubes are the most convenient as well as the most
economical for school use. This form should be accompanied by a small
mixing palette containing several compartments, which can be bought at
so small a price that each pupil can have one. The paint in the tubes
can then be dealt out only as required for each day's use.
$MATERIAL FOR COLOR INSTRUCTION.$
Where the price is preceded by a star the article is too large
to be sent by mail. In other cases where no postage is given the
goods are sent postpaid on receipt of price.
$WATER COLORS.$
In ordering it will be necessary to give only
the number of the box.
No. Price
1. An enameled box containing eight pans of
semi-moist colors, six Standards and two Grays,
one brush, per box $ .35
2. An enameled box containing ten pans semi-moist
colors, six Standards, Black, White, Cool
Gray and Warm Gray, one brush, per box .50
3. Same box as above, containing five pans semi-moist
colors. Red, two Yellows, Blue and Gray,
one brush, per box .30
4. Enameled box containing four pans semi-moist
colors, Red, Yellow, Blue and Gray, one brush,
per box .20
5. Same as above, Red, two Yellows and Blue,
per box .20
6. A decorated box containing eight cakes of dry
colors, six Standards and two Grays, one brush,
per box .25
7. A decorated box containing four large cakes of
dry colors. Red, Yellow, Blue and Gray, one
brush, per box .20
8. Same box as above. Red, two Yellows and
Blue, two brushes, per box .20
9. Nine tubes moist colors in strong paper box.
Six Standards, Warm Gray, Cool Gray and Black,
per set .90
10. Photograph Colors. A box of eight colors, the
six Standards and a Chinese White and a Brown,
with one brush. These colors are expressly
prepared for coloring photographs, half tone
prints, maps, etc. .25
Bradley's School Colors, moist in Tubes. The most
economical form for school use. These colors are
so prepared that they remain moist out of the
tube. The set comprises the following colors: Postage
Carmine, Crimson Lake, Vermilion, Gamboge,
Chinese Yellow, Hooker's Green, No. I, Hooker's
Green, No. II, Ultramarine, Prussian Blue, Sepia,
Warm Sepia, Burnt Sienna, Payne's Gray, Ivory
Black, Chinese White and the six Standards,
with Warm, Cool and Neutral Gray, Black and
White, per tube .10
Little Artist's Complete Outfit, comprising a Mixing
Palette with its seven compartments filled with
semi-moist colors and a brush, the whole enclosed
in a strong cardboard case .15 .03
$ACCESSORIES.$
Standard Mixing Palette, with seven compartments
for paints and two for mixing. Almost indispensable
in using tube colors. Extra deep,
per doz. .60 .25
Water Cups. An enameled metal cup, practically
indestructible, per doz. .60 .13
Camel's Hair Brushes, Quill, per doz. .30 .02
Camel's Hair Brushes, Long Handles, per doz. .60 .03
Japanese School Brushes, per doz. .60 .05
Artists' Camel Hair Brushes, No. 6, Wooden Handles,
per doz. .75 .03
Milton Bradley Co.'s Water Color Pads--Made of
extra quality paper for water color work.
No. 1, Pad of 50 sheets, 6×9, each .10 .09
No. 2, Pad of 25 sheets, 9×12, each .10 .10
$APPARATUS.$
High School Color Wheel, with Disks in box *10.00
One set of Disks for above, in box *2.00
Primary School Color Wheel, with Disks *3.00
One set of Disks for above in portfolio .75 .06
Color Top, by mail, each .06
Color Top, by mail, per doz. .50
No. 1 Prism, at buyer's risk .10
No. 2 Prism, at buyer's risk .15
No. 3 Prism, at buyer's risk .30
Rainy Day Spectrum, made from colored papers,
mounted on cardboard, one inch by 13, each .10 .04
Large Spectrum, 5 by 30 inches, mounted on cloth,
each .25 .04
Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales, No. 1 X, on
cardboard, 9x24 inches, hinged and folded.
Ninety papers one inch square, each .50 .10
Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales, No. 2 X. Size,
12x48, folded and hinged. Ninety papers two
inches square, each .75 .15
Chart of Broken Spectrum Scales, No. 1. Size, 9x12
inches, with paper 1-1/2 inches square,
comprising twelve scales of three tones each .50 .10
Chart of Broken Spectrum Scales, No. 2. Size,
12x48 inches, with the same papers as No. 1,
three inches square, each .75 .15
Chart of Complementary Colors. On cardboard 18
inches square, each *.50
Standard Color Chart. On two cards 11x28 inches,
hinged and eyeleted for hanging. This is a
combination chart comprising "Spectrum Standards,"
"Pure Spectrum Scales," "Complementary
Contrasts," "Broken Spectrum Scales," and
"Grays." Printed suggestions for using the
charts on the back, each 1.25 .15
$BOOKS ON COLOR.$
Water Colors in the Schoolroom, by Milton Bradley,
boards .25
A new book of practical suggestions, valuable to
every one who would undertake to teach the use
of water colors.
Elementary color, by Milton Bradley, cloth .75
Gives the principles on which the Bradley System
is based and an explanation of the use of the
Glass Prism, Color Wheel, Maxwell Disks, Color
Top, Colored Papers, Color Charts and Water
Colors.
The Little Artist by Marion Mackenzie, cloth .75 .15
A practical book of water color work for children,
with 12 beautiful, colored plates. Size of
book, 12 by 14 inches.
Color in the Kindergarten, by Milton Bradley, paper
covers .25
A manual of the theory of color and the use of
color material in the Kindergarten.
A Class Book of Color, by Prof. Mark M. Maycock.
Teachers' Edition, cloth 1.00
Pupils' Edition, boards .50
A very complete teachers' handbook in color.
Practical Color Work, by Helena P. Chace, paper .25
A handbook for the educational use of colored
papers in teaching color in primary and ungraded
schools.
The Color Primer, by Milton Bradley, paper.
Teachers' Edition, 80 pages .10
Pupils' Edition, 24 pages .05
Simple and direct teachings.
$MISCELLANEOUS MATERIAL.$
Paper Tablets, Set No. 1, 1x2 in. .02
Paper Tablets, Set No. 2, 1x2 in. .02
Paper Tablets, Set No. 3, 1x2 in. .03
Paper Tablets, Set No. 4, 1x2 in. .04
Sample Book, one by four inches, containing the
full assortment .05 .01
Package, 4x4 papers, 100 pieces .20 .04
Package, 5x5 papers, 100 pieces .30 .05
Fun, Physics and Psychology in Color. A box of
material for simple experiment, each .25 .07
Complementary Color Contrasts. A box of large
material for popular experiments in color
vision, each .75 .20
The Dunn and Curtis Illustrative Sewing Cards, in
color. Two sets: A. Literature Illustration. B.
Cards for Special Occasions.
Set of eight cards .25
Dozen of any Design .40
$MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY,$
$Springfield, Mass.$
Transcriber's Note
_Italic text_ has been enclosed in underscores.
$Bold text$ has been enclosed in dollar signs.