COLOR QUALITIES
HUE, PURITY, LUMINOSITY—COLD AND WARM COLORS—TINTS, SHADES, BROKEN TINTS
Colors have three principal qualities, called scientifically “constants
of color,” which should be studied as a preparation for the study of the
harmony of colors. These qualities are hue, purity, and luminosity. To
make these as clear as possible, we will for the present, at least,
ignore the delicate divisions of the spectrum made by both scientists
and artists of which about one thousand have been counted, and divide it
arbitrarily into six pure spectral colors differing from each other by
their hues as by their wave lengths; the wave lengths we give according
to Rood, expressed in ten-millionths of a millimetre (¹⁄₁₀₀₀₀₀₀₀). (See
Plate III.) These six divisions can be placed beside and compared with
flowers and colored materials, and are printed to imitate colored light
as nearly as pigments and paper can give them. At best, any such
imitation falls far short of nature.
The first quality or constant of colors is _hue_, this term being
generally agreed upon by scientists to mean color pure and simple,
according to its wave length in the spectrum. Plate III gives us six
hues—violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Each of these is
quite different from the next one, as the violet hue is from the blue
hue, the blue hue from the green hue.
The second quality or constant of colors is _purity_, that is, its lack
of any mixture of white, black, or any other color. These not only
weaken the color but change its character, as will be found by mixing
white paint with vermilion paint, which will be seen to grow more pink,
as well as lighter, as the white is added.
The third quality or constant of colors is their _luminosity_ or
_brightness_, also sometimes called _clearness_. It is measured by the
total amount of light reflected to the eye, and is therefore independent
of hue and purity. The amount of luminosity of a color can be determined
correctly by means of an invention called Maxwell’s Disks. These disks
date back to the time of Ptolemy, but were brought into use early in
this century by Maxwell. A disk, or round piece of cardboard, painted
with the color to be tested, is put behind two smaller disks, one of
white and one of black, which can be so adjusted that on turning them
all rapidly the gray formed by the mingling of black and white matches
in luminosity the one back of it.
From such experiments we see that a room papered or painted in yellow
will give you the lightest room, because it will reflect more light to
the eye than any of the other colors; one done in orange will come next,
and so on through the list. A practical knowledge of these different
luminosities is most useful in decoration, both on account of the
contrast between colors for this reason as well as for their hues. Also
for the ability to lighten a dark part of a room by placing there a
piece of luminous coloring, and _vice versa_ to darken what is too
bright. We must here add that these terms, purity of color and
luminosity, are used by artists in quite a different sense, as they call
paintings noticeable for purity of color, meaning only that the tints in
them have no tendency to look dull or dirty, but not at all implying the
absence of white or gray light. They call color in a painting luminous
simply because it actually recalls to the mind the impression of light,
not because it actually reflects much light to the eye. Plate No. IV
gives the six spectral colors in their order of luminosity.
We will now take up in turn each of the six hues by itself and study it
in its variations towards its neighboring hues.
That we do not appreciate the influence of color upon man as well as
upon the lower animals, is true; but color has not been studied by us as
it probably will be in the near future. The powers of attraction of
different colors for ants and bees have occupied the time and close
observation of Sir John Lubbock and of many other scientists, and now
the effect of different colors is being tried on the children in some
schools and on the patients in certain insane asylums. A few facts are
enough to show that there is still much to learn in that direction, and
that these questions can be investigated with profit. One of these facts
is that a certain shade of purple always produced the condition of the
skin commonly known as “goose-flesh” upon a girl in a normal condition
of health.
Goethe in his _Theory of Colour_, as translated by Sir Charles Eastlake,
records observations and experiments of the most minute character with
regard to light and colors—of a character hardly touched upon by others.
His suggestion of using colored glass for study in colors is very
valuable. He says, “People experience a great delight in color
generally. The eye requires it as much as it requires light. We have
only to remember the refreshing sensation we experience, if on a cloudy
day the sun illumines a single portion of the scene before us and
displays its colors. That healing powers were ascribed to colored gems
may have arisen from the experience of this indefinable pleasure.
“From some of our earlier observations we can conclude that general
impressions produced by single colors cannot be changed, that they act
specifically and must produce definite specific states in the living
organ.
“They likewise produce a corresponding influence on the mind. Experience
teaches us that particular colors excite particular states of feeling.
It is related of a witty Frenchman, “Il pretendoit que son ton de
conversation avec Madame étoit changé depuis qu’elle avait changé en
cramoisi le meuble de son cabinet, qui étoit bleu.” (He imagined that
the tone of his conversation with Madame was changed since she had
changed the coloring of her sitting-room from blue to crimson.)
“In order to experience these influences completely, the eye should be
entirely surrounded with one color; we should be in a room of one color,
or look through a colored glass. We are then identified with the hue, it
attunes the eye and mind in mere unison with itself.[4]
“The colors on the _plus_ side are yellow, red-yellow and yellow-red.
The feelings they excite are quick, lively, and aspiring.
“The colors on the _minus_ side are blue, red-blue and blue-red. They
produce a restless, susceptible, anxious impression.”
Each of these six hues can be divided roughly into three, as they are
pure or tend toward their neighboring hues. So violet, of which we have
pure normal or spectral violet, with red-violet on one hand, blue-violet
on the other; or yellow, of which we have pure normal or spectral
yellow, with orange-yellow on one side, green-yellow on the other.
Violet is a cold color, red-violet warmer than blue-violet. It is grave,
dignified, as compared with the other colors. Being a retiring color, it
will serve well as a background, as it will throw forward any more
luminous color put upon it. In flowers we have examples of this color in
its variety in violets, lilacs, asters, sweet peas, and morning-glories.
In the latter it is exquisitely shaded from one extreme to the other.
The wild Eupatorium furnishes a fine example of red-violet, the
cultivated variety an equally good one of the blue-violet, almost cold
enough for a blue. There is no sound pigment which can be used alone to
paint this color. The violet in the originals for these plates was made
with French blue and crimson lake, and crimson lake is not considered a
permanent color. Violet of all kinds suffers from artificial light,
losing much of its blue, and becoming more red and dull.
Blue is a cold color, and a retiring one, especially suited for
backgrounds, as one will notice in studying a blue sky, against which
the landscape stands out with great beauty. In flowers, examples of this
color are more rare than of others. The blue gentian is not a true blue,
it is so close on blue-violet. Forget-me-nots, chicory, centaureas, and
larkspur give us blue in differing varieties. The sky from the deep
violet blue of a winter’s night to the pale, greenish tones near the
horizon on a summer’s day shows us an unsurpassed scale of this hue.
Goethe says of it, “It may be said that blue brings a principle of
darkness with it.
“This color has a peculiar and almost indescribable effect on the eye.
As a hue it is powerful, but it is on the negative side, and in its
highest purity is, as it were, a stimulating negation. Its appearance,
then, is a kind of contradiction between excitement and repose.
“As the upper sky and distant mountains appear blue, so a blue surface
seems to retire from us.
“But as we readily follow an agreeable object that flies from us, so we
love to contemplate blue, not because it advances to us, but because it
draws us after it.
“Blue gives us an impression of cold, and thus again reminds us of
shade. We have before spoken of its affinity with black.
“Rooms which are hung with pure blue appear in some degree larger, but
at the same time empty and cold.
“The appearance of objects seen through a blue glass is gloomy and
melancholy.
“When blue partakes in some measure of the _plus_ side the effect is not
disagreeable; sea-green is rather a pleasing color.”
Genuine ultramarine is an expensive but very pure blue paint made from
lapis-lazuli. Artificial ultramarine generally inclines towards violet.
A good deal of green and violet light is reflected from cobalt blue.
There is some green in Prussian blue, in indigo, and in cerulean blue.
Prussian blue, if used quite thickly, reflects some red. The blue for
the original of Plate X was made of French blue (artificial
ultramarine), tinged on the violet end with crimson lake, and on the
greenish end with emerald green, which latter is not a permanent color,
but which approaches nearest of any pigment to the green hue in the
spectrum. Blue is one of the colors most used in decoration.
Green may be cold or warm, retiring or advancing according as it
approaches blue or yellow, although pure spectral green is of a cold
nature. When one studies the great scale of greens as seen in a
landscape lit up with full sunshine, and notices the intense
yellow-green where the sun shines through the leaves, the pale gray
greens produced by the sun’s glancing over the polished surfaces of
others, and the rich dark green in the shadows, it seems as if no other
color would admit of so varied a scale or be more restful to the eye.
Goethe says: “The eye experiences a distinctly grateful impression from
this color. The beholder has neither a wish nor the power to imagine a
state beyond it. Hence for rooms to live in constantly, the green color
is most generally selected.” This assertion may be doubted, many persons
objecting to green, the truth probably being that it has been found
difficult to use, and not having been understood or well treated has not
been appreciated. Its healthfulness cannot be doubted if one considers
how refreshing the surroundings of trees and grass are to an invalid who
has been surrounded by city bricks and stones. Can we not derive a like
benefit from this color by decorating our city rooms with varying tones
of soft gray greens, like nature, relieved here and there with a touch
of brightness, as flowers, birds, and butterflies gleam amid the foliage
in their native haunts? The rules for heightening these contrasts with
certain varieties of green will be given in the chapter on contrasts.
The extremes of green blend better than those of other colors. Emerald
green has been used as being the best paint with which to imitate the
normal green of the spectrum, but it must be remembered that it is a
trifle bluer than it should be to be exact.
Of yellow Goethe writes, “This is the color nearest the light.
“In its highest purity it always carries with it the nature of
brightness, and has a serene, gay, softly exciting character.
“In this state applied to dress, hangings, carpets, etc., it is
agreeable. Gold in its perfectly unmixed state, especially when the
effect of polish is superadded, gives us a new and high idea of this
color; in like manner, a strong yellow, as it appears on satin, has a
magnificent and noble effect.
“We find from experience again that yellow excites a warm and agreeable
impression. Hence in painting it belongs to the illumined and emphatic
side.
“This impression of warmth may be experienced in a very lively manner if
we look at a landscape through a yellow glass, particularly on a gray
winter’s day. The eye is gladdened, the heart expanded and cheered, a
glow seems at once to breathe towards us.”
Yellow is both a warm and an advancing color, especially useful to apply
as ornament on other colors, as gold embroidery is beautiful on any
color. With the exception of white there are more yellow flowers than of
any other color. In Moorish decorations, which are some of the finest in
the world, gold is used as ornament on blue and red grounds; in fact,
throughout the history of ornament, yellow is more often used in that
way than as a groundwork.
A thin wash of Aurora yellow gave the color for the original of Plate
XII. This paint, when put on thickly, tends too much toward orange to
imitate well the very narrow band of yellow in the spectrum. It is made
from cadmium, and, according to Church,[5] the deep or orange cadmiums
are all more lasting than the pale or lemon-colored kinds.
Orange is still a warmer color than yellow, and is also an advancing
color. Goethe says, “All that we have said of yellow is applicable here
in a higher degree. The red-yellow (orange) gives an impression of
warmth and gladness, since it represents the hue of the intenser glow of
fire, and of the milder radiance of the setting sun.” Orange is perhaps
the most intense color and should be used sparingly in decoration, as it
needs great care as to the quality and quantity of other colors to
balance it. Orange cadmium was used for the original of Plate XI.
Red is a warm color and an advancing one. Goethe says, “The agreeable,
cheerful sensation which red-yellow excites increases to an intolerably
powerful impression in bright yellow-red.
“The active side is here in its highest energy, and it is not to be
wondered at that impetuous, robust, uneducated men should be especially
pleased with this color. Among savage nations the inclination for it has
been universally remarked, and when children left to themselves begin to
use tints (paints), they never spare vermilion and minium.
“In looking steadfastly at a perfectly yellow-red surface, the color
seems actually to penetrate the organ. It produces an extreme
excitement, and still acts thus when somewhat darkened. A yellow-red
(scarlet) cloth disturbs and enrages animals. I have known men of
education to whom its effect was intolerable if they chanced to see a
person dressed in a scarlet cloak on a gray, cloudy day.” In nature we
have red only in small portions, a few red birds or those with throats
or spots of red; almost no butterflies, but many flowers. The rose,
which leads in beauty the long procession of flowers, contains an
immense scale of this color on the violet side, from the palest blush to
the deepest crimson, almost purple. There being less of red in nature
than of any other color, it becomes by contrast the decorative color. It
has also the quality of changing less with lessening light than any
other color, and is particularly fine in combination with blue.
Vermilion and carmine were used to make the spectral red of Plate XIV,
though they are far from reproducing the vivid quality of the original.
Vermilion used with oil is much more permanent than with water. Of the
lakes, Church says in his _Chemistry of Paints and Painting_: “No artist
who cares for his work, and hopes for its permanency, should ever employ
them.”
There is another quality shown in Plate III by which colors may be
divided into the warm and cold classes. The six spectral colors we have
so far been studying in this chapter may be roughly divided as follows:
COLD. WARM.
Violet Yellow
Blue Orange
Green Red
although some varieties of green may be classed among the cold colors
because of the large amount of blue they seem to contain, and others may
be classed among the warm ones from their seeming to contain so large an
amount of yellow.
It is well to remember that cold colors seem to retire or go back from
the eye, while the warm ones seem to come forward, and that the right
use of these qualities greatly affects architecture and decoration. (See
Plates V and VI.)
To recapitulate, we have first, three qualities or constants of
_colors_: hue, purity, luminosity; then the qualities of being warm or
cold. Following upon these are divisions of the tones into three other
groups or scales of tints, shades, and gray or broken tints.
These scales have been confined to six for the sake of simplicity, but
the reader may multiply them infinitely to correspond with the infinite
gradations in nature.
1. TINTS.—“The reduced scale—that is, the normal hue mixed with
progressive increments (additions) of white, thus forming _tints_.” The
spectral hue of the color weakened by white. Plate VII.
2. SHADES.—“The darkened scale—that is, the normal hue mixed with
progressive increments (additions) of black, thus forming _shades_.” The
spectral hue of the color darkened with black. Plate VIII.
3. “The dulled scale—that is, the normal hue mixed with progressive
increments of gray, thus forming broken tints commonly called grays.”
The spectral hue of the color changed by black and white. Besides these
regular scales which can be approximately rendered in paint or colored
inks there is an infinite variety of what we might call irregular scales
which can never be given save in nature. They are those in which a color
is changed or neutralized by one or more of the other colors. These
cannot even be named, for their multitude.
With the aid of a color wheel on which he used disks of black, white,
and the six prismatic colors, Professor Rood has drawn up and formulated
the proportions of 488 of these compound or neutralized colors. With the
formulæ a number of them have been printed in color quite successfully.
It is probably the first attempt to establish standard colors, and a
most valuable one, which it is hoped may bear fruit. If those and the
arbitrary terms for colors and their different states could come into
general use it would greatly help all descriptions of color-harmonies.
Having become familiar with the six colors, we now arrive at the object
for which we have gone through the previous study; namely, the first
kind of _color harmony_, one-color combinations, also called
combinations of self-tones, the simplest and the preliminary harmony to
that of combined colors. The first rule to be observed in making
one-color combinations is to avoid putting together what we may call,
borrowing the term from the language of music, the large intervals, or
extremes, of a color in their pure spectral hues. For example, in
arranging a basket of flowers, never put those of a crimson or
violet-red, such as an American Beauty rose, next to a scarlet or
orange-red flower, such as a scarlet geranium. These are too unlike each
other, being at the large intervals of the hue. They injure each other
and are therefore disagreeable.
As a second rule, all colors, even those above-named, may be combined in
one harmony, but this harmony must be produced from the fact that tints,
or shades, or both combined, are used, rather than the simple spectral
hues. In fact, nature uses pure colors most sparingly; they appear, if
you will remember, in small bright spots in jewels, in somewhat larger
quantities in flowers and fruit, in the wings of butterflies and the
plumage of birds, to relieve and ornament the more subdued great masses
of neutral greens and grays that make up the ordinary garb of nature.
But to return to the combinations of larger intervals of color we were
considering. For instance, while scarlet (orange-red) and crimson
(violet-red) do not combine well, at a French sea-shore resort was seen
the combination of a pink (that is, a tint of violet-red) dress, shaded
by a brilliant scarlet (orange-red) parasol carried by its wearer. It
was as daring a combination as could be made; its success was complete
owing to the pale tint of the dress and the correspondingly correct hue
of the scarlet of the parasol. The effect was helped and complemented by
the large mass of the sea as background. No rule can prescribe these
tints or shades exactly, a gifted eye only can combine them with
success; but the fact might serve as a hint to those who find by
examination and experiment that they have such an eye.
Besides the use of tints and shades to help us in combining what would
otherwise be inharmonious color, gradation is another means we can
employ to serve our purpose. For instance, considering different blues,
which are not agreeable together, we will look at a cloudless sky; we
find that above us it may be of a deep blue verging on violet blue,
while, as we let the eye follow it down through the infinite and
exquisite gradations it contains, near the horizon we come gently upon
our other blue, the greenish one, and feel no discord. The rainbow,
which is, in fact, a kind of spectrum, is the best possible example of
the great use of gradation; there we have all the pure colors, one
differing immensely from the other, but the gradations between them are
so fine and complete as to prevent the least discord. In opals and pearl
shells, in peacock’s feathers and soap bubbles, such coloring is also
seen enhanced by being broken by soft grays and greens. It is caused by
what is scientifically called interference; that is, the thin layers of
the material interfere or break up the waves of light and so produce the
color.
Reflection in colored materials can be used to help greatly in
harmonizing them. Look at a piece of red sealing-wax. Hold it up by a
window and the high gloss on it will reflect so much light as to make
the side toward the light appear almost white. On another side the true
or local color, the brilliant red, will be seen, and the side in shadow
will be of another color still, darker and more crimson or violet-red.
Red satin will have the same varieties in its high lights, middle, and
shaded parts, and these whiter lights and shaded parts really gray and
subdue the color of the material. A woollen cloth of the same color
which has less power of reflection will therefore have less of the gray
about it. With practice, fine and beautiful one-color combinations,
greatly varied, can be made by using materials of different textures but
of the same color.
What has been said so far of colors applies to them as seen in ordinary
daylight, but we must also know how they are affected by lessened,
increased, and artificial light. Rood made many elaborate experiments in
this direction, too numerous to be given here. With these in view,
Church gives the following table of the main changes that occur in
colored objects from the changing of the light in which they are
commonly seen:
IF LIGHT INCREASE,— DIMINISH.
Red becomes Scarlet Purplish.
Scarlet „ Orange Red.
Orange „ Yellow Brown.
Yellow „ Paler Olive-Green.
Yellow-green „ Yellower Greener.
Blue-green „ More blue Greener.
Art’f. ultramarine becomes Blue More violet.
Violet „ More blue Purple.
Purple „ Redder More violet.
We must also note the effect produced by double light; as, for instance,
at sunset when we find in one direction the cool light from the blue of
the sky, in another the warm light from the setting sun. This is more
complicated and difficult to understand.
Reflections from near objects produce similar effects; as, for instance,
in the city, the light reflected from a red brick wall and that from a
blue sky. An artist painted a portrait in which the likeness was spoiled
by the unnatural amount of red in the complexion. On examination it was
found to have been put there rightly, inasmuch as the artist certainly
saw it; the error lay in choosing a place for the subject where the red
reflection from a brick wall was thrown on his face. In a room, a yellow
wall paper and a curtain of some other color may throw combined and
confusing though perhaps at the same time most interesting reflections
on some object. The combined effects of daylight and gas or lamp light
are similar.
We will next consider the effect upon colored objects of a light, itself
colored,—of what is called a dominant light. (See Plate VI, with
instructions.)
Chevreul made many experiments with these. Church gives them to us, with
modifications, in the following concise form:
Red rays falling on white make it appear red.
„ „ „ red „ „ deeper red.
„ „ „ orange „ „ redder.
„ „ „ yellow „ „ orange.
„ „ „ green „ „ yellowish-gray.
„ „ „ blue „ „ violet.
„ „ „ violet „ „ purple.
„ „ „ black „ „ rusty black.
Orange „ „ white „ „ orange.
„ „ „ red „ „ reddish-orange.
„ „ „ orange „ „ deeper orange.
„ „ „ yellow „ „ orange-yellow.
„ „ „ green „ „ dark yellow-green.
„ „ „ blue „ „ dark reddish-gray.
„ „ „ violet „ „ dark purplish-gray.
„ „ „ black „ „ brownish-black.
Yellow „ „ white „ „ yellow.
„ „ „ red „ „ orange-brown.
„ „ „ orange „ „ orange-yellow.
„ „ „ yellow „ „ deeper yellow.
„ „ „ green „ „ yellowish-green.
„ „ „ blue „ „ slaty-gray.
„ „ „ violet „ „ purplish-gray.
„ „ „ black „ „ olive-black.
Green „ „ white „ „ green.
Green „ „ red „ „ yellowish-brown.
„ „ „ orange „ „ grayish-leaf-green.
„ „ „ yellow „ „ yellowish-green.
„ „ „ green „ „ deeper green.
„ „ „ blue „ „ bluish-green.
„ „ „ violet „ „ bluish-gray.
„ „ „ black „ „ dark greenish-gray.
Blue „ „ white „ „ blue.
„ „ „ red „ „ purple.
„ „ „ orange „ „ plum-brown.
„ „ „ yellow „ „ yellowish-gray.
„ „ „ green „ „ bluish-green.
„ „ „ blue „ „ deeper blue.
„ „ „ violet „ „ bluer.
„ „ „ black „ „ bluish-black.
Violet „ „ white „ „ violet.
„ „ „ red „ „ purple.
„ „ „ orange „ „ reddish-gray.
„ „ „ yellow „ „ purplish-gray.
„ „ „ green „ „ bluish-gray.
„ „ „ blue „ „ bluish-violet.
„ „ „ violet „ „ deeper violet.
„ „ „ black „ „ violet-black.
In this table the effect of yellow light gives us the effect of gas or
lamp light on colors, as they are yellow in character. To make his
experiments with artificial light as sure as possible, Rood, or
Chevreul, in daylight, threw the light from a gas burner on colors set
in a camera so as to judge at the same time of the effects of the two
kinds of light, for we must remember that commonly when we see colors by
gas or lamp light we are so surrounded ourselves by the same yellow
light that everything is tinged by it, and our judgment is affected; all
we see being yellower, yellow objects will look less yellow for want of
the contrast seen in daylight. This effect is now understood and
provided for by dry goods merchants, who have for some time shown
materials for evening dresses in rooms lighted by gas. A fairly good
idea of the appearance which pictures, colored materials, articles of
dress and decoration will make by gas or lamp light can be had by
looking at them through a piece of pale orange-yellow glass.
Electric and calcium lights, being much whiter than that of gas or oil,
make less difference in colors, but their intensity being different from
that of ordinary diffused daylight, it produces different and more
intense effects.