LIGHT, COLOR, FORM, PROPORTION
AND DIMENSIONS
Whatever is good in interior decoration is the result of consistent
relationship between Light, Color, Form, Proportion and Dimensions. The
choice of Color should be guided by the conditions of Light. The beauty
of Form and the symmetry of Proportion can exist only by a balance with
Dimensions.
Therefore, apart from any knowledge of historic or period decoration,
effective or successful work must observe the technical laws governing
conditions.
#LIGHT#
1. The white light of the sun is compounded of an almost innumerable
number of color elements, as shown by the phenomena of the rainbow or by
experimenting with the prism. (See ¶ 7.) When a ray of sunshine passes
through a glass prism it is decomposed or separated, and if the
prismatic colors are received upon a white screen you will find on the
spectrum among the colors generated a pure blue, a pure red and a pure
yellow. These are the primary colors, and it is necessary when thinking
color to bear these prismatic colors in mind as standards.
2. Color is an internal sensation originating in the excitation of the
optic nerve by a wave action which we call light.
3. The theory of light, the wave theory, is based upon the assumption
that throughout all space there is an infinitely thin medium called
ether. Scientists differ as to what this may be, but its movements
constitute light, a reflection from a luminous body.
4. Everything which we see is visible because it either emits light,
like a flame, or reflects light.
5. A piece of black cloth upon a white plate reflects but a small
proportion of the light. The plate reflects a large proportion. A piece
of black velvet reflects less light than black cloth and gives the
effect of absolute blackness, or an empty and dark space.
6. In practical demonstrations the study of color will be confusing
unless it is understood at the outstart that pure prismatic colors can
seldom be found in manufactured pigments, hence any demonstration of the
theory of color composition is usually unsatisfactory.
7. The theory which brings out of a ray of sunshine the disunited
prismatic colors carries with it the deduction that before separation
these colors constitute white light; but it must be manifest to even the
superficial reader that such colors are mere spectrum colors--vision
colors--and any amalgamation of material or pigment colors, so far from
producing white, produces almost black.
8. The theory that red and yellow make orange, and that a red and blue
make violet, is correct; but if one attempts to demonstrate the theory
with pigments, one is confronted not only by the lack of standard
manufactured colors but by impurities, adulterations and chemical
reaction in the pigments. The adulteration may not be perceptible in one
primary color, but it is manifest when that color is brought into action
with another primary, for it is seldom that a pure secondary results.
#COLOR NOMENCLATURE--HARMONIES#
9. Color nomenclature includes primary, secondary and tertiary colors,
and innumerable hues, shades and tints. All these colors bear relations
to one another, either relations of analogy, or relations of contrast.
(See ¶ 18 and ¶ 19.)
The Circle Diagram I shows the manner in which the various colors are
formed. (See also Diagram III.)
[Illustration: DIAGRAM I]
The third circle shows how slate, citrine and russet are made. For
instance, slate is one part of violet and one part of green. Hence, a
tertiary color is made of equal parts of two secondaries.
The outer circle, buff, sage and plum, can be analyzed in the same way.
This Diagram I is arranged to show not only component parts of a color,
but the parts that properly harmonize.
#CONTRASTS#
10. In music it is an established fact that certain notes used in
pleasing combination produce sounds we call harmonies. The moment that
more than one note is struck, there is danger of discord, and when ten
notes resound to the touch of the player, they must be the right notes,
or they jar upon the sensibilities. In the use of color the same
immutable law applies.
11. In Circle Diagram II the letters RV mean reddish violet, being a
violet having more red than blue in its composition. BV means bluish
violet, being a violet having more blue than red in its composition. BG
means bluish green, being a green having more blue than yellow in its
composition. YG means yellow green, being a green having more yellow
than blue in its composition. YO means yellowish orange, being an orange
having more yellow than red in its composition. RO means reddish orange,
being an orange having more red than yellow in its composition. Thus we
may advance from red to yellow by graduations almost imperceptible, by
the addition of yellow, to a reddish orange, and so on gradually to
orange, continuing on to yellowish orange, finally revealing pure
yellow.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM II]
12. The contrasting color at any stage may be determined by proceeding
in a direct line across the circle: Red has for its contrasting color
green; hence, reddish orange would have for its contrasting color a
bluish green, for the simple reason that if red contrasts with green
and orange contrasts with blue, the color between the red and the orange
would contrast with the color between the green and the blue. Let us
determine the contrasting color for crimson. Crimson is simply a red
slightly tinged with blue. If red contrasts with green, a shade a little
to the left of red slightly tinged with blue would contrast with a shade
a little to the right of green slightly tinged with yellow. In other
words, crimson, RV, would contrast with yellowish green, YG. Determine
at what point of the circle any color that you have in mind will come,
and the contrasting color would be immediately opposite.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM III]
13. The harmony of analogy consists of the harmony of related colors or
tones of one color. (See ¶ 17.)
14. The harmony of contrast consists of colors in no way related. As an
example of the harmony of analogy, we would mention red and orange,
because both of these colors have ingredients in common, red being one
of the two component parts of orange. As an example of the harmony of
contrast, we suggest red and green, because there is nothing in common
between the two, red being a primary color, and green a secondary,
composed of the other two primaries, yellow and blue. (See ¶ 17.)
15. Green is called the complement of red. The complement of blue
would be orange, because orange is formed by combining the remaining
primaries, red and yellow; and the complement of yellow would be violet,
because violet is composed of blue and red, the other primaries.
16. In Diagram II we have arranged at opposite points the primaries 1,
the secondaries 2, the tertiaries 3, the quaternaries 4.
But Diagram III goes further into the subject.
It is easy to understand the composition of secondaries, but it is not
so easy to know the tertiaries and quaternaries. (See also Diagram I.)
#CONTRAST ANALOGIES#
17. Diagram III is of the utmost value to the colorist, illustrating not
only the composition of color, but showing the origin of each secondary
from the two primaries, the origin of each tertiary from two
secondaries, and of each quaternary from two tertiaries. It shows by
groupings the harmonies of analogy or related colors; also the harmonies
of contrast: By moving on the board one color on one line to another
color upon another line, like the moving of a knight in a game of chess,
and confining the moves always to adjoining lines, like yellow to
violet, violet to citrine, citrine to plum, plum to brown. Yellow and
violet are true contrasts, the one color having nothing in common with
the other. The citrine and the plum, however, are approximate contrasts.
For greater convenience, we have numbered the contrasting colors A's and
B's. Absolute contrast is where the two colors have nothing in common.
For composition purposes, however, citrine and violet may be considered
contrasts, or correctly speaking, contrast analogies. (See ¶ 19.)
18. A harmony of contrast means the utilization of a primary color with
its complementary, or a color in conjunction with another color in no
degree related: a primary with a secondary. But when we soften these
contrasting colors by the addition of white we have in the lighter tints
a scale of chroma that is a form of analogy.
19. All combinations of secondary and tertiary colors, while apparently
harmonies of contrast (the tertiary being made by the composition of two
secondaries), constitute, in fact, contrast analogies, because by
analysis we find that all tertiaries possess color components occurring
in the apparently contrasting secondaries. (See Diagram III.)
20. The harmony of contrast, literally, can only occur in the pure
primary colors juxtaposed to the pure secondary colors, for in no case
does the color formed by the combination of the two primaries have
anything in common with the third primary; while a tertiary composed of
two secondaries invariably has qualities possessed by the third
secondary.
21. In a room which is small or dark, the light tints in harmonies of
analogy are advisable.
#PROPORTIONS#
22. In the use of one color with another of contrasting character the
question frequently arises, what proportion of each should be used to
obtain the best effect? Illustrative color books show usually samples of
color of the same size, leading one unconsciously to the error that
contrasting colors should occupy the same surface dimensions.
23. In every room there must be a prevailing or dominant color, and the
use of a contrasting color must be limited to proportions which give
simply a pleasing emphasis. Let us assume that a room has a deep frieze
pronouncedly green. To treat the rest of the wall in red of a direct
contrast would be ineffective.
24. If a rule can be applied we would say that no strong normal color
should be used in large surfaces. If we were dealing with pigments we
would say that if one-sixth of a side-wall is devoted to a frieze in
green, the balance of the wall space should be treated with the same
amount of red, mixed with the same amount of gray.
25. For a room that is small and well lighted the fresh tints are not
as desirable as the gray shades or tertiaries in conjunction with
secondaries.
#COLOR IN LARGE OR SMALL ROOMS#
26. For a large room well lighted, yellow, red and orange in delicate
shades are not as desirable as orange, violet and russet in light
shades. This rule, however, may be reversed for a large room that is
dimly lighted.
A superabundance of light gives an uncomfortable glare.
27. One may mechanically obtain harmony of analogy in proper proportions
for the treatment of a room or a design by following the guidance of
Diagram I. It will be noted in this diagram that the inner circle is
blue, red and yellow, the primary colors.
The second circle is composed of the secondaries; the third circle, the
tertiaries, and the outer circle, the quaternaries.
There is a nice distinction in the combination of primaries for the
formation of secondaries, and exact proportions are quite necessary.
An orange, for instance, would be off shade if it did not consist of
half red and half yellow, but in the making of the quaternaries, which
are, at best, gray shades, exact proportions are not necessary.
Nevertheless, in Diagram I we have observed exact proportions in order
to make our demonstration clear.
The harmony of analogy is the combination of colors related, but the
relationship must be displayed in proportions consistent with the origin
of each and every color used.
Let us assume that the prevailing note in a room, in either the
side-wall or floor, is sage.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM IA]
We can tell by drawing lines from the center of Diagram I to the
extremities of the space marked sage that there is a little blue and a
little yellow, some green and slate and citrine used in the composition
of sage, and hence the use of these colors constitutes the harmony of
relationship or analogy.
#COLOR PROPORTIONS#
28. But to arrive at proportions we must reduce the circular table to a
geometrical table. We must straighten out the lines so that the exact
proportions are apparent. We need not confuse the reader by mathematics,
but to establish our theory we produce the Diagram IA, and it will be
here seen that the relative proportions existing in the segments of the
circles have been observed in the triangles.
Thus we have thirty-two right-angled triangles.
Sage occupies fourteen-thirty-seconds of the entire composition; slate
occupies five-thirty-seconds; citrine, five-thirty-seconds; green,
six-thirty-seconds; blue, one-thirty-second; yellow, one-thirty-second;
and these colors, to observe the proper harmony of analogy in a room,
should be used in the proportions above indicated.
Sage should be in the preponderance; citrine and slate should occupy
nearly one-sixth of the entire composition, green about one-fifth, and
the whole should be picked out with touches of sharp blue and sharp
yellow, representing each one-thirty-second.
Let us take, for instance, a room that is in white woodwork, and apply
the sage to the walls and the slate to the floor, and lighten the sage
with citrine and lighten the slate with violet, and intersperse orange
and green in a way permitted by the proportions at our command. When the
work is completed we find a harmony of analogy which can be then
relieved by touches of the primitive colors, blue and yellow, in the
proportions shown.
29. Good examples of contrast color effects may be found in the
following series of combinations:
PROPORTIONS OF COLOR ANALYSIS FROM
ASSYRIAN TILES.
Example No. 1.
Blue-Green 60
Greenish-Yellow 8
Orange 6
Purple-Brown 6
White 20
---
100
No. 2.
Blue 35
Yellow 30
White 15
Dull Red 10
Black 10
---
100
No. 3.
Blue 60
Deep Yellow 20
Light Yellow 10
White 10
---
100
No. 4.
Pale Yellow 34
Green 27
Blue 25
Red 6
Gold 4
Black 2
White 2
---
100
No. 5.
Black 63
Yellow 17
Green 9
Red 4
Light Red 3
Blue 3
White 1
---
100
No. 6.
Green 36
Blue-Green 24
Yellow 14
Red 11
White 10
Dull Red 3
Black 2
---
100
No. 7.
Green 36
Blue-Green 24
Yellow 14
Red 11
White 10
Dull Red 3
Black 2
---
100
#BLACK--WHITE--GRAY#
30. We do not wish to be understood as stating that the work of the
colorist is solely mechanical; but we would emphasize that the
influences of color are very largely the result of studied proportions.
The basis upon which one operates must be soundly constructed upon the
theory of scale, and scale is mechanically determined. If red is
lightened by the addition of white, or darkened by the addition of
black, it is removed to another scale, and can only harmonize by
contrast with its complement by adding to green the same amount of white
or black that has changed the character of the red, and this should be
mathematically accurate.
31. To place white by the side of a color heightens or intensifies the
tone of that color. To put black beside a color has the opposite effect.
It weakens the color. Every woman looks better in white, hence white is
the universal wedding gown, the universal party dress for children, and,
wherever practical, the universal Summer dress for adults as well. White
is worn universally by men and women next to the face, in collars or in
neckwear, and the reason for it is that the contiguous white intensifies
whatever color they may possess. Black, on the other hand, lessens the
color or lowers its tone.
32. Gray is a medium between the two. While it renders an adjacent color
less brilliant, it takes to itself at the same time a tint that is a
complement of that adjacent color. In other words, gray by the side of
green appears faintly pinkish.
33. Black is always desirable as an associate with luminous colors.
Black does not associate as well with two colors, one of which is
luminous and the other sombre, as when associated with two luminous
colors.
ORANGE YELLOW YELLOW
BLACK BLACK BLACK
RED ORANGE RED
YELLOW GREEN ORANGE
BLACK BLACK BLACK
VIOLET YELLOW GREEN
_The green being yellowish and the violet reddish._
White is preferable when associated with a luminous and a sombre color.
Thus,
RED ORANGE RED YELLOW
WHITE WHITE WHITE WHITE
BLUE BLUE VIOLET BLUE
ORANGE GREEN GREEN YELLOW
WHITE WHITE WHITE WHITE
VIOLET BLUE VIOLET VIOLET
_The violet being bluish, the green yellowish._
#ROOM COMBINATIONS#
34. The harmony of analogy is a subject that is little understood. It
may be color sequence, progression, development or succession.
[Illustration: Showing Four-Color Combinations.
DIAGRAM IV and DIAGRAM V]
[Illustration: #SEQUENCE OF HARMONIES#
DIAGRAM VI
As these twenty-one sections are arranged, one has the layout for a
suite of seven rooms; following the top line across in a light scale,
the harmony is complete; following the center line across in a normal,
the harmony is complete; so also with the bottom line in a lower scale.
Follow the colors diagonally and you find they are repeats, or very
close to repeats--red, russet, red, for instance; violet, violet,
violet; blue, slate, blue; green, green, green; yellow, citrine, yellow;
orange, orange, orange. To the colorist the combinations here suggested
are full of inspiration.]
Thus we may combine red, green and blue by starting with crimson and
maintaining the following sequence: Crimson, red, scarlet, orange,
yellow, greenish yellow, green, bluish green, blue, violet, and with
added red get back to crimson.
A room or a series of rooms may run to all colors and be still a harmony
of analogy if the sequence or succession is gradual.
35. No more delightful harmonies can be imagined than those provided by
nature. One may start with the brown of the earth and run into several
shades of green, and from that touch upon yellow, and from yellow to
orange, and from orange to red, and red to violet, and violet to the
blue of the sky. Or one may follow the colorings and the proportion of
colorings in flora and never go astray. (See ¶ 22.)
36. In the application of color to the home nothing is more pleasing
than the harmony of sequence; the coloring of all rooms must be in
sympathy with contiguous rooms. (Diagram VII.) (See ¶ 34.)
37. All rooms are subject to the influence of a north or a south light,
or much or little light, and the colorings must be considered
accordingly. The ceiling and the upper parts of a wall require more pale
colors where more light is needed. On the floor, however, where the
greatest light falls, a little black may be added to soften the tone.
38. Red and green are sharply contrasting colors; violet and yellow and
blue and orange sharply contrast, and while their combinations may be
used in adjoining rooms, it will be seen that in Diagram IV these
contrasting tones are not in contact, but by their arrangement form
analogies of contrast combinations.
39. Yellow, orange, red, violet, blue and green are related; orange,
russet, violet, slate, green and citrine are related; red, violet, blue,
green, yellow and orange are related. Viewing the ceilings, the
side-walls or the floor, there is the harmony of progression that we
observe in the tinting of a flower. Viewed collectively the harmony is
the same.
40. To illustrate further our point we would take the ceiling line. We
start with yellow, a primary color; orange possesses yellow; orange
likewise possesses red, the adjoining color; violet possesses red, and
it likewise possesses blue. On the side-wall, russet possesses orange,
and it also possesses violet; it is the tertiary color made of these two
secondaries. Slate is made of green and violet, and is thus also related
to citrine.
We do not wish it understood that these colors are to be applied flat,
but simply in the predominating expression. (See ¶ 27.)
41. The value of the diagram is obvious when one considers that in no
particular is there a break in the sequence; but if we wish a harmony of
analogy in a room, or a harmony of related parts, and wish the adjoining
room to be in absolute contrast, we simply adopt the red, violet and
blue for one room, and the green, citrine and orange for another; or the
orange, russet and violet for one room, and the blue, green and yellow
for the other. If, however, the sequence of color is desirable where we
move from one apartment to another, and the eye is pleased by a gradual
changing color, we can adopt any of these combinations in the order as
presented.
42. A vital point in the use of color, regarded usually with
indifference or totally misunderstood, is the Unity of Composition to be
preserved in the treatment of a series of _floors_ in a house; for on
each floor of a house the conditions of light vary. As we ascend the
stairs we find each floor requires an altered treatment, because of the
added light given from the skylight. (See ¶ 37.) Moreover, in the
arrangement of a floor the relation of one room to another is frequently
so influential that no one room should be treated without due
consideration to the adjacent apartment. (See Diagram VIII.)
Too frequently the whole question of color is dismissed when the matter
of north or south exposure is discovered, but the north room on the
lower floor of a house is by no means so well lighted as the north room
of the fourth or fifth floor, and the scale of color which would lend
warmth to such a room would be weak in a more exposed apartment.
(See ¶ 30.)
43. Where the artist has but one room to consider there is little scope
for his application of color knowledge. He must frequently compromise to
meet the conditions. But presuming that he must treat a floor
through, he should adopt a Unity which will apply harmoniously to all
the rooms and hallways.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM VII]
[Illustration: DIAGRAM VIII]
[Illustration: DIAGRAM IX For Key to Numbers see Diagram VII.]
#CONTIGUOUS HARMONIES#
44. For the lower floor he must arrange his colors so that while they
moderate the direct glare of a sunny exposure or brighten the
cheerlessness of a north light, they will also form a composition that
pleases when seen from a point of common observation.
45. On the upper floors the scale of color should be gradually softened,
for the yellow or ivory tints that are pleasing on the first floor would
be harsh and glaring where there is greater light. Exterior conditions
must be borne always in mind.
46. Recalling that the primary colors are yellow, red and blue, and that
the secondary colors are orange, violet and green, and that the tertiary
colors are russet, slate and citrine, all with many tints and shades,
let us arrange a series of five rooms seriatim, so treating ceiling,
side-wall and floor (See Diagram IX) that in passing from one room to
another they will be in sequence of color harmony--each complete from
floor to ceiling and all in harmony along the ceiling lines, the wall
lines and the floor lines.
Let us take the suite of rooms suggested in Diagram IX. We must consider
desirable colorings in all of the rooms to be treated, and so far as
possible adjust the sequence of treatments, as shown in Diagram VIII, so
that the approach to each room will be in harmonious order as viewed
from any room. We have five rooms to treat. The library happens to be
on the north side, hence we wish to treat it in colorings that supply
the deficiency of sunshine. The hallway is rather dark. The living-room
has only one window, and requires more warmth of color than the
billiard-room and dining-room, which being sunshiny can be treated in
more sombre tones. Therefore we select combination 6 for the hallway.
The one room on the right we treat in No. 1. The rooms on the left we
treat in Nos. 5, 4 and 3. We have, therefore, as we stand in room No. 6,
treated in green, citrine and orange, a view to the right of yellow,
orange and red, which is in harmonious juxtaposition. To the left we
have a glimpse of rooms, the floors of which adjoining the orange floor
of the entrance hall, are yellow, green and blue. The wall spaces
adjoining the citrine wall space of the hall treatment are green, slate
and violet. The frieze lines adjoining the green of the hall treatment
are blue, violet and red--all juxtaposed harmonies. The floors of all
rooms are of one deep scale; the walls lighter scale; the friezes and
ceiling still lighter. If viewed from room 4 the harmonies are equally
effective.
47. Diagram VII is useful for many reasons. In its present shape it
shows the harmonies of analogy or related parts. To arrange harmonies of
contrast, combine the colors of the first room with the fourth room, the
colors of the second room with the fifth room, the colors of the third
room with the sixth room. (See ¶ 37.)
#HARMONIES FOR THE ROOM#
48. The floor should usually enter into the color scheme as the low
note in the scale. It is the background for the furniture, and should be
deeper than the dado or wainscoting. The wood trims--baseboard, doors,
plate-rails, and everything of that character, except the picture
molding--should be like the woodwork of the furniture. This brings the
woodwork into contrast with the wainscoting (unless the wainscoting be
wood) and into harmony with the side-walls, although the degree of
harmony is far removed. Thus, if the woodwork of the furniture is
mahogany, the wainscoting green, the side-walls pink and gray, we would
find the window trims of mahogany, or imitation mahogany, in harmony
with the side-walls. (See ¶ 51 and ¶ 52.)
49. I would lay down the rule that the wood trims of a room should
harmonize by analogy with the side-walls where such walls are provided
with a contrasting wainscoting; but if there is no wainscoting, or the
wainscoting be also of wood, then the wood trims and furniture contrast
with the side-wall.
Substitute green side-wall for the pink, ¶ 48.
White woodwork is always permissible. Study Diagram VI on page 22.
50. The picture molding may harmonize with the ceiling. Indeed, a white
picture molding frequently is better than one matching the general
woodwork (See ¶ 37); a dark upper molding, moreover, reduces the
apparent size of a room.
51. Where black furniture is used, or gold furniture, it will of course
be understood that the wood trims shall not be black or gold; but so
long as they are in harmony, that will be sufficient. White wood trims
are nearly always permissible as a substitute for colored wood.