Principles of Decorative Design Part 4

23. By certain combinations colour may make glad or depress, convey the idea of purity, richness, or poverty, or may affect the mind in any desired manner, as does music.

TEACHINGS OF EXPERIENCE.

24. When a colour is placed on a gold ground, it should be outlined with a darker shade of its own colour.

25. When a gold ornament falls on a coloured ground, it should be outlined with black.

26. When an ornament falls on a ground which is in direct harmony with it, it must be outlined with a lighter tint of its own colour. Thus, when a red ornament falls on a green ground, the ornament must be outlined with a lighter red.

27. When the ornament and the ground are in two tints of the same colour, if the ornament is darker than the ground, it will require outlining with a still darker tint of the same colour; but if lighter than the ground no outline will be required.

a.n.a.lYTICAL TABLES OF COLOUR.

When commencing my studies both in science and art, I found great advantage from reducing all facts to a tabular form so far as possible, and this mode of study I would recommend to others. To me this method appears to have great advantages, for by it we see at a glance what otherwise is difficult to understand; if carefully done, it becomes an a.n.a.lysis of work; and by preparing these tabular arrangements of facts the subject becomes impressed on the mind, and the relation of one fact to another, or of one part of a scheme to another, is seen.

The following a.n.a.lytical tables will ill.u.s.trate many of the facts stated in our propositions. The figures which follow the colours represent the proportions in which they harmonise:--

_Primary Colours._ _Secondary Colours._ _Tertiary Colours._ Blue 8 Purple 13 Olive 24 Red 5 Green 11 Russet 21 Yellow 3 Orange 8 Citrine 19

_Primary Colours._ _Secondary Colours._ _Tertiary Colours._ Red 5 } } Orange 8 } Yellow 3 } } } Citrine, or Yellow Tertiary 19 Blue 8 } } } Green 11 } Yellow 3 }

Blue 8 } } Purple 13 } Red 5 } } } Russet, or Red Tertiary 21 Red 5 } } } Orange 8 } Yellow 3 }

Blue 8 } } Green 11 } Yellow 3 } } } Olive, or Blue Tertiary 24 Blue 8 } } } Purple 13 } Red 5 }

This latter table shows at a glance how each of the secondary and tertiary colours is formed, and the proportions in which they harmonise. It also shows why the three tertiary colours are called respectively the yellow tertiary, the red tertiary, and the blue tertiary, for into each tertiary two equivalents[11] of one primary enter, and one equivalent of each of the other primaries. Thus, in citrine we find two equivalents of yellow, and one each of red and blue; hence it is the yellow tertiary. In russet we find two equivalents of red, and one each of blue and of yellow; and in olive two of blue, and one each of red and yellow. Hence they are respectively the red and blue tertiaries.

[11] An equivalent of blue is 8, of red 5, of yellow 3.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 24.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 25.]

Figs 24 and 25 are diagrams of harmony. I have connected in the centre, by three similar lines, the colours which form a harmony; thus, blue, red, and yellow harmonise when placed together. Purple, green, and orange also harmonise (I have connected them by dotted lines in the first of the two diagrams). But when two colours are to produce a harmony, the one will be a primary colour, and the other a secondary formed of the other two primary colours (for the presence of the three primary colours is necessary to a harmony), or the one will be a secondary, and the other a tertiary colour formed of the two remaining secondary colours. Such harmonies I have placed opposite to each other; thus blue, a primary, harmonises with orange, a secondary; yellow with purple; and red with green; and the secondary colour is placed between the two primary colours of which it is formed; thus, orange is formed of red and yellow, between which it stands; green, of blue and yellow; and purple, of blue and red. In the second of the two diagrams we see that purple, green, and orange produce a harmony, so do olive, russet, and citrine. We also see that purple and citrine harmonise, and green and russet, and orange and olive.

Continuing this diagrammatic form of ill.u.s.tration, we may set forth the quant.i.ties in which the various colours harmonise: thus:--

_Blue._ _Red._ _Yellow._ O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

_Blue._ _Orange._ O O O O harmonises with O O O O O O O O O O O O

_Red._ _Green._ O O O O harmonises with O O O O O O O O O O O O

_Yellow._ _Purple._ O O O harmonises with O O O O O O O O O O O O O

_Purple._ _Citrine._ O O O O harmonises with O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

_Green._ _Russet._ O O O O harmonises with O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

_Orange._ _Olive._ O O O O harmonises with O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

To those who are about to practise ornamentation, it is very important that they have in the mind's eye a tolerably accurate idea of the relative quant.i.ties of the various colours necessary to harmony, even where the colours are considered as existing in a state of absolute purity. We have rarely, however, to use the brightest blues, reds, and yellows which pigments furnish, and even these are but poor representatives of the potent colours of light as seen in the rainbow, and with the agency of the prism; nevertheless, a knowledge of the quant.i.ties in which these pure colours harmonise is very desirable.

The proportions in which we have stated that colours perfectly harmonise, and in which the primary colours combine to form the secondaries, and the secondaries the tertiaries, are given in respect to the colours of light, and not of pigments or paints, which, as we have just said, are more or less base representatives of the pure colours of light. Yet certain pigments may, for our purpose, be regarded as representing pure colours. Thus, the purest real ultramarine we will regard as blue (cobalt is rather green, that is, it has a little yellow in it, and the French and German ultramarines are generally rather purple, or have a little red in them, yet the best of these latter is a tolerably pure colour), the purest French carmine as red (common carmine is frequently rather crimson, that is, has blue in it; vermilion is much too yellow), and lemon-chrome as yellow (the chrome selected must be without any green shade, and without any orange shade, however slight); and these pigments will be found to represent the colours of the prism as nearly as any that can be found. I would recommend the learner to get a small quant.i.ty of these colours in their powder form, subst.i.tuting the best pale German ultramarine for real ultramarine, as the latter is of high price,[12]

and to fill the various circles of our diagrams, which represent the primary colours, with these pigments, mixing them with a little dissolved gum arabic and water--just ufficient to prevent the colours from rubbing off the paper. The secondary colours will be fairly represented by pale-green lake, often called drop-green, by orange-chrome--that of about the colour of a ripe, rather deep-coloured, orange-rind--and the purple by the admixture of pale German ultramarine and crimson-lake, in about equal proportions, with a little white to bring it to the same depth as the green. I cannot name any pigments which would well represent the tertiary colours.

Citrine is about the colour of candied _lemon_-peel; olive about the colour of candied citron-peel, and russet is often seen on the skin of certain apples called "russet apples," in the form of a slight roughness; but this russet is in many cases not quite sufficiently red to represent the colour bearing the same name. Iron rust is rather too yellow. This colour should bear the same relation to red that the candied lemon-peel does to yellow.

[12] Real ultramarine is sold at 8 per ounce. The best imitation, or German ultramarine, is procurable at any oil-shop at about 3s. to 4s.

per pound. The best carmine should be procurable at 6s. per ounce, but artists' colourmen often charge 1 1s., owing to the small demand for this pigment. The best chrome yellow (chrome yellow is kept in many shades) is about 1s. 6d. per pound.

If the student will try carefully to realise these colours, and will fill up the circles in our diagrams with them, he will thereby be much a.s.sisted in his studies; but it will be still better if he prepare fresh diagrams on a larger scale, and use squares instead of circles.

I should recommend, and that I do strongly, that the student work out all the diagrams which I have suggested on a tolerably large scale, using the colours where I have used words. I should also advise him to do an ornament, say in red on a gold ground, and outline this red ornament with a deeper red; to do a gold ornament on a coloured ground, and outline it with black; and indeed to carefully work out an ornamental ill.u.s.tration of our propositions, Nos. 24, 25, 26, and 27, and to keep these before him till he is so impressed by them as to _feel_ the principle which they set forth. This should be done on a large scale in all our designing-rooms and art-workshops.

As we shall have to refer to colours by naming pigments, and as I am constantly asked what pigments I employ, I shall enumerate the paints in my colour-box; but I shall place a dagger against those which I have in my private box, and which I do not supply in my offices; but these I seldom use. Of yellows I have [14]king's yellow (not a permanent colour), [14]very pale chrome, lemon-chrome (about the colour of a ripe lemon), middle-chrome (half-way between the lemon and orange-chrome), orange-chrome (about the colour of the rind of a ripe orange), [14]yellow-lake, [14]Indian yellow. Of reds--vermilion, carmine, crimson-lake. Of blues--[14]cobalt, German ultramarine, both deep and pale, Antwerp blue, indigo. Of greens--emerald, green-lake, pale and deep. Of browns--raw Turkey umber, vand.y.k.e, Venetian red, purple-brown, brown-lake. Besides these I have what is called celestial blue, which is a very pure and intense turquoise, vegetable black, flake white, and gold bronze.[13]

[13] Some of these colours are not of a permanent character and could not be used in work intended to be lasting. I use them for patterns for our manufactures, where when the drawing is once copied in a fabric it is destroyed. Some of the brightest colours are unfortunately the most fleeting.

There are certain facts connected with the mixing of colours which must never be lost sight of; thus, while the colours of light co-mingle without any deterioration, or loss of brilliancy, pigments or paints will not do so, but by admixture tend to destroy one another. This takes place only to a small extent when but two primary colours are combined; but if any of the third primary enters into the composition of a tint, a decided deterioration, or loss of intensity, occurs.

For this reason we employ many pigments, so as to avoid as far as possible the mixing of colours. But there is another reason why the great admixture of colours is undesirable. Colours are chemical agents, and in some cases the various pigments act chemically on one another. Of all colours yellows suffer most by admixture with other colours: but this is accounted for by their delicacy and purity. For this reason I use a greater variety of yellow pigments than of red or blue.[14]

[14] Of all mediums in which colours can be mixed, paraffine is the safest; it is without chemical affinities, and is therefore well calculated to preserve pigments in their original condition.

Were it possible to procure three pigments devoid of chemical affinities, and each of the same physical const.i.tution, as of equal degrees of transparency or opacity, one truly representing the blue of light, another the red, and another the yellow, we should need no others, for of these we could form all other colours; but as no pigments come even near to the fulfilment of these conditions, we have to employ roundabout and clumsy methods of arriving at desired results.

There is one statement which I have made that, perhaps, needs a little elucidation, although the careful student may have seen the reason of my a.s.sertion. I said that purple harmonised with citrine, green with russet, and orange with olive. I might have expressed it (and many would have done so) thus:--The complement of citrine is purple, the complement of russet is green, and the complement of olive is orange.

A colour which is complementary to any other is that which, with it, completes the presence of the three primary colours: thus green is the complement of red, and red of green, for each, together with the colour to which it is the complement, completes the presence of the three colours. But in order to a harmony, the complement must be made up in certain proportions. Let us now refer to our second diagrammatic table, and we there see that citrine is formed of two equivalents of yellow and only one equivalent of red and of blue. Now, in order to a harmony, each primary should be present in two equivalents, as one is present in this quant.i.ty--_i.e._, the yellow. One equivalent of blue and one of red (both of which are wanting in the citrine) form purple; hence purple is the complement of citrine, or the colour that with it produces a harmony. In russet one equivalent of blue and one of yellow are wanting, and these in combination are green--green, then, is the complement of russet. And in olive one equivalent of red and one of yellow are wanting--red and yellow form orange, hence orange is the complement of olive.

I have spoken of all colours as of full intensity and purity, but we have to deal also with other conditions. All colours may be darkened by black, when _shades_ are produced; or reduced by white, when _tints_ are produced. Besides these alterations in intensity, a portion of one colour may be added to another. Thus, if a small portion of blue be mingled with red, the red becomes a crimson or blue-red; or if a small portion of yellow be added to the red, the latter becomes a scarlet or yellow-red. In like manner, when yellow is in excess in a green, we have a yellow-green; or when blue is in excess, a blue-green; and so with the other colours. Such alterations produce _hues_ of colour.

We now come to the subtleties of harmony. Thus, if we have a yellow-red or scarlet--a red with yellow in it--the green that will harmonise with it will be a blue-green; or if we have a blue-red or crimson--a red with blue in it--the green that will harmonise with it will be a yellow-green. This is obvious, for the following reasons:--Let us suppose a red represented by the equivalent number, five, with one part of blue added to it, thus causing it to be a blue-red or crimson. Were the red pure, there should be eleven parts of green as a complement to the five of red, of which green eight parts would be blue and three yellow; but the blue-red occurs in six parts, one of which is blue--there are, then, but seven parts of blue remaining in the equivalent quant.i.ty to combine with the three of yellow, one being already used; hence the green formed is a yellow-green, one of the equivalents of blue necessary to the formation of a true green being already in combination with the red, and thus absent from the green.

The same reasoning will apply to the scarlet-red and blue-green, and, indeed, to all similar cases; but to take the case of the crimson-red and yellow-green, as just given, and carry it a stage further, we might add two parts (out of the eight) of blue to the red, and make it more blue, and then form the complementary green of six parts of blue and three of yellow, and thus make it more yellow. Or we may go further still, and add to the red six of the eight parts of blue, when the admixture would appear as a red-purple rather than as a blue-red, in which case the complementary green--or, rather, green-yellow--would consist of two parts of blue and three of yellow. These facts are diagrammatically expressed in the following:--

Red O O O O O } Yellow { O O O Yellow } Crimson harmonises with { Blue O } Green { O O O O O O O Blue

Or,

Red O O O O O } Blue Very { O O O Yellow } harmonises with Yellow { Blue O O } Crimson Green { O O O O O O Blue

Or,

Red. O O O O O } Red Green { O O O Yellow } harmonises with { Blue. O O O O O O } Purple Yellow { O O Blue

In all these cases it will be seen that we have eight parts of blue, five of red, and three of yellow, only the mode of combination varies.

This variation may occur to any extent, provided the totals of each be always the equivalent proportions.

These remarks will apply equally to hues of colour, shades, and tints, and to shades and tints of hues.