Introduced With Caution When Hue Is Of Greater Importance Than Shade
: ON THE NEUTRAL, BLACK.Even when employed as a shadow, without much judgment in its use, black
is apt to appear as local colour rather than as privation of light; and
black pigments obtained by charring have a tendency to rise and
predominate over other hues, subduing the more delicate tints by their
chemical bleaching power upon other colours, and their own disposition
to turn brown or dusky. For these reasons deep and transparent colours,
for producing the true natural and permanent effects of shade. Many
pictures of the early masters, and especially of the Roman and
Florentine schools, evince the truth of our remarks; and it is to be
feared the high reputation of these works has betrayed their admirers
into this defective employment of black.
Black substances reflect a small quantity of white light, which receives
the complementary of the colour contiguous to the black. By
'complementary' is meant that colour which is required with another
colour to form white light; thus, green is the complementary of red,
blue of orange, and yellow of violet, or vice versa; because green and
red, blue and orange, and yellow and violet, each make up the full
complement of rays necessary to form white light. Briefly digressing, we
give the following mode of observing complementary colours:--Place a
sheet of white paper on a table opposite to one of two windows admitting
diffused daylight[C] into a room; take a piece of coloured glass and so
place it that the coloured light transmitted through it falls over the
surface of the paper; then put an opaque object on the paper close to
the coloured glass. The shadow of this object will not appear black or
of the colour of the glass, as might be supposed, but of its
complementary colour; thus if the glass is red, the colour of the
shadow will be green, although the whole of the paper surrounding it
appears red. Similarly, if the glass is blue, the shadow will appear
orange; if it is green, the shadow will appear red; and so with other
colours. It is absolutely essential, however, to the success of this
experiment, that the paper be also illuminated with the white light
admitted from the other window.
It has been said that black substances reflect a small quantity of white
light, which receives the complementary of the colour contiguous to the
black. If this colour is deep, it gives rise to a luminous
complementary, such as orange, or yellow, and enfeebles the black; while
the other complementaries, such as violet or green, strengthen and
purify it. In colours associated with black, if green is juxtaposed
therewith, its complementary red, added to the black, makes it seem
rusty. Those colours which best associate with black are orange, yellow,
blue, and violet. It would be well to remember that black, being always
deeper than the juxtaposed colour, entails contrast of tone, and tends
to lower the tone of that colour.
Most of the black pigments in use are obtained by charring, and owe
their colour to the carbon they contain. As the objects of vegetal and
animal nature may be blackened through every degree of impurity by the
action of fire, black substances more or less fitted for pigments
abound. The following are the chief native and artificial black
pigments, or colours available as such:--
TTITLE BLACK LEAD,
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English Red Persian Red Prussian Red Spanish Red Brown
... English Vermilion Spanish Brown Majolica Redding Ruddle
... Even Now It Is Urged By Some To The Disparagement Of The British
school, that it excels in colouring; as if this were incompatible with any other excellence, or as if nature, the great prototype of art, ever dispensed with it. The graphic branches of painting, owe everything to colour, which, if it does not constit... Example Be In A State Which Chemists Have Termed Protoxide They Are
liable to absorb oxygen on exposure to light, air, or moisture, and ... Extract From Mr Aaron Penley's English School Of Painting In Water
... Extracted From The Bignonia Chica By Boiling Its Leaves In Water
decanting the decoction, and allowing it to cool, when a red matter falls down, which is formed into cakes and dried. Insoluble in cold water, it dissolves in alcohol and alkalies; is precipitated from alkaline solutions by acids without alteration; a... Extremes And Greys Their Intermediates Thus Black And White Are
constituted of, and comprise latently, the principles of all colours, and accompany them in their depth and brilliancy as shade and light. ... Ferrocyanide Of Iron &c Was Accidentally Discovered In 1710 By
Diesbach, a colour-maker at Berlin. It is a compound of iron and cyanogen, of varying composition, formed by adding yellow prussiate of potash to a persalt of iron, or by oxidizing the precipitate obtained from the prussiate and a protosalt. The fines... Field's Purple Or Purple Rubiate Is The Only Durable Organic
purple the palette possesses. Marked by a soft subdued richness rather than by brilliancy, it leans somewhat towards marrone, and affords the greatest depth of shadow without coldness of tint. Unfortunately, in the whole range of artistic pigments the... Fineness Of Texture Is Produced By Extreme Grinding And Levigation
Pigments ground in water in the state of a thick paste, are miscible in oil and dry therein firmly; and in case of utility or necessity, any water-colour in cake, being rubbed off thick in water may be diffused in oil, the gum acting as a medium of un... Firm Line--not Wash--of Carmine (of Madder Preferable--ed) Passed
within the outline on the shade side only of the leaf, will give to the whole the look of a bright scarlet surface, but with an indescribable superadded charm, that no merely flat colour can possess." In the same branch of art, illumination, cadmium o... For Artists Such Are Harding's And Macpherson's Tints Composed Of
pigments which associate cordially, and sold ready prepared in cakes and boxes for miniature and water painting. Of the four grays in use--mineral gray, ultramarine ash, neutral tint, and Payne's gray--the two first are quite unchangeable, and the o... From The Semi-neutral Gray In Not Being Coloured By Any Primary
secondary, tertiary, or semi-neutral; hence any blue, purple, olive, or gray added to it, at once destroys the neutrality of grey, and converts it into gray. Thus easily defiled and changed in class, grey is rather a theoretical than a practical colou... Fugitive But We May Briefly Explain It By Saying When Vitreous
pigments are reduced to that extreme state of division which the palette requires, they lose the properties they possess in a less finely divided ... Furnishes The Blue Are Added To Brown Or Yellow Frit To Obtain A
velvety black glass. Similarly the dyer proceeds to dye black upon a deep blue basis of indigo, with the ruddy colour of madder and the yellow of quercitron, &c. Some of the best blacks and neutrals of the painter are those formed with colours of s... Gambodium Gambogium &c Is The Produce Of Several Kinds Of Trees
The natives of the coast of Coromandel call the tree from which it is principally obtained Gokathu, which grows also in Ceylon and Siam. From the wounded leaves and young shoots the gamboge is collected in a liquid state and dried. Our indigenous herb... General Effect Of A Picture Fourthly There Is The Contrast Of Colour
... Green As Well As Subordinately The Tertiaries Russet And Olive
It also enters in a very subdued degree into cool, semi-neutral, and broken colours, and assists in minor proportion with blue and red in the ... Green Mitis Green &c Is A Cupric Aceto-arsenite Prepared On The
large scale by mixing arsenious acid with acetate of copper and water. It differs from Scheele's Green, or cupric arsenite, in being lighter, more vivid, and more opaque. Powerfully reflective of light, it is perhaps the most durable pigment of its cl... Green Saxon Green French Green African Green Persian Green
... Green Schweinfurt Green Verdigris Green Bice Green
... Greens And With Red In All Purples Blue Characterizes The Tertiary
... Grey Is Neutral And Is Composed Of Or Can Be Resolved Into Black And
white alone, from a mixture of which two colours it springs in an infinite series. It must be observed that each colour may comprehend an indefinite series ... Gross And Material Which Is Content With Mere Nature And To Which
... Haerlem Blue Berlin Blue Mineral Blue Is A Lighter And
somewhat brighter Prussian blue, with less depth and less permanence. It is a species of lake, having a considerable proportion of aluminous base, to which its paler tint is due. As the stability of Prussian blue rests in a great measure on the marvel... Harmonizing Contrast Of Citrine Is A Deep Purple Which May Be Seen
beautifully opposed to it in nature, when the green of summer declines. As autumn advances, citrine tends towards its orange hues, including the colours termed aurora, chamoise, and others before enumerated under the head of yellow. It is the most adv... Have To Be Learnt For Each Pigment Has Its Own Peculiar Habitudes
chemical, physical, artistic; but if they be good and durable, no amount of time and study spent upon them is thrown away. To think less of the quality of one's materials than of the effects which can be produced with them is mistaken policy; and to b... Highest Order Merits Regard Orient Yellow Distinguished For Its
lustrous golden hue, resembling a bright Indian yellow. Dazzling in ... Hues Required To Obtain A Pure Green Which Consists Of Blue And
yellow only, a blue should be chosen tinged with yellow rather than with red, and a yellow tinged with blue. If either a blue or a yellow were taken, tinged with red, this latter colour would go to produce some grey in the compound, which would tarnis... In All The Variety Of Its Hues Composed Of Yellow And Red A True Or
perfect orange is such a compound of red and yellow as will neutralize a perfect blue in equal quantity either of surface or intensity; and the proportions of such compound are five of perfect red to three of perfect ... In Furnishing Or Setting The Palette Philosophically And Upon
principle, it is necessary to supply it with pure blue, red, and yellow; to oppose to these an orange, of a hue that will neutralise the blue--green, of a hue that will neutralise the red--and purple, of a hue that will neutralise the yellow; and so o... In Respect To Pigments Individually It May Be Observed That--other
things being equal--those pigments are the most beautiful which possess the most colour, whether they be light or dark, opaque or transparent, bright or subdued. There are some which exhibit all their colour at a glance: there are others that the more... Include The Several Varieties Known As--vermilion Deep Vermilion
... Incorrectly Called Cullen's Earth Is A Native Bituminous Earth
containing less bitumen than Cassel earth, and therefore drying more quickly. Darker than that variety, it is less transparent, and covers better. In its general qualities it resembles Vandyke brown, except that in combination with white, it affords a... Intellectual Which Aspires To The Ideal In Beauty Grandeur And
sublimity, and corresponds with the Greek, Roman, and Florentine ... Intermedia Are Opposed To Contrasts Or Extremes; And Upon The Right
management of contrasts and gradations depend the harmony and melody, the tone, effect, and general expression of a picture. Thus, painting is an affair of judicious contrasting so far as regards colour, if even it be not such altogether. ... Introduced With Caution When Hue Is Of Greater Importance Than Shade
Even when employed as a shadow, without much judgment in its use, black is apt to appear as local colour rather than as privation of light; and black pigments obtained by charring have a tendency to rise and predominate over other hues, subduing the m... Is A Native Earth; Sometimes Brown Ochre Burnt And Called Brown Red
It is less pure in hue and clear in its tints than light red, and is best reserved for dark and vigorous shades and touches. For draperies of a dusky red it is well suited, or even for the shadows of bright-red drapery. In dead colouring it is very va... Is A Pigment Long Employed In India Under The Name Purree But Has Not
many years been introduced generally into painting in Europe. It is imported in the form of balls of a fetid odour, and is produced from the urine of the camel. It appears to be a urio-phosphate of lime, and is of a beautiful pure yellow colour and li... Is Important And Consists In The Blending And Gradating By Mixture
... Is In Reality We Grant That In Certain Objects Blue Is A Sign Of
distance, but that is not because blue, as a mere colour, is retiring; but because the mist in the air is blue, and therefore any warm colour which has not strength of light enough to pierce the mist is lost or subdued in its blue. Blue in itself, how... Is Merely A Faded Blue The Blacks Are Both Of Vegetable And Mineral
origin, having been obtained from a variety of substances in a variety of ways. But, as shown by Layard in his discoveries at Nineveh, a knowledge of colouring was not confined to the Egyptians; it was likewise possessed by the Assyrians. The paint... Is That Of Warmth And Coolness Upon Which Depend The Toning And
... Is The Commercial Name Of Green Lakes Prepared From Sulphate Of
copper. These vary in hue and shade, have all the properties of the common non-arsenical copper-greens, and, not being subject to change of colour by oxygen and light, stand the weather well, and are excellent for the use of the house-painter, &c. Hav... Is Thence Sometimes Called Bladder Green When Good It Is Of A Dark
colour and glossy fracture, extremely transparent, and a fine natural yellowish green. This gummy juice, inspissated and formed into a cake, is occasionally employed in flower painting. It is, however, a very imperfect pigment, disposed to attract the... It Is Common To Call The Solution In Turpentine Asphaltum And The
... It Is The Archeus Or Prime Colour Of The Tertiary Citrine;
characterises in like manner the endless number of semi-neutral colours ... It Is True That A Mixture Of Black And White Is Of A Cool Hue Because
black is not a primary colour, but a compound of the three primary colours in which blue predominates, a predominance which is rendered more sensible when black is diluted with white. As to the colour of the sky, in which light and shade are combined,... Jaune De Mars Jaune De Fer Iron Yellow &c Is An Artificially
prepared iron ochre, of the nature of sienna earth. In its general qualities it resembles the ochres, with the same eligibilities and exceptions, but is more transparent, as well as purer, clearer, richer, and brighter. Like them it is quite permanent... Juice Of A Plant Named Houng Hoa To Give It Brightness Of Tone
According to an analysis by M. Proust, the better kinds contain about two per cent. of camphor. By some, the pigment known as Sepia has been supposed to enter into their composition. ... Known As Liquid Prout's Brown Has Been Extensively Employed This
contains less fixative than the indelible ink, and is the vehicle with which nearly all Samuel Prout's drawings were executed. TTITLE LEITCH'S BROWN is a permanent pigment peculiar to water painting. A most beautiful olive brown, soft and rich, i... Known As Yellow Ochre Brown Ochre Roman Ochre Transparent Gold
... Known Likewise As Kremnitz Crems Or Krems White Is A Carbonate
of lead which derives its names from Kremnitz in Hungary, or Crems or ... Known Likewise As Raw Sienna Earth Terra Di Sienna &c Is A
ferruginous native pigment, firm in substance, of a glossy fracture, and very absorbent. It is of rather an impure yellow colour, and much used in landscape, being very serviceable both in distance and foreground. Unless proper skill is exercised in i... Krems In Austria It Is Also Called Vienna White Being Brought From
Vienna in cakes of a cubical form. Cremnitz white is the brightest white that is used in oil: it possesses rather less body than flake white, because the particles are finer. When newly prepared, it gives out a strong smell of vinegar. TTITLE FLAKE... Lake &c And Are Obtained From The Coccus Cacti An Insect Found On
a species of cactus, from the juice of which it extracts its nourishment. This coccus is a native of Mexico, where two kinds are recognised, under names which signify wild cochineal and fine cochineal. The latter may be considered a cultivated product... Lake A Term Derived From The Lac Or Lacca Of India Is The Name Of
a number of transparent red and other coloured pigments of great beauty, prepared for the most part by precipitating coloured tinctures of dyeing drugs upon aluminous bases. Consequently, the lakes form a numerous class, both with respect to the varie... Lake Florentine Lake Hamburgh Lake Roman Lake Venetian
... Lake Mineral Green Patent Green Mountain Green Marine
... Lately Called Factitious Ultramarine Is A Specially Fine Preparation
of M. Guimet, presenting the nearest approach to the natural product of any artificial ultramarine, both in transparency, purity of hue, and chemical characteristics. Equalling in depth and power the ordinary French ultramarine, it possesses greater c... Latent Colour Not Immediately Apparent Apart From The Beauty Which A
wealth of colour imparts, those pigments imbued with it are, as a rule, the most permanent. And not unnaturally so, for the more colour there is present, the longer it takes to be affected, either by exposure or impure air. Colour within colour, there... Lazuline Lazulite Blue And Lazurstein This Most Costly Most
permanent, and most celebrated of all pigments, is obtained by isolating ... Lazurium As We Are Told Is Made It Has Been Common To Confound
... Leaning To Blue The Names Of Violet Lilac Mauve &c Blue Is
a colour which it serves to mellow, or follows well into shade. The contrast or harmonizing colour of purple is yellow on the side of light and the primaries; while purple itself is the harmonizing contrast of ... Leithner's Blue Hungary Blue Dutch Ultramarine Zaffre Or
... Less Known As English Red Prussian Red And Scarlet Ochre True
Venetian red, that is, the red of the Venetians, was probably brought from India, and similar to our modern Indian red. The Venetian red of the present day, however, is an artificial product, containing no earthy base, and therefore improperly classed... Light Colours; Thus It Blues White Greens Yellow Purples Red
... Light Compounded With The Primary Red It Constitutes The Secondary
... Light Does Upon Opacity Or Reflecting Power Opacity Is Therefore
the antagonist of transparency, and qualifies pigments to cover in dead-colouring, or solid painting, as well as to combine with transparent colours in forming tints; and hence it is that semi-transparent pigments are suited in a mean degree both for ... Likewise Called Lac Lake This Is Obtained From The Lac Or Lacca Of
India, a resinous secretion which seems to depend upon the puncture of a ... Likewise Known As Spruce Ochre And Ocre De Rue Or More Correctly
... Liquid Asphaltum &c Is A Sort Of Mineral Pitch Or Tar Which Rising
liquid to the surface of the Lacus Asphaltites or Asphaltic Lake (the Dead Sea) concretes there by the natural action of the atmosphere and sun, and, floating in masses to the shores, is gathered by the Arabs. The French give it an additional name fro...