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- Browns And The Cold Semi-neutral Grays Marrone Is Practically To
- Also Called Scarlet Chrome Is A Bright Chromate Of Lead Of An
- Black Chalk
- Composition Chemical Analysis Has Shown Several Of The Blues To Be
- Burnt Verdigris
- Belong The Dutch And Flemish Schools; The Sensible Which Aims At
- Less Known As English Red Prussian Red And Scarlet Ochre True
- Olive In Dark Green; Russet And Citrine In Dark Orange The
- Known Likewise As Raw Sienna Earth Terra Di Sienna &c Is A
- Root Of The Anchusa Tinctoria Commonly Known As Alkanet A Plant

Least Viewed

- Distilled Verdigris Or More Properly Refined Verdigris The Best Is
- Uniform Colour Thus Composed Is The Citrine Colour Of Fruit And
- Sometimes Called China Or Chinese Ink Is Chiefly Brought From
- Their Chief Source The Greens Consist Of Yellow Mixed With Copper
- Egypt The Greeks Obtained The Knowledge Of Their Ars Chromatica
- While We Avoid The Compounding Of Contrasting Colours That Is The
- Only That Of Extreme Light Objects Opaque It Follows That White Is To
- Secondary Colours Are Three Only Orange Green And Purple
- Colours With The Neutral Black Of The Various Combinations Of Black
- Have To Be Learnt For Each Pigment Has Its Own Peculiar Habitudes

White And Pure Black; The Grays Known To The Palette As Mineral Grey

and Payne's Grey having been incorrectly named. Practically, the nearest
approach to a normal grey is furnished by Black Lead, which forms grey
tints of greater permanence and purity than the blacks in general use,
and is now employed for this purpose with approved satisfaction by
experienced artists.

Being compounded of white and black, grey partakes in some measure of
the qualities of both those colours--for colours, as a matter of
convenience, they must be called; although white is often spoken of as
no colour, and black as the complete extinction of all colour. With
white predominant, grey is used, pure or coloured, for the general
lights of a picture; just as, with black predominant, grey is employed,
pure or coloured, for the shades. It helps to subdue the absolute white,
and to make the absolute black conspicuous. Black and white are in some
respects complementary to each other, and when in contact, appear to
differ more from each other than when viewed separately: both show with
best effect when harmonised by a medium of grey, normal or otherwise.
The primary colours, also, gain in brilliancy and purity by the
proximity of grey. With dark colours, such as blue and violet, and deep
tones in general, grey forms assortments of analogous harmonies; while
with the luminous colours, such as red, orange, yellow, and the light
tints of green, it forms harmonies of contrast. Although grey never
produces a bad effect in its assortments with two luminous colours, in
most cases the association is dull and inferior to black and white. The
only instance in which grey associates with two such colours more
happily than white is that with red and orange. Grey is inferior to both
white and black with red and green, red and yellow, orange and yellow,
orange and green, yellow and green; and is not so good as white with
yellow and blue. In association with sombre colours, such as blue and
violet, and with broken tones of luminous colours, grey gives rise to
harmonies of analogy which have not the vigour of those with white; but
if the colours do not combine well together, it has the advantage of
separating them from each other. Associated with two colours, one
sombre, the other luminous, grey will perhaps be better than white, if
white produces too strong a contrast of tone: on the other hand, grey
will be preferable to black, if that has the inconvenience of increasing
too much the proportion of sombre colours. Grey associates more happily
than black with orange and violet, green and blue, or green and violet.

TTITLE MIXED GREY.

When a ray of solar light (a sunbeam) is passed through a prism of flint
glass, and the image or 'prismatic spectrum' received upon a screen of
white paper, it is found to consist of numerous rays of different
colours, which are conveniently divided into six groups--red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, violet. Optically, the union of red, yellow, and
blue, in proper proportions, constitutes white light; whether the rays
of the three separate colours are mixed, or of one with the other two in
combination: the same result ensues when red is mixed with green as if
it were mixed with blue and yellow, because green is composed of blue
and yellow. Consequently, any primary mixed with a secondary composed of
the other two primaries, forms the complement of rays necessary to
constitute or make up white light, and vice versa.

There is, however, a very great difference between the results arising
from the mixture of the pure coloured rays of the spectrum, and those
from material colours or pigments. When, by means of a convex lens, we
reunite the coloured rays of the spectrum white light is reproduced; but
when we mix coloured materials, blues, yellows, and reds, the compound
is never white, but grey or black; even if these coloured pigments are
taken in the exact proportions in which their colours exist in the
spectrum. Ultramarine, our purest blue, reflects red rays as well as
blue rays; aureolin, our purest yellow, reflects blue as well as yellow
rays; and carmine reflects yellow as well as red rays. Now whenever the
third primary colour is present in any mixture of coloured materials, it
tends to form grey, by mixing with a sufficient quantity of the other
coloured rays to neutralize it, and the presence of this grey breaks or
tarnishes the pure colour. Hence it is that to obtain a pure green, a
blue should be taken tinged with yellow rather than with red, and a
yellow tinged with blue: if there were chosen either a blue or a yellow
tinged with red, this latter colour would go to form some grey in the
compound, which would tarnish the green. In like manner, to produce pure
orange, neither the red nor the yellow must contain blue; and similarly
with pure purple, neither the blue nor red should contain yellow.

As regards pigments, then, a proper mixture of yellow, red, and blue; or
of yellow and purple, red and green, or blue and orange; or of orange,
green, and purple, affords black if sufficiently intense, and grey if
sufficiently diluted. The black may be rendered grey by spreading a thin
wash over a white ground, or by the direct addition of white. It must be
remembered, however, that suitable proportions of the component colours
are essential. When all three of the primaries, for example, are mixed
together, colour is neutralised according as they are compounded of
equal strength and in right quantities: if proper proportions are
observed, pure black or normal grey results; but if not, there will be
produced a coloured black or a coloured grey, an excess of one or two of
the primaries giving rise to brown, marrone, or gray.

A reference to the lists of permanent primary and secondary pigments
will show to what extent durable greys can be compounded. As these
pigments differ so widely in hue and other properties, no fixed rules
can be given for their admixture: to ensure neutrality, practice and a
correct eye are indispensable. Without perfect neutrality, difficult to
attain and rarely to be met with, grey ceases to exist. In pure white,
pure grey, and pure black, colour is, so to speak, conspicuous by its
absence.





TTITLE NEUTRAL BLACK

Black is the last and lowest in the series or scale of colours
descending--the opposite extreme from white--the maximum of colour. To
be perfect, it must be neutral with respect to colours individually, and
absolutely transparent, or destitute of reflective power as regards
light; its use in painting being to represent shade or depths, of which
black is the element in a picture and in colours, as white is of light.

As there is no perfectly pure and transparent black pigment, black
deteriorates all colours in deepening them, as it does warm colours by
partially neutralizing them, but it combines less injuriously with cold
colours. Though black is the antagonist of white, yet added to it in
minute portion, it in general renders white more neutral, solid, and
local, with less of the character of light. Impure black is brown, but
black in its purity is a cold colour, and communicates a coolness to all





Next: Light Colours; Thus It Blues White Greens Yellow Purples Red
Previous: From The Semi-neutral Gray In Not Being Coloured By Any Primary

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