MIXTURE & BALANCE
35
Neighborly and opposite hues; and their mixture.
(56) Let this circle (Fig. 7) stand for the equator of the color sphere with the five principal hues (written by their initials R, Y,
G, B, and P) spaced evenly about it. Some colors are neighbors, as red and yellow, while others are opposites. As soon as a child experiments with paints, he will notice the different results obtained by mixing them.
First, the neighbors, that is, any pair which lie next one another, as red and yellow, will unite to make a hue which retains a suggestion of both. It is intermediate between red and yellow, and we call it yellow-red.[1]
(57) Green and yellow unite to form green-yellow, blue and green make blue-green, and so on with each succeeding pair. These intermediates are to be written by their initials, and inserted in their proper place between the principal hues. It is as if an orange (paragraph 9) were split into ten sectors instead of five, with red, yellow, green, blue, and purple as alternate sectors, while half of each adjoining color pair were united to form the sector between them. The original order of five hues is in no wise disturbed, but linked together by five intermediate steps.
(58) Here is a table of the intermediates made by mixing each pair:—
- Red and yellow unite to form yellow-red (YR), popularly called orange.[1]
- Yellow and green unite to form green-yellow (GY), popularly called grass green.
- Green and blue unite to form blue-green (BG), popularly called peacock blue.
- Blue and purple unite to form purple-blue (PB), popularly called violet.
- Purple and red unite to form red-purple (RP), popularly called plum.
