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MIXTURE & BALANCE
So we write the buttercup YR79 and the violet B334,—chroma always being written below to the right of hue, and value always above. (This is the invariable order: HUEVALUECHROMA).
(74) A line joining the head of the pin mentioned above with B34 does not pass through the centre of the sphere, and its middle point is nearer the buttercup than the neutral axis, showing that the hues of the buttercup and violet do not balance in gray.
The neutral centre is a balancing point for colors.
(75) This raises the question, What is balance of color? Ar- tists criticise the color schemes of paintings as being “too light or too dark” (unbalanced in value), “too weak or too strong” (unbalanced in chroma), and “too hot or too cold” (unbalanced in hue), showing that this is a fundamental idea underlying all color arrangements.
(76) Let us assume that the centre of the sphere is the natural balancing point for all colors (which will be best shown by Max- well discs in Chapter V., paragraphs 106-112), then color points equally removed from the centre must balance one another. Thus white balances black. Lighter red balances darker blue-green. Middle red balances middle blue-green. In short, every straight line through this centre indicates opposite qualities that balance one another. The color points so found are said to be “complementary,” for each supplies what is needed to complement or balance the other in hue, value, and chroma.
(77) The true complement of the buttercup, then, is not the violet, which is too weak in chroma to balance its strong opposite. We have no blue flower that can equal the chroma of the butter-cup. Some other means must be found to produce a balance. One way is to use more of the weaker color. Thus we can make
