Children’s Color Studies.
These reproductions of children’s work are given as proof that color charm and good taste may be cultivated from the start.
Five Middle Hues are first taught by the use of special crayons, and later with water colors. They represent the equator of the color sphere (see Plate I.),—a circle midway between the extremes of color-light and color-strength,—and are known as Middle Red, Middle Yellow, Middle Green, Middle Blue, and Middle Purple.
These are starting-points for training the eye to measure regular scales of Value and Chroma.[1] Only with such a trained judgment is it safe to undertake the use of strong colors.[2]
Beginners should avoid Strong Color. Extreme red, yellow, and blue are discordant. (They “shriek” and “swear.” Mark Twain calls Roxana’s gown “a volcanic eruption of infernal splendors.”) Yet there are some who claim that the child craves them, and must have them to produce a thrill. So also does he crave candies, matches, and the carving-knife. He covets the trumpet, fire-gong, and bass-drum for their “ thrill’; but who would think them neces-
- ↑ See Century Dictionary for definition of chroma. Under the word ‘‘color” will be found definitions of Primary, Complementary, Constants (chroma, luminosity, and hue), and the Young-Helmholtz theory of color-sensation.
- ↑ It must not be assumed because so much stress is laid upon quiet and harmonious color that this system excludes the more powerful degrees. To do so would forfeit its claim to completeness. A Color Atlas displays all known degrees of pigment color arranged in measured scales of Hue, Value, and Chroma.
