Fig.1 (continued 2)

For the same reason if a circle of lightest neutral gray paper, say four inches in diameter, is placed on a piece of yellow paper about six inches square, and another circle just like it is put on a piece of blue paper of similar size, it will be quite difficult to convince any one who has not previously seen the experiment that both gray circles are from the same sheet of paper. The results observed in this experiment are produced by a contrast of tone which causes one to look lighter than the other, and a contrast of hue which gives one a blue and to the other a yellow hue, in contrast to the color on which it is mounted.

Contrast of Colors.

If two colors contiguous in the spectrum circuit are placed in juxtaposition the effect of the contrast of hue is to throw them away from each other. For example, if orange red and the red orange papers are put side by side the former will seem more red and the latter more orange. Therefore, when colored papers are pasted up or laid in order to form a spectrum, for example, the colors not only fail to blend together but each line of contact is very disagreeably prominent.

If two colors are separated by a narrow strip of light gray, gold, black or white, the effect is greatly improved. For this reason a design in analogous colors is often improved by separating certain colors by a fine line of black, gold or gray.

If two colors not closely related to each other in the spectrum circuit are placed in juxtaposition, each is modified by an effect which is the complementary of the other. For example, if red and yellow are placed side by side, in contact, the red is rendered more violet by the added effect of blue, which is the complementary of yellow, and the yellow is modified by the blue-green complementary of the red, which tends to dull the yellow and change it slightly toward green.

If blue and yellow are joined both are improved, as the two are so nearly complementary to each other that each is intensified by simultaneous contrast, blue being added to blue and yellow to yellow.

Dominant Harmonies.

In the use of colored papers those combinations classified as dominant harmonies are the most simple to make because they are all in one family, as the little children like to consider the relationship. The red family consists of the standard red and its tints and shades, or in other words the red scale. With the several papers ready made this harmony becomes very simple, but in the use of pigments the production of a true color scale is not a thing to be confidently undertaken by a novice.

In a very elaborate color chart for Primary education prepared with great care by Dr. Hugo Magnus and Prof. B. Joy Jeffries, and published at large expense about ten years ago with hand-painted samples in oil colors, this lack of classification of hues is very noticeable, although at that time it was by far the best publication of the kind and was not criticised on this point.

For example in a scale of five tones of red the following are the analyses, beginning at the lightest tint:—

Tint No. 2, O.45, Y.20, W.18, N.17.

Tint No. 1, O.69, Y.3, W.7, N.21.

Standard, R.75, O.25.

Shade No. 1, R.85, O.15.

Shade No. 2, R.75, N.25.

In this scale according to the Bradley nomenclature the standard or full color is a very fine vermilion expressed by R.75, O.25, i.e. an orange red, and therefore in order to form a perfect scale both tints and shades should be in the orange reds, but in fact the tints are both broken colors, the lightest a very broken yellow-orange and the deeper tint very nearly a light broken orange. The lightest shade is a pure orange-red but with a larger proportion of red to the orange than the standard, while the darkest tone is a pure shade of red. Thus in the five tones we have the following arrangement, beginning at the lightest tint:—

Broken yellow-orange, broken orange, orange-red; another pure orange-red but more red, and lastly red shade, thus embracing in one orange-red scale parts of four scales from yellow-orange to red. In these defects in the best chart of its kind in the market only ten years ago is seen the best possible evidence of the advance made since that time in color perception, largely due to the use of the color disks in determining scales. While in the use of colored papers the dominant harmony may be the simplest and the one in which there is least danger of really bad work, some of the combinations are much better than others, and superiority is perhaps secured as much by the relative quantities of each tone used in a composition as in the selecting of the tones. In the entire range of the spectrum even this class of harmonies involves problems too complex to be solved by a few rules, but it is a very interesting field in which the children may safely be allowed to roam and experiment.

Complementary Harmonies.

Complementary Harmonies may perhaps be classified next to dominant because they are more easily described and more definitely limited than those effects termed Analogous Harmonies. A pure Complementary Harmony consists of the combination of tones from two scales which are complementary to each other. For example, the red scale is complementary to the blue-green scale, as also the green to the violet-red, and so on throughout the entire range of the spectrum scales.

As explained on Page 50, the complementary of any color can be determined by means of the color wheel, or nearly enough for æsthetic purposes with the color top. But even though the colors complementary to each other may be determined scientifically there will always remain ample opportunity for the exhibition of color sense and artistic feeling in the choice of colors because the difference between a very beautiful composition in complementary harmony and an indifferently good one may be found in the choice of tones, or in the proportions of each and their arrangement with relation to each other. This harmony certainly contains great possibilities with comparatively few limitations.

While it is perhaps approximately true that complementaries are harmonious in combination, yet best authorities do not seem to fully sustain this opinion and it is quite evident that pure tones of some complementary pairs when combined are very hard in their effects, if not positively unpleasant. This can be relieved very decidedly and oftentimes very pleasing results secured by modifying the colors to tints and shades or various broken tones.

But as has before been stated, and must be constantly reiterated, all fine questions of harmonies can only be determined by a general agreement of experts in color based on accepted standards.

Analogous Harmonies may seem to be more closely related to the dominant than the complementary and hence, logically, should perhaps be considered before the complementary, but there may be greater difficulties involved in the analogous than in the complementary because they are not so definitely limited.

Analogous Harmonies.

In an Analogous Harmony we may use tones from a number of scales more or less closely related in the spectrum circuit. In some parts of the spectrum it is possible to include a much wider range than in others. It is comparatively easy to produce safe compositions through that part bounded by the orange-yellow and the green scales, while from the green to the violet experiments are much less safe.

In almost any section of the spectrum a range of three scales is safe if the tones are properly selected and proportioned, and in some sections as many as five or six may possibly be included, by an artist, with striking and pleasing effect.

Perfected Harmonies.

The compositions which have been classified as Perfected Harmonies may be defined as the combination of two Analogous Harmonies which as a whole are approximately complementary to each other, or in which the key tones of the Analogous Harmonies are complementary to each other. Such compositions may be entirely composed of analogous colors with the addition of but one complementary color, and this is in fact a very safe harmony, especially if that one color is used as a border line or an outline here and there in the design, in which case it may sometimes be strong in color and tone.

The chart of spectrum scales as made from colored papers cut in squares is of great value in explaining the classification of harmonies. Fig. 15 is a reduced copy of the chart of pure spectrum scales shown on page 41, and which is here placed horizontally for convenience.

Fig. 15.

The black zig-zag lines are designed as graphic illustrations of the various classes of harmonies.

Contrasted Harmonies as defined are limited to designs in one active color mounted on a background of one of the passive colors and thus need no further explanation, although experience will prove that some combinations are very much more pleasing than others.

The Dominant Harmonies which are defined as combinations of tones from one scale cannot be made more clear by a diagram, which would be simply a straight vertical line through any one of the eighteen scales, indicating that the five tones in that scale or any selection from them may be used in a Dominant Harmony.

The Analogous Harmony has given students the most trouble and the diagram is principally prepared to illustrate the great variety in harmonies of this class.

Commencing at the left, the first line indicates a harmony in three scales beginning with red-violet shade No. 2 and passing to shade No. 1, then to standard violet and thence to blue-violet tints No. 1 and No. 2.

The next is in two scales, beginning at violet-blue shade No. 2, thence to blue shade No. 1; back to normal violet-blue; again into the blue scale at tint No. 1 and back to violet-blue tint No. 2.

The next begins at green-blue shade No. 2 and ends in green tint No. 2. Theoretically the line beginning in G. B. S. 2. and leading to G. T. 1. and thence to Y. S. 2. may represent an Analogous Harmony, but it may be doubtful whether a range of such an extent in that part of the spectrum could be made very harmonious. This may be divided into two harmonies at G. T. 1. and each part may be extended to G. T. 2.

The straight line from G. S. 2. to O. Y. T. 2., embracing five scales, might be extended to include the joining broken line running into the Y. O. scale and finishing at O. Y. S. 2.

The remaining lines at the red end of the chart may be considered as indicating one harmony in six tones, or two harmonies in three tones each.

If the two ends of the Chart of Spectrum Scales are joined so as to form an endless band or a cylinder, bringing the violet-red scale adjoining the red-violet, as in the spectrum circuit, the same graphic illustration could be given of harmonies extending from violet to red.

The complementary harmonies require no diagrams, because they are limited to the combination of two scales complementary to each other and would be represented by two parallel vertical lines through any two complementary colors, as for example vertical lines through the red and green-blue scales.

The compositions termed Perfected Harmonies may be fairly well illustrated in the diagram by the combination of the line in V. B. and B. with the broken line commencing in G. Y. S. 2. and ending in G. Y. T. 2.; or again by the line in R. V. to B. V. combined with the straight line from G. T. 1. to Y. S. 2.; or the broken line G. to Y. S. 2. Or again, the entire range of the double combination O. S. 2., O. R. T. 2., V. R. and O. R. S. 2. with the broken line from G. B. S. 2. to G. T. 2. Another sample of Perfected Harmony is found in the union of line O. R. S. 2., V. R., O. R. T. 2., with line G. B. S. 2. to G. T. 2. These diagrams are designed to show the range or extent which a single composition may cover under its special definition and do not imply a necessity for using at one time all the colors through which the line passes, or that they are specially good harmonies.

A striking illustration in nature of a Perfected Harmony was seen one bright autumn morning in a species of woodbine covering the side of a red brick building, in which could be discovered an infinite variety of colors in greens and violet-reds whose tones were increased in number and intensified in effect by the reflections of the sunlight and the corresponding shadows, producing very light tints and very dark shades of various hues of the complementary colors, and forming a complicated and wonderfully beautiful effect very definitely classified as a Perfected Harmony.

Field's Chromatic Equivalents.

So much has been said and written about Field's Equivalents that there is a very general impression among artists and others that they constitute an important element in harmonious compositions of color. This proposition as given in Owen Jones' Grammar of Ornament is as follows:—

"The primaries of equal intensities will harmonize or neutralize each other, in the proportions of 3 yellow, 5 red and 8 blue—integrally as 16.

The secondaries in the proportions of 8 orange, 13 purple, 11 green—integrally as 32.

The tertiaries, citrine (compound of orange and green), 19; russet (orange and purple), 21; olive (green and purple), 24—integrally as 64."

In commenting on this in "The Theory of Color" Dr. Von Bezold says: "It is often maintained that the individual colors in a colored ornament should be so chosen, both as regards hues and the areas assigned to them, that the resulting mixture, as well as the total impression produced when such ornaments are looked at from a considerable distance, should be a neutral gray. Starting from this idea, the attempt has been made to fix the proportional size of the areas, which would have to be assigned to the various colors usually employed in the arts, for the purpose of arriving at the result indicated. This idea was especially elaborated by Field, an Englishman, who gave the name of 'chromatic equivalents' to the numbers of the proportions obtained, a designation which has since been very generally adopted. In reality, however, these 'chromatic equivalents' have no value whatever."

The same writer also says: "It will always remain incomprehensible that even a man like Owen Jones in the text accompanying his beautiful "Grammar of Ornament" should have adopted this proposition in the form given to it by Field, since among all the ornaments reproduced in the work just mentioned there are scarcely any which will really show the distribution of colors demanded by the proposition in question." [B]

In accordance with this eminent authority any one familiar with disk combinations will know by experiment that no combinations of red, yellow and blue approaching the proportion named by Field can produce a neutral gray effect in the eye.

Colored Papers.

For practical study of color some economic material is absolutely necessary and nothing so well combines manual work with æsthetic cultivation as colored papers, if specially prepared in standard colors and with a dead plated surface.

In the manufacture of the colored papers adopted in the Bradley scheme of color instruction, the effort has constantly been to produce the closest possible imitations of natural colors consistent with the material.

With this aim in view we have secured the brightest possible red, orange, yellow, green and blue and have chosen a violet which has the same relation to the other pigmentary colors that the soft beauty of the spectrum violet bears to the other parts of the spectrum.

It however happens that in the pure aniline colors discovered in recent years a line of purples and violets has been found so much purer than the other pigments that we cannot with our red and violet make a perfect imitation of the brightest aniline purples used in some of the goods now in the market. Purple is a general name for the several modifications of violet, red-violet and violet-red as Peacock Blue is a name given to the beautiful hues of blue-green and green-blue. These aniline purples are but another indication that we may expect such advance in the science of pigment manufacture in the comparatively near future that a much purer line of standards may be secured than is now possible in papers. But it does not materially affect the value of the present standards as long as they are accepted as indicating the kind of color, i.e., its location in the spectrum, and the artists certainly should not object to this lack of purity, because their only present criticism is that the standards are too "raw," which is but another term for pure.

In the glazed colored papers in the market we may find some of these purples, especially in the tints or "pinks" which when placed beside the unglazed surfaces of the standard papers render the latter quite subdued. But in primary color education there is no place for these purest purple papers, until chemistry discovers other colors correspondingly brilliant to complete a purer chart of spectrum colors than is now possible.

Color Teaching in The Schoolroom.

In the preceding sections of this book the author has aimed to so guide the teacher who is looking for aids in elementary color teaching that she can by actual experiment determine for herself the truths regarding color, and hence be able to choose such facts as are suited to the needs of her pupils from time to time, and to present them in such a logical order as to render them of the greatest value in practical results.

It should be possible to interest the children in color more easily than in any other subject. Examples are always around them at home, in the street, in the garden and the field, if perchance they are fortunate enough to see the field, and those who see no attractive colors elsewhere certainly should find them in the schoolroom. To a teacher who is in love with the subject the world will be full of examples, every day. The beautiful yellows and greens of the spring leaves, the flowers, birds and butterflies of the summer, the autumn foliage, the sunsets and blue and purple mountains of winter, are but hints of the multitude of object lessons in color all around us; and if none of these are available the more commonplace subjects found in the latest seasonable colors of dress goods and house furnishings will be almost equally valuable. When the children are once interested they will discover, through their own observation, examples of such value as to surprise one who has had experience with only the old methods of trying to teach color, or rather the utter lack of all methods heretofore in vogue.

The value of kindergarten training has been so thoroughly demonstrated as to be beyond controversy, and all progressive school boards must soon recognize the necessity of adopting kindergarten methods in the lower primary grades, until such time as it may be possible to introduce the complete kindergarten for all the children, to precede the school proper. The conditions prevailing in the kindergarten are peculiarly favorable to the study of color, because of the opportunities afforded for introducing it in connection with the manual exercises of the gifts and occupations.

The first gift of the kindergarten, as originally introduced by Frœbel, consists of six soft worsted balls in six colors, which he seems to have selected as standards without care or knowledge regarding the theory of "three primaries and three secondaries," although no doubt he may have indifferently accepted it, because it was the only one in his day suggesting any logical scheme of color combinations.

The use of colored papers educationally in a systematic way originated in the kindergarten, and comprised folding, cutting, pasting and weaving, from which some color instruction was incidentally derived by the children. But with the papers formerly in the market little special training in the selecting, matching and naming of colors, such as is of so great value at the present time, was possible. The call for better colors in papers came first from the kindergartners, and the diversity of ideas expressed by them caused the writer to institute a series of investigations which have resulted in the system to which this book is devoted. The occupations of paper folding, cutting and pasting have been adopted into the primary school from the kindergarten, and there is no question but the occupation of paper mat weaving as practiced in the kindergarten should also be introduced in the lowest primary grades for those who have not had kindergarten training, because of its value in simple manual work and in designing symmetrical patterns and harmonious color combinations.

By general consent colored papers have been chosen as the most available material for this work, because while relatively cheap, the purest colors possible in pigments are secured, and the material is adapted to the most elementary manual training and education in form as well as color.

It is not the author's aim to here provide a definite course of lessons to be given in a perfunctory way or in a fixed order, but rather to furnish suggestions based on practical work in the schoolroom that may be of value to those who have carefully examined the preceding pages of this book and become familiar with the experiments described. The suggestions are based on the experience of teachers who have been using the system here advocated for several years and testing it in various ways, and therefore it is hoped that they may be of value to any earnest worker who is not fully satisfied with her efforts in teaching color up to date. Consequently a brief outline of work is suggested for the earliest years, according to a definite order, and then further suggestions and experiments are introduced, somewhat in the order in which they may naturally present themselves.

The time has passed when it is necessary to offer any argument for the study of color in the schoolroom. Every child begins his school life with many color impressions which he has been acquiring since the day when his baby fingers first stretched toward some bit of color, and his development demands a clear presentation to him during the earliest school years of the fundamental facts concerning color upon which all later work must be based.

The Glass Prism.

A glass prism is one of the first requisites in the appliances for teaching color, and a prism which may be bought for a few cents will work wonders in the hands of an interested teacher, although a more perfect instrument, such as is sold with physical apparatus, will give colors which are better defined.

Experience in many schoolrooms has proved that a spectrum can be shown somewhere in the average room at some hour in every sunny day, especially in the longer days of spring and summer, and it is well to have the prism when not in use so fixed as to project the spectrum into the room much of the time, so that it may become familiar to the younger children.

Observation of the spectrum enthuses the children with a feeling for color which can be developed in no other way, and they never tire with watching the wonderful vibrating effects of the liquid colors; and by studying it the mental image of each of the six colors becomes as distinct as that of the cube after it has been handled and modeled. If the schoolroom is provided with shutters or dark curtains a much better spectrum can be produced by closing them, as even a slight change from a bright sunny daylight has a very perceptible effect in bringing out the colors. A person who has never seen a carefully prepared spectrum in a room almost perfectly dark can have no realizing sense of the purest possible expressions of color.

Accident once disclosed a simple means by which one teacher secured a very good spectrum. There was a deep, dark closet opening from the schoolroom and one bright day when the prism was being used the spectrum was accidentally thrown into this closet, and the sudden and enthusiastic expression of approval by those pupils who were in position to discover it was certainly interesting to the teacher of that country school, with a dark coal closet.

In a spectrum such as can be produced in a dark room with the most perfect form of prism, all the various colors can be separated and carefully examined and by special appliances compared with pigmentary colors. Experiments of this kind are exceedingly interesting and instructive, and demonstrate the wonderful intensity and purity of the spectrum colors as compared with the purest pigmentary colors that can be produced. Such experiments were carried to a great degree of perfection when the six standard colors for the Bradley Colored Papers were selected.

How the Bradley Color Standards Were Chosen.

After many months of labor in securing samples of material colors, and many days spent with the spectrum, a committee of artists, scientists, teachers, and artizans unanimously decided that æsthetically and psychologically the colors adopted were the best possible material expression of the six localities in the spectrum corresponding to the feeling or psychological perception of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Many subsequent experiments have apparently proved that practically the same six colors best serve the purpose of primaries from which to make all others by combination.

In accordance with these selections the educational colored papers have been made, and since that time an expert scientist has accurately located each of these colors in the spectrum by its wave length. Consequently after the children have come to know the six colors in the sun spectrum the six standard colors of the papers may be shown as the best imitations possible. In studying the six colors from the spectrum in a schoolroom it frequently happens that one color may be best seen on the floor, another on the wall or even the blackboard, and another on the ceiling, and after the order of the colors in the whole spectrum has been observed, it is well to get each color where it can be best secured.

Paper Color Tablets.

When the spectrum has been studied so that the children have some idea of the six colors and their location relative to each other, give each of the children a package of the colored paper tablets, one inch by two inches, containing the eighteen normal spectrum colors, i.e., those in the central vertical column in the Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales, Page 41, and tell them to select from the eighteen the six which they have seen in the spectrum and which may be named to them as red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. [C]

If a sheet of neutral gray cardboard can be secured for use on each desk all early color work will be more valuable, because of the undesirable effect of the usual yellow or orange color of the wood of the desk.

If some of the pupils do not make the correct selection of the papers it may be well to let the error pass for that time and have another exhibition of the spectrum before the next trial. Get as many of them as possible to make the selection of the six colors from the eighteen solely by comparison with the spectrum. Later if some are still unable to succeed, a paper spectrum may be shown to them, or what is better, six bits of paper like their own, pasted on a card, with an interval as wide as two papers between each two. When every child can readily select the six standard colors from the eighteen then all of them may with advantage be told to lay the six in a row on the gray cardboard or desk, in their proper order, and sufficiently separated to allow room for two other papers between each two. When all have made the attempt and some have failed to arrange the papers correctly the card having them properly mounted may again be shown and each one in error may make the necessary corrections by comparison.

In a solar spectrum such as is possible in the ordinary schoolroom the intermediate colors between the standards cannot be very distinctly seen but the child can be shown that between the red and orange, with which he is familiar, there are colors different from both and possibly he may be led to see that these colors seem to be a mixture of the two. With this impression in the minds of the children the following experiment may be a very interesting psychological test of the natural color perception of each child, or in other words his "color feeling."

Ask the children to arrange the remaining twelve papers between the six standards in pairs and one outside of the red and violet at the ends. This exercise will serve to bring each of the other colors to the critical attention of the children so that they may not be entirely strangers to them in the succeeding exercises. At this stage the color wheel or color top or both will be most valuable.

Color Wheel or Top.

If the wheel is available let the teacher place on it combined red and orange disks of medium size and in front a small red disk. Before beginning the six papers should be laid on the desk in order, separated by two spaces. Call attention to the fact that the red disks are like the red sample of paper. Explain how the disks are joined and that the two larger ones can be made to show more or less of the orange and the red.

Then introduce a small amount of orange, perhaps not enough to cause the effect to be perceived by the children when the wheel is in motion, and rotate. Ask if they see any difference between the small disk at the center and the larger surface. Add more orange till they see a difference, and continue to add orange to the red until nearly one-half the disk is orange or till it may be questionable whether the color made by rotation is more nearly orange or red. This point will be reached before the orange nearly equals the red, because the orange is more luminous. Explain that all these colors which the children have been seeing are orange-reds and ask the pupils to select that color from their papers which is orange-red, or most like the orange and red. In the meantime set the orange and red disks to the proportion of R. 85, O. 15, which nearly or exactly matches the orange-red paper. When the children have selected the paper which they think is orange-red, put the wheel in motion and ask them if their selection is like the color on the wheel. If not, see that all understand and have selected the orange-red paper to place next the red sample. When this has been done remove the disks from the wheel and readjust the larger ones so as to show a combination that is nearly all orange; then replace them and substitute in front a small orange disk instead of the red one and proceed to show a series of red-orange colors from the orange toward the red, as previously shown from the red toward the orange.

With experiments before adults this break in the order of proceeding and the change of disks would be unnecessary, but with children it is desirable to mark a distinction between the orange-red and the red-orange colors, a fact which is emphasized by the mechanical manipulation. When the children have been asked to place their red-orange paper in its proper position the disks may be set to R. 50, O. 50, and an imitation of their red-orange paper shown.

If the school is provided with color tops their use may be begun at this point by allowing the children to attempt to repeat the wheel experiments with the tops and thus produce for themselves an imitation of the two intermediate spectrum hues in the papers. In all combinations of colors by disks as well as pigments there is some loss of purity and hence the colors of papers in the intermediate hues may be a little brighter in some cases than the results of two disks in combination.

This suggestion for the presentation of one pair of the intermediate spectrum hues may serve to illustrate all the others, and the time which can be devoted to the whole subject must determine the detail with which each pair is treated.

If the tops are provided in a school but no color wheel then the teacher must begin with a top as a substitute for the wheel and let the children follow her with their tops by dictation. At first this will be much more difficult than if the wheel could be used, but after the children have become somewhat familiar with the handling of the top by dictation the result will be quite surprising. There will be in every school some children who are exceedingly awkward in the manipulation of the top, until the happy day arrives when all school children are graduates of kindergartens. At present the average kindergarten pupil will handle the top better than the children in the lowest primary grades who have not had the advantages of kindergarten instruction.

When all the hues except the red-violet and violet-red have been located, the teacher should be prepared with a chart made by pasting the eighteen paper samples, including standards and intermediate hues, in their order on a strip of paper, so that by bringing the ends together the children may see that when they place the violet-red at one end of their row and the red-violet at the other they are really completing a spectrum circuit and forming a chart of natural colors. Ever since Newton's day it has been fashionable to speak of the spectrum as nature's chart of colors. This expression is but partially true and is entirely false if we mean that it contains examples of all the colors in nature. The spectrum is valuable in color study only from the fact that it enables us to establish permanent standard colors from which all colors in nature and the arts may be named and by the combinations of which such colors may be imitated.

Unless the standard colors in a system of color instruction are the closest possible imitations of corresponding spectrum colors there is no logical relation between such a system and a chart of colors based on the spectrum, because the spectrum does not furnish a complete circuit of colors and its only value is, as before stated, in furnishing a permanent standard on which to found a nomenclature of colors.

Up to this time we have not suggested the practice of introducing any natural objects or calling the attention of the children to various colors found in their surroundings. Each teacher must use her judgment regarding this matter, but as soon as miscellaneous colors are to be considered the two questions of hues and tones are necessarily involved, and experienced teachers have been divided in their opinions as to which should be first considered, tone or hue. When it was thought necessary to occupy a long time in presenting all the spectrum colors this question assumed greater importance than at present, but very many teachers have become convinced that we have not been giving the children credit for nearly as much ability in the recognition of colors as they deserve, and that with the methods at present in use the six standard colors and twelve hues can be learned in a few weeks, during which time it may not be necessary to discuss the complicated combinations of colors in nature and our domestic surroundings. This is not intended to mean that the child will in this time be able to name the various hues when seen separately, but that having the eighteen paper tablets he may feel their relations to each other to such an extent as to be able to lay them in their spectrum order. Those pupils who seem to have no natural perception of the proper relationship of colors will require more experience than the rest of the class before they can be sure of their colors and the teacher must exercise her judgment in deciding how long to hold the class to this subject of spectrum hues on their account.

As in other class work it is not necessary that the dull children perfectly comprehend all that is told them at each step, because there will always be some in a class who will comprehend and thus the others may learn by observation, and in this subject particularly every step in advance must necessarily include a continual review of all that has preceded.

Consequently when a teacher has given as much time to the study of hues in the arrangement of the papers as she deems profitable, considering the entire time that can be devoted to the subject during the year, she may well proceed to tones.

The Study of Tones.

It is unnecessary at the beginning to use the word tones with the children, as "light and dark" colors will be understood more clearly. The first lesson in light and shade may be given with some book bound in a bright color, as red for example, which is common in cloth bindings. For this experiment partially open the book and hold it vertically, with back toward the class, in such position that a strong light from one side of the room will fall directly on one cover while the other is in the shade. If properly manipulated this simple experiment may be made effective to an entire class by moving the book in various directions to accommodate the several members, so that at different times all the pupils may get very clearly the idea of light and dark colors in the same scale.

This idea can be more clearly shown by means of a simple model very easily made for the purpose. Take, for example, three pieces of standard red paper, 4×4 inches, and mount them on a piece of cardboard side by side, in a row. Trim the card parallel to the edges of the papers, leaving a margin of uniform width, and with the point of a knife "score" a line partially through the card from the front, at the joining of the papers, so that it can be neatly bent to the form shown in Fig. 16 which represents the model as seen by the class. By holding one of the rear edges with each hand the faces can be folded to different angles with each other and the model turned to different positions with relation to the children. Possibly the windows at the rear of the room may be partially darkened to advantage; they certainly can be if they have a sunny exposure at the time. The object is to give a fair daylight on the central surface for the standard, a strong light on one side to form a tint of the standard and a shadow on the other for a shade of the same color.

Fig. 16.

By a trial before school, in company with some other teacher perhaps, the best positions for different parts of the room as well as best lighting of the room may be determined in advance and thus such a success achieved with the first experiment that the whole idea of tint and shade may be impressed on each child for all time and definitions firmly fixed in his mind for these two most abused words in our every day vocabulary. Added interest may be excited by showing similar models in several other colors during the same lesson, thus avoiding the possible impression on any mind that the term tint and shade apply to any special color.

Tints and shades may also be shown very beautifully by some kinds of colored materials. Colored satin ribbons, folded or crumpled, and velvets and plushes give good object lessons. One of the most effective exhibitions of tints and shades may be found in a material used for upholstering furniture and technically called "crushed plush," which is a worsted plush embossed in figures and very changeable in its effects as its relation to the light is changed, giving at the same time very light tints and very dark shades in different portions.

Having thus shown how real tints and shades in nature are produced, the color wheel may be introduced with advantage. If it were practicable to use opaque colors in the school they could be employed to show that the effect of a tint is produced in pigments by mixing white with the standard color and a shade by mixing black with it, but while the mixture of white may produce the best imitations of some tints in nature, the same result does not hold good in the use of black to form shades, and black pigments are rarely used for this purpose, because they impart various untruthful hues, according to the colors with which they are mixed.

For this reason, and others which will appear later, the white and black disks of the color wheel are found to be better than any other single method for representing tones. In shades the black disk produces by far the best imitation of nature, and so does the white disk for more than half of the colors. But, as previously stated, there is an effect which has never been satisfactorily explained by which the tints of red and blue especially receive an unexpected violet gray tinge by rotation. Therefore in showing tints on the wheel it is well not to show very light tints of red or blue until the class has received some impressions of tones in other colors. In the orange and violet the tints seem to be practically perfect, and in the yellow and green not far from correct, but in the green they run a trifle toward the blue and in the yellow become a little gray or broken. But in the shades the black disk has done wonders for color instruction, particularly in making standard neutral grays which cannot be imitated by white and black pigments, and in determining the shades of yellow, as has been explained. See Page 36.

Therefore, after having shown actual tints and shades with the folded models, and perhaps the other materials suggested, place a colored disk combined with a white disk on the wheel, and in front of them a smaller colored disk of the same color as the larger one for comparison, and by changing the relative proportions show various tints. Then substitute a black disk for the white and show shades. If, for example, orange is taken, all proportions of both tints and shades may be shown very truthfully, the deeper shades being very rich browns. Having in this way impressed on the children the terms tints and shades, give them the paper tablets, Selection No. 2, in the deepest tints and the lightest shades, reserving the lightest tints and deepest shades found in Selection No. 4 for later use.

Let each member of the class lay the spectrum in the normal colors and then select the six tints corresponding to the six standards. When all of them think they have done this, tell them to choose the corresponding shades. If a number fail in the attempt it may be well to set up three sizes of disks on the color wheel in shade, standard and tint of red. In showing a tint of red with the disks it is not a good plan to make a tint lighter than R. 95, W. 5, which is about R. T. 1. If the wheel is not available samples of papers may be held up in the three tones so that the class can get the correct idea. There is no best method of reaching all pupils in any class, but in some way at this point in color education every pupil ought to acquire such knowledge of the subject as to be able to select at least the six standard scales in three tones, and this should be practically accomplished before much time is devoted to the consideration of such materials as flowers, fabrics and miscellaneous papers, because until the child understands both hues and tones he can do nothing in either analyzing or naming colors.

As soon as these six scales are familiar to the pupil the selecting of various objects and placing them in general families may be very valuable work, but until that time the classification of colors cannot be carried out very accurately, or at best the families will be very likely to include some uncles, and cousins and aunts, and yet, on the other hand, if even the distant relatives are recognized in preference to strangers the choice will give evidence of a sympathetic feeling for color relations, favorable to future progress and indicating something of the natural color sense of the child.

If such occupations as paper cutting and pasting, or weaving of mats have a place in the school, combinations in two or three tones of the six standards can now be made. At this stage names are of little importance, but they will come in play early, as it is natural to give names to everything, and as soon as the child knows the definite names which belong to colors they will be used.

Neutral Grays.

Immediately following the first idea of tints and shades or tones, the grays should have attention, because in the occupations with papers they will play an important part. For this purpose white, black and the neutral gray papers are included in Selection No. 2 of the paper tablets and should be made familiar to the children while the tints and shades are being studied. The suggestion that a neutral gray is a tint of black or a shade of white may or may not aid a child to better understand the relation of the neutral grays to the color chart, but it is a thought worthy of the attention of the teacher, as expressing a fact important in the consideration of color impressions. This gray may also be illustrated on the wheel by the union of white and black disks, and should be early presented in this way, because this is the only means by which we can secure standards for pigmentary neutral grays, and the fact that this special and peculiar gray is so important in all color investigation furnishes sufficient argument for making it prominent before the other grays.

Even at this early period in his color education a child may be shown that white in shadow is a gray, and the fact that it is a neutral gray is not essential to him, as he has no knowledge of any other gray and probably it may not be desirable to call attention to the various classes of grays until after the broken colors have been studied. A sheet of white card or heavy paper may serve to show that white in shade or shadow is a gray.

For this experiment fold the card or paper very sharply and hold it with the folded edge vertical and projecting toward the class, and in such a position relative to the windows that half of the paper is in very full light and the other in shadow.

A comparison of neutral gray paper No. 1 with a true shade of white or white in shadow, as explained on Page 36, will serve to connect the gray papers with the shades of white. After the idea of tones is made clear to the children, so that they can readily form the six standard scales in three tones, the completing of the Chart of Spectrum Scales in three tones will be merely a matter of drill, as no new principles are involved.

When the pupils can lay the Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales in three tones correctly, the thoughtful teacher will naturally ask herself what is the next logical step, and it may at first seem as though the completion of the chart in five tones ought to immediately follow. But it is very desirable that the pupils begin as early as possible to make a practical application of their knowledge of colors to the familiar objects around them; and it is evident that before any very accurate comparison of miscellaneous colors can be intelligently undertaken the child should be able to recognize the effect of mixing gray with a color, in distinction from the pure tints and shades of that color.

Explanation of Broken Colors.

Very few of the common colors seen in fabrics and house furnishings are either full pure colors or their tints and shades, but nearly all are broken colors. Therefore it seems desirable to introduce the study of broken colors, before considering the extreme tones of the pure colors as represented in tints and shades No. 2 in the Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales in five tones.

This order of presentation seems specially advisable, because the distinguishing of the extreme tones where the color is lost to so great a degree is more difficult than anything connected with the subject of broken colors. Therefore at this point paper tablets, Selection No. 3 are introduced. From this collection of tablets when properly arranged a Chart of Broken Spectrum Scales of twelve colors in three tones may be made, and in addition there are tablets illustrating the several classes of grays other than neutral grays.

The first result desired is a definite distinction in the mind of each pupil between a broken color and any tint or shade of the same color. In order that the explanation of this distinction shall be intelligently comprehended each child must have such a clear idea of the meaning of the terms "tints" and "shades" that he shall not fail to readily understand any statement regarding them because of confusion as to the definite meaning of these terms. The child should know clearly that a "tint" is a color in a strong light or mixed with white either in pigments or disks, while a "shade" is a color in shade or shadow, i.e. with less than the normal illumination, or mixed with black. When this has been fixed in the mind of a pupil, and he has also been shown that neutral gray, the only gray he has learned anything of, is the result of the combination of white and black, it will not be difficult for him to see that a broken color is produced by the mixture of both white and black with the pure color. Much later it will be possible for him to think of a broken color as a tint thrown into a shade or shadow, as may be observed by casting a strong shade or shadow on to a piece of colored paper in some one of the tints of the spectrum scales.

The color wheel and tops furnish the simplest and most effective means for the presentation of broken colors, because they automatically analyze every color shown, so that the pupil sees for himself just what has been done.

An Exercise in Broken Colors.

After having refreshed the minds of the class as to tints and shades and grays by a brief restatement of the conditions involved in these terms, the idea of broken colors may be shown with disks on the color wheel or top. For this experiment place on the spindle, for example, a combination of orange, white and black disks, and in front of these disks put combined orange and black disks of smaller size. Make the proportions of the larger disks, O. 15, W. 4, N. 81, and the smaller, O. 26, N. 74. In rotation the larger ring will show a dark broken orange and the inner one a dark shade of orange, and the difference in quality will be readily seen and felt. The effect is more valuable as a lesson if the tones of the two are nearly equal, although this is not necessary.

A very much lighter pair of colors is secured by using the following formulas, O. 43, W. 26, N. 31, and O. 77, W. 23.

Both these experiments may be made with the primary color wheel or color top. If the High School Color Wheel is in use so that the four rings of color can be shown at one time, the two larger rings may show two tones of broken color and the smaller rings a tint and shade of pure color.

In the use of tops two may be spun at once as near together as possible, the two broken tones on one top and the tint and shade on another.

In green similar experiments may be tried, with the following formulas:—

G. 20, W. 6, N. 74.

G. 36, W. 13, N. 51.

G. 34, N. 66.

G. 82, W. 18.

Practically the same methods may be adopted in the study of broken colors as were employed with the pure colors.

The paper tablets contained in Selection No. 3, comprising broken colors and grays, will now come into use to accompany experiments with disks in broken colors. The tablets in the broken spectrum colors number thirty-six, comprising twelve scales of three tones each, thus producing but one intermediate hue between each two standards, instead of two, as in the chart of pure colors.

Exercises in selection and arrangement of these tablets to form a chart may be employed to familiarize the pupils with the new kind of colors. The colors are not so pronounced as in the pure scales, and for this reason the arranging may be more difficult, but the smaller number of hues simplifies it somewhat, so that, with the better-trained color perception which the child will have acquired at this stage, no greater effort will be required than in the earlier lessons.

When the Chart of Broken Scales can be laid with reasonable accuracy by the majority of the class the two charts as far as studied, each in three tones, may be laid on the desk at the same time for comparison and thus the difference in quality or character emphasized.

All kinds of materials may now be considered and classified, and great interest inspired in the subject generally. Flowers, autumn leaves, dress goods and anything with color can be studied and the colors analyzed. Before the study of broken colors was taken up some few flowers could be quite accurately matched with the disks and analyzed, but now very many more of the flowers and plants as well as other material can be accurately analyzed and a definite nomenclature given to each sample.

Selection No. 3 of tablets contains, in addition to the twelve scales of broken colors, six colored grays, which must at some stage be considered in connection with gray colors or broken colors, to which they are closely related. As has already been stated, there is a point where by the continued addition of gray to a color, the color is so far obscured that its identity is practically lost and the result becomes a colored gray.

Although the line between gray colors and colored grays cannot be definitely drawn there are so many grades visible beyond the point where the exact color used with the gray can be determined, that the term "colored gray," which covers the three classes, warm, cool and green grays, is convenient for common use.

It is very desirable that a distinction be observed between the terms "colored grays" and "gray colors," and therefore broken colors may be a better term to apply to the gray colors because a distinction is thus more strongly emphasized between these two classes of colors.

The following table furnishes formulas from which the colors of the Chart of Broken Spectrum Scales may be very nearly imitated on the High School Color Wheel. Each scale should be shown by the three smaller sets of disks, namely, the smallest for light tone, next size for standard or medium, and the third size for darkest tone.

This list of disk combinations is furnished here for the convenience of teachers who may have occasion to illustrate the compositions of the various classes of colors comprised in the Chart of Broken Spectrum Scales, which covers the entire range of the æsthetic colors and from which by modifications every subdued color in material substances can be analyzed and definitely named.

Owing to the color usually found on the interior of a school-room and the lack of pure white light from outside it is not probable that these proportions will exactly match the papers, but the formulas will enable the teacher to approximate the color, and then the more accurate match in conformity to the conditions in each case may be secured by making changes in accordance with suggestions from a majority of the class, an exercise which will afford valuable practice for the pupils.

Formulas for a Chart of Broken Spectrum Scales.

LIGHT. MEDIUM. DARK

RED

R. 68,W. 18,N. 14. R. 59,W. 5,N. 35. R. 22½,W. 5,N. 72½.

ORANGE RED

R. 51,O. 17½,W. 23,N. 8½. R. 47,O. 16, W. 8½,N. 28½. R. 15,O. 7½,W. 7½,N. 70.

ORANGE

O. 43,W. 22½,N. 24½. O. 34½,W. 10,N. 55. O. 15,W. 5,N. 79½.

YELLOW ORANGE

O. 23,Y. 15,W. 27,N. 35. O. 24½,Y. 17½,W. 15,N. 43. O. 10,Y. 4½,W. 6,N. 79½.

YELLOW

Y. 34,W. 30½,N. 35½. Y. 24,W. 12½,N. 63½. Y. 12½,W. 5,N. 82½.

GREEN YELLOW

Y. 24,G. 13,W. 28,N. 35. O. 24½,G. 10,W. 17,N. 48. Y. 11,G. 13,W. 10,N. 66.

GREEN

G. 16,W. 9,N. 75. G. 34,W. 19,N. 49. G. 23,W. 41,N. 36.

BLUE GREEN

G. 8½,B. 7½,W. 7,N. 77. G. 22,B. 18,W. 12,N. 48. G. 24,B. 25,W. 23,N. 28.

BLUE

B. 22½,W. 6,N. 71½. B. 38,W. 13,N. 49. B. 36,W. 29,N. 35.

BLUE VIOLET

B .13,V. 9½,W. 6½,N. 71. B. 13,V. 25,W. 15,N. 47. B. 20,V. 15,W. 29,N. 39.

VIOLET

V. 20,W. 13,N. 67. V. 51,W. 24,N. 25. V. 61W. 32,N. 7.

RED VIOLET

R. 17,V. 10,W. 5,N. 68. R 16½,V. 45,W. 13,N. 25½. R. 23,V. 40,W. 26,N. 11.

In preparing the papers for the Chart of Broken Spectrum Colors the selection of the tones of the several colors has been made in accordance with the æsthetic color feeling of those to whom the matter was intrusted, but the hues of the colors are based on the standards of the pure spectrum colors.

If these colors are considered independently of their relation to a general system of color education, it may seem that a stronger and purer line of colors would be more beautiful; but the more broken or subdued colors have been chosen after very careful consideration, because they are intended for elementary instruction and therefore should be so far removed from the pure color scales as to impress themselves on the minds of the children as a distinct and representative class of colors. When the color sense of the pupils has been sufficiently cultivated to observe smaller distinctions, a variety of color scales much less broken may be shown with the disks.

Different selections for a score of charts could be made, all beautiful and representing broken colors, but after much consideration these thirty-six were selected from a very large number of hand-painted samples made for the purpose, as furnishing a sufficient number of typical broken colors for elementary color instruction, and in such hues and tones as to form a harmonious chart for comparison with the Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales.

Certain "Color Puzzles."

When the children have advanced far enough to understand the analysis of a color, i.e., to correctly name a color, exercises which may be called color puzzles can be introduced from time to time with great interest and profit.

The idea is simply to suddenly show to the class a series of disks in rapid rotation and ask them to guess what colors it is composed of, i.e., what the definite name of the color is.

The following is a suggestion for this exercise, supposing that a broken green yellow is to be shown:—

Select a green, a yellow, a white and a black disk of medium size and combine them as follows: Y.20, G.10, W.10, N.60. Then, having previously removed the nut from the spindle of the wheel and laid it in a convenient place, take the combined disks and lay on the top of them any other disk of a larger size, with the center holes of all corresponding with each other and place all these disks on the spindle of the wheel with the larger disk still covering the face of the others. Having previously furnished an assistant with a sheet of cardboard of sufficient size to conceal the disks from the class have it held in front of the wheel while the disk which conceals the combination is removed, the nut screwed to place and the disks put into rapid rotation; then order the card taken away and ask the class what color they see, still continuing the rotation.

The correct answer should be broken green-yellow, and not a shade of green-yellow, a broken yellow-green, a tint of yellow or a yellow shade; for there is but one true name and that should be stated. Definite expressions of color are as possible as the terms used regarding other scientific subjects, and should be encouraged.

Much interest can be inspired and valuable instruction imparted to the children by experiments with the color wheel, but whenever color analysis is the object in view, if disks of more than one of the standard colors are used in the same combination they must be of colors adjacent to each other in the spectrum.

For example, if a blue and a yellow disk are united and placed in rotation the result may be a blue gray, a yellow gray, or perhaps very nearly a neutral gray, because blue and yellow are so nearly complementary to each other. But a nomenclature of the resulting color effect expressed in terms of blue and yellow is not of practical value, because it is evident that in the analysis of a gray-blue, yellow has no logical place. If in an attempt to match a color which seems to be a broken blue, something else besides the blue, white and black is required, it must be either green or violet, i.e., one of the two standard colors adjacent to the blue in the spectrum. In other words, every color in nature is a spectrum color, i.e., either a pure spectrum color, a tint or a shade of a spectrum color, or a broken spectrum color. Hence every color can be matched, and therefore analyzed by the combination of one disk of a standard color with a white disk, a black disk or both, or else by two adjacent spectrum standards with white and black or both.

There are many combinations of disks outside the limitations above named which are valuable and interesting in color investigation when not used for simple analysis, but if they are presented as pleasing experiments before the pupils can understand their logical relation to the subject of color education, the result may be entirely misleading rather than instructive.

In making experiments in broken colors with the wheel the most satisfactory results are secured in orange, violet, green and yellow, while the red is fairly good and the blue less satisfactory than the others because of the slight effect of gray or violet which comes into the lighter tones by rotation, to which reference has already been made.

As explained on Page 54, the so-called tertiary colors, russets, citrines and olives were formerly supposed to be classes of peculiar colors to which these names were given. The fact that these are all broken spectrum colors was first demonstrated by the use of the color wheel and they are now quite generally accepted as such by those who have given heed to modern methods of color instruction.

As already shown the disks have also seemed to correctly define the several scales of colors, so that in contrast to the color charts of a dozen years ago a distinction is clearly drawn between the colors in the yellow and the orange scales, or even between the yellow-orange and the orange-yellow scales, so accurately do the disks determine the hue of a color.

When the pupils have progressed so far that they can arrange the paper tablets to form the Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales in three tones and also the Chart of Broken Scales, they will be prepared to intelligently begin the use of papers in cutting and pasting designs in the several classes of harmonies, but before most effective results can be produced the lightest tints and deepest shades of the full chart of pure scales in five tones must be considered.

Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales Completed.

The entire mastery of these extreme tones will be quite difficult because they are so far removed from the standards, and the children can hardly be expected to recognize and name them when seen separately. If a pupil is able to correctly arrange them in connection with the other tones of the chart, his accomplishment will show a high grade of color perception. But these extreme tones are introduced because their use in the more advanced work of paper cutting and pasting produces stronger and more beautiful harmonies and a higher degree of color training than would result were the tints and shades nearer the standards in tone.

No detailed rehearsal of the lessons for this work is necessary to enable a teacher who has pursued the course of instruction thus far to complete it in a logical way, and relatively little time will be required by the pupils to become sufficiently familiar with these tones for practical purposes, because of their more acute color perception which will be developed at this period.

The Work of Cutting and Pasting.

In the study of color the work of cutting and pasting designs in educational colored papers affords the earliest and best practical expression of the color feeling which has been acquired and stimulates the further development of color perception. The order in which the use of these papers can be most profitably taken up in the occupations of cutting and pasting may be determined by a careful consideration of the subject of harmonies as explained quite fully in the foregoing section entitled "Practical Experiments," Pages 67 to 73.

The first in order is Contrasted Harmony, in which cut papers in one color may be mounted on a ground of some passive color as white or gray. In selecting the gray, analogy is usually preferable to contrast, while neutral gray is fairly safe for all colors. According to this suggestion the warm grays may be used with the warm colors and the cool grays with the cool colors, and in a majority of the cases the lightest tone of gray is preferable.

Without question Dominant Harmonies or the arrangement in families are the most profitable and safe for early practice. In this class a light tint may be used for the background on which to mount any of the other tones of the same scale. Beyond these two classes of harmonies the order of presentation must be determined by the teacher. If the complementary is attempted with simple geometrical forms a light tint may most safely be selected for a background in the least aggressive of the two colors and the design or pasted forms in some of the complementary tones other than the normal color. Do not attempt to combine full complementary colors in elementary work.

The Analogous Harmony may be used in simple designs with beautiful effects when judicious selections are made, but owing to the latitude necessarily involved in the definition of this class of combinations the children cannot very early be trusted to make their own selections.

It is evident that nothing can be attempted in the Perfected Harmonies in any of the ready-cut forms, but beautiful results can be produced in this class with well-drawn and accurately cut ornamental designs in colored papers, which may even surpass in strength and beauty any effects which can be produced in water colors such as can be used by the children.

For earliest practice in making designs in colored papers the ready cut forms of the kindergarten, technically called "parquetry papers" are very convenient and may be procured either with or without gum on the back. These are prepared in various geometrical forms based on the one-inch standard, among which the most useful for pasting decorative designs are the circle, half-circle, square, half-square and equilateral triangle. Where models and tablets are used in form study the tablets may serve as patterns from which the children can mark out the papers which they can then cut for themselves, and thus the oval and ellipse may be added to the forms, and also practice in accurate cutting secured.

In the use of tablets as patterns the outlines should be made on the backside of the paper, by holding the tablet in place with one finger and working carefully around it with a well-pointed pencil. The marking to the pattern and cutting to the line provides valuable elementary practice in manual training. As it is the prime object of these papers to treat of color no attempt is here made to give directions for designing units of ornament or for folding and cutting designs. All such exercises furnish the best possible practice in both designing and manual work, but they belong more directly to the department of drawing and are fully treated in the hand books explaining modern systems of drawing. We offer here a number of simple arrangements of such forms as may be found in ready-cut papers or may be marked from the form study tablets as before mentioned, with the addition of a few other figures which involve some very simple designs for free-hand cutting.

A Variety of Designs.

The accompanying illustrations show a number of simple arrangements of such forms as are found in ready-cut papers or may be marked from the form study tablets already mentioned, with the addition of a few other figures which include some very simple forms requiring free-hand cutting. Suggestions for more elaborate designs and specific directions for paper cutting can be found in elementary books treating of decorative drawing and those devoted solely to paper cutting.

Fig. 17. Fig. 18.

Fig. 19. Fig. 20.

Figs. 17 to 25 show arrangements of one-inch kindergarten parquetry papers in one color, used as units to form border designs in contrasted harmony on a white or a gray ground, in all of which there is repetition of form as well as color. A narrow strip of paper in the same color as the units may be used at top and bottom to finish the design.

Fig. 21. Fig. 22.

Fig. 23. Fig. 24.

Fig. 25. Fig. 26.

Figs. 26 to 37 show border designs, each of which is made with one form in two colors or tones in alternation.

Fig. 27. Fig. 28.

Fig. 29. Fig. 30.

Fig. 31. Fig. 32.

Fig. 33. Fig. 34.

Fig. 35. Fig. 36.

Fig. 37.

Figs. 38 and 39 show border designs in one color, with forms marked from the elliptical and oval tablets and cut by hand. In Fig. 39 borders are made by combining half-squares which may be used with or without narrow strips of the same color.

Fig. 38.

Fig. 39.

Figs. 40 and 41 are made by using one form with alternation of tone and of position. Fig. 41 is derived from Fig. 40 by laying the dark squares with the corners in contact and placing the light squares over them.

Fig. 42 shows alternation of form and color or tone, which is also the scheme employed in Fig. 43 in a design less simple with the addition of the half-circles.

Figs. 44 and 45 show two other simple and pleasing designs with alternation of both form and tone or color.

Figs. 46, 47, 48, and 49 comprise designs in two forms and two tones or colors, in which some hand cutting is necessary on the part of the pupils.

Fig. 40. Fig. 41.

Fig. 42. Fig. 43.

Fig. 44. Fig. 45.

Fig. 46.

Fig. 47.

Fig. 48.

Figs. 50 to 54 are rosettes made from parquetry papers with the addition of a small circle or square at the center cut by hand.

Fig. 49.

Figs. 55 to 60 are principally hand-cut forms, and 61, 62 and 63 show surface patterns made from parquetry squares and half-squares.

Fig. 50. Fig. 51. Fig. 52. Fig. 53.

Fig. 54. Fig. 55. Fig. 56.

Fig. 57. Fig. 58.

Fig. 59. Fig. 60.

Fig. 61. Fig. 62. Fig. 63.

Colored papers can be used more advantageously in decorative designs than in imitations of natural objects, for which water colors are much better suited, but some copies of natural flowers and autumn leaves have been made in colored papers which were exceedingly close imitations of water color paintings when seen at a little distance, rivaling in the case of the autumn leaves the best water color effects in brilliancy and depth of color.

There need be no definite rules governing the continuation of color study from this point by a teacher who is interested in the subject and has tried the experiments suggested in the preceding pages. The work will become very interesting at this stage, because now all sorts of material may be introduced for analysis and classification and from this point forward, to the highest achievements of the artist, nature will furnish abundant stimulus to color thought and investigation, if the foundation has been laid according to the true theory of color perception which it is the object of this system to explain.

Analysis of Color Materials.

A valuable and interesting phase of color investigation and color training may be found in the analysis and naming of the natural colors found in flowers, minerals and the plumage of birds. The necessity for a definite and adequate nomenclature which naturalists experience in this department of education has been emphasized by the publication within a few years of a book entitled "A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists, and a Compendium of useful knowledge for Ornithologists."

This book has been prepared with great care by Robert Ridgway of the United States National Museum, and contains a large number of hand-painted plates showing nearly two hundred colors which represent selections from three hundred and fifty names of colors which are given in English, Latin, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Norwegian or Danish. [D]

The fact that a book involving so much technical knowledge and the expenditure of so much time and money was deemed justifiable is an evidence of the great need for some definite nomenclature.

In the introduction the author says: "Undoubtedly one of the chief desiderata of naturalists, both professional and amateur, is a means of identifying the various shades of colors named in descriptions, and of being able to determine exactly what name to apply to a particular tint which it is desired to designate in an original description. No modern work of this character it appears, is extant,—the latest publication of its kind which the author has been able to consult being Syme's edition of 'Werner's Nomenclature of Colors,' published in Edinburgh in 1821. It is found, however, that in Syme's 'nomenclature' that the colors have become so modified by time, that in very few cases do they correspond with the tints they were intended to represent."

The following are the opening sentences of the preface: "The want of a nomenclature of colors adapted particularly to the use of naturalists has ever been more or less an obstacle to the study of Nature; and although there have been many works published on the subject of color, they either pertain exclusively to the purely scientific or technical aspects of the case or to the manufacturing industries, or are otherwise unsuited to the special purposes of the zoologist, the botanist and the mineralogist."

In the same book the Chapter on Principles of Color opens with the following sentences: "The popular nomenclature of colors has of late years, especially since the introduction of aniline dyes and pigments, become involved in almost chaotic confusion through the coinage of a multitude of new names, many of them synonymous, and still more of them vague or variable in their meaning. These new names are far too numerous to be of any practical utility, even were each one identifiable with a particular fixed tint. Many of them are invented at the caprice of the dyer or manufacturer of fabrics, and are as capricious in their meaning as in their origin; among them being such fanciful names as 'Zulu,' 'Crushed Strawberry,' 'Baby Blue,' 'Woodbine-berry,' 'Night Green,' etc., besides such nonsensical names as 'Ashes of Roses' and 'Elephant's Breath.'"

These extracts from this valuable and interesting book by an author of large experience are quoted here to emphasize the practical necessity for more definite color education based on analysis and nomenclature.

With the color wheel or color top, the colors of flowers and leaves as well as all other objects in nature and art may be analyzed and named, and the names definitely recorded in the terms of a nomenclature based on permanent standards.

The following list of flowers and leaves of plants and trees with their analyses in terms of our nomenclature is taken from a recently published paper entitled "On the Color Description of Flowers," by Prof. J. H. Pillsbury, to whom the writer is indebted for some of the earliest suggestions regarding the practical application of the scientific facts of color to color teaching, and also for valuable scientific work which he has done including the exact location of the six color standards in the solar spectrum by their wave lengths:—

"With these standards to work from, I undertook to determine the color analysis of certain of our common flowers. The following results, will, I think, be interesting to botanists. The numbers given indicate per cent. of color required to produce the hue of the flower:—

Common forsythia, F. viridissima: Pure spectrum yellow.

Fringed polygala, P. paucifolia: R. 48, V. 52.

Wistaria, W. frutescens, wings: R. 11, V. 89.

Wistaria, W. frutescens, standard: R. 9, V. 79, W. 12.

Flowering quince, Cydonia japonica: R. 95, V. 2, W. 3.

Wild cranesbill, Geranium maculatum: R. 28, V. 66, W. 6.

The variations of color in the early summer foliage is also interesting. The following analyses are for the upper side of fresh and well developed healthy leaves. It is not impossible that a little attention to these variations in the color of foliage on the part of artists would save us the annoyance of some of the abominable green which we so often see in the pictures of artists of good reputation:—

White oak: Y. 7. 5, G. 11 .5, N. 81.

Apple: Y. 5, G. 13, W. 2, N. 80.

Copper beech: R. 17, V. 2, N. 81.

Hemlock: Y. 2, G. 9, N. 89.

White pine: Y. 2. 5, G. 11, N. 86. 5.

White birch: Y. 5. 5, G. 11. 5, W. 1, N. 82.

Hornbeam: Y. 5. 5, G. 12. 5, N. 82.

Shagbark hickory: Y.4.5, G.9.5, N.86.

These analyses were made in a moderately strong diffused light with Maxwell disks of the standard hues referred to above."

These are but a few of the numerous flowers the colors of which may be perfectly imitated and consequently analyzed and named with the color wheel or the top. In fact for individual work in natural history the top is more convenient than the wheel and sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes, while it is a very fascinating occupation for child or adult.

In the use of disks for analyzing colors it must be remembered that every material color is some quality of some color in the spectrum circuit, and therefore may be matched with not more than two standard disks, either alone or with white or black or both. If more than two color disks, besides white and black, are used they will neutralize each other more or less, and a neutral gray or a gray and some spectrum color will be the result. For example, if yellow and blue in nearly equal parts are introduced in connection with red and orange, the yellow and blue being nearly complimentary to each other will produce practically a neutral gray, and the result will be the same as if only red, orange, white and black were used.

Fig. 64.

Owing to the recent advances in the art of dyeing there are some textile goods which are too intense in color to be exactly imitated by the disk standards, but this fact need not prevent a practical analysis of such colors, because by very slightly reducing with white the color to be examined the same color is retained, the modification making it, of course, somewhat lighter. Fig. 64, showing a small circle representing a disk of the material mounted on thick paper, illustrates this statement. Suppose we have a piece of rich brown cloth, so intense in color that when red, orange and black are combined in the proportions of R. 22, O. 16, N. 62, the material is still a little richer in color than can be made with the disks of the color wheel. If we introduce a small amount of white into the brown of the material we may hope to match it with the disks and this may be done by cutting a bit of fairly heavy white paper in the form shown in the diagram and loosening the nut of the color wheel slightly, after which we insert the point of the triangle under the nut so that when tightened the white paper may be held in front of the brown disk, as in the illustration. Trim the outer end even with the disk and then rotate. If the effect of the white is too great trim off a little from the side of the white paper to make it narrower, until a perfect match is secured.

The small disk in rotation is then of the same color but not quite so intense as before, or in other words, is a very deep tint of the color. In this way the Nomenclature can be recorded as follows: Brown 95, W. 5, = R. 22, O. 16, N. 62.

This result does not often occur, but the subject is noticed here in detail that no one may be in doubt when such cases do come to light, as they will sooner or later.

The aniline colors give some purples which are much more brilliant than either the violet or red which otherwise should by combination produce them, so that with these standards they cannot be made, but must be reduced with white, or possibly with white and black.

If a color wheel is not available many of these experiments may be tried on the color top, but not as satisfactorily, because of the accuracy necessary in cutting so small a disk in a woven material. In using the top for analysis of all ordinary colors, the best plan is lay the material on a table or other level surface and spin the top on it. If quite an accurate test is desired the cardboard disk of the top may be trimmed down to the size of the largest paper disk, so that there will be no intervening ring of light color to separate the color of the rotating disks from the material on which it is spun.

Practical applications of the color top are already being made, as for example, in the selection of house furnishings. For this purpose disks of the top are combined at home to produce the desired colors to match the wood finishings and papers or draperies in a partially completed room, the top being used as a guide in preliminary selections of additional materials from the stores.

If a number of colors are required it is convenient to use several combinations of disks, each set being slightly gummed together. In this way standards for various colors with a top spindle for rotation in the salesroom may be carried in a very small space.

The Bradley Colored Papers.

As every competent artisan must understand the use for which each implement is designed, in order to secure the best results with it, possibly a brief explanation of the principles on which the colors in the Bradley Educational Colored Papers are selected and classified may be of value. In the sample books of these colored papers there are four sections. The first section of the book, following the title leaf called "Pure Spectrum Scales" consists in part of the six standard colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet, with two intermediate hues between each two standards, which eighteen colors form the central vertical column in the Chart of Pure Spectrum Scales shown on Page 41.

In addition to these eighteen normal spectrum colors, there are two tints and two shades of each, thus producing eighteen spectrum scales of five tones, in which the normal colors as indicated in the central column aim to be the purest possible pigmentary expressions of the spectrum colors represented.

In determining the number of colors to adopt in the preparation of the papers enough have been selected to furnish types of all the colors in the spectrum, and also the hues between red and violet, but at the same time the number has been so restricted as to secure a reasonably simple nomenclature of the intermediate hues. A hue of a color is defined as the result of the admixture of that color with a smaller quantity of another color; thus a hue of red approaching the orange is an orange hue of red, or an orange-red. If a small amount of red is added to orange the result is a red hue of orange, or a red-orange.

Therefore in selecting two hues between each two standards, rather than a larger number, the simplest nomenclature possible is secured, and one in which no mental effort is necessary to recall the color indicated by each symbol. For example, we have four colors indicated as R, OR, RO, O; red, orange-red, red-orange, orange; or more extended, red, orange hue of red, red hue of orange, orange. Thus by using as symbols familiar terms, no effort of the memory is required to recall the color indicated by each symbol, as would necessarily be the case if there were a greater number of hues and therefore more arbitrary symbols.

The use of rotating color disks on the wheel and the top by which an infinite variety of intermediate hues can be made and accurately named by the pupils reduces the required number of papers to those types necessary for first primary work, and thus prepares the child for the use of pigments at an earlier age than would be possible without such color instruction.

The second section of the sample book contains white, black and grays as indicated on the separating fly leaf. In these the best pigmentary expression of black and white are furnished. In material colors as found in industrial products, there are various so-called blacks and whites. For black there are blue-black, green-black, and brown-black; and in white, cream-white and pearl-white. Cream-white is a yellow-white and pearl-white a blue-white. In fine white papers either blue, red or yellow is generally added to the pulp to counteract or cover up the gray tone of the natural material. The standard black here presented is the best possible pigmentary imitation of a very deep black hole, as for example, the projecting end of a large iron water or sewer pipe of considerable length buried in the ground, which is the blackest thing known.

The white is an imitation of new-fallen snow. Neither of these standards can be very nearly approached although we often hear of things as "white as snow" and as "black as night." In the same group and following the black and white are two examples each of the four kinds of grays: Green gray, warm gray, cool gray and neutral gray. A pure white in shadow is the true neutral gray and a perfect imitation of this is made by the rotation of combined black and white disks on the color wheel. If to the black and white disks we add a blue disk we have cool grays. With red, orange or yellow the warm grays are produced, while the use of a green disk gives green grays. In the papers two tones of each gray are furnished.

The papers found in the first two sections comprise all the colors necessary for earliest primary color instruction, and should become familiar to the children before explanation is made of the colors in the succeeding collections.

In the third section, designated "Broken Spectrum Scales" will be found a collection of gray colors or broken colors. As has before been stated, a broken color is a pure color mixed with a neutral gray. In the combination of pigmentary colors a tint of a color is the pure color mixed with white, a shade is the color mixed with black, and a broken color is a pure color mixed with both black and white, which is a neutral gray. Therefore if with red, for example, we mix a certain amount of a given neutral gray and call that the normal tone of a broken scale of red, for the tint in that scale we must mix with the standard red a lighter gray and for the shade a darker gray.

When a comparatively small quantity of neutral gray is combined with a pure color the result is a "gray color," as above described, because the color is quite definitely retained, but more or less modified by the gray. On the other hand, if a relatively small quantity of color is added to a neutral gray, the resulting color is properly called a "colored gray," because it is still a gray modified by color, and in this class we have warm grays, cool grays, etc., according to the color combined with the gray. The gray colors are quite generally termed "broken colors" and this seems a very useful practice, because it avoids the confusion of the somewhat similar terms "gray color" and "colored gray."

By reference to the Chart of Broken Spectrum Scales on Page 41 it will be seen that we have only twelve scales and but three tones in each scale, instead of eighteen scales and five tones, as in the pure scales, for which there is a good reason.

For educational purposes in the elementary grades, which is the only place where there is a legitimate use for colored papers, the steps in gradation of hue or tone must not be too short, and if the saturation or intensity of the normal colors in the several scales is reduced by adding gray, as in the broken colors, there is not the possibility for as many steps in either hues or tones without leaving those colors adjacent to each other too nearly alike. Therefore in the broken colors there are but thirty-six, instead of ninety, as in the pure scales.

The distinction between pure colors with tints and shades, and broken colors in various tones, should be made very plain to the children whenever the subject is brought to their notice, because it is a vital point in the classification of colors. Educationally this is one of the most objectionable features in the old red, yellow and blue theory of color composition, because no distinction is observed between pure and broken colors in classification. In the Bradley colored papers the distinction is made very decided for educational purposes, so that no one would for a moment tolerate the mixture of the normal colors from the pure scales with the normal colors from the broken scales in the formation of a spectrum.

This may be illustrated by a selection as follows: First lay in order the normal spectrum colors with the pure colors found in the first section of the sample book, thereby forming the central vertical column of Fig. 10. Then substitute for the orange, green and violet, those colors selected from the collection of broken colors, and the result will seem to render the operation absurd, but it is the same in principle as the results produced in the attempt to form a spectrum by the combination of three primary pigments, red, yellow and blue, because so produced the orange, green and violet, show by disk analysis from 54 to 80 per cent of black and white and are therefore as much broken as the corresponding colors in the papers of the broken scales, but not exactly the same in tone.

Engine Colored Papers.

Those papers which are termed "Engine Colored Papers" are so named from the process of manufacture as distinguished from "coated papers" which comprise the first three sections of the book. In coated papers a white paper is covered with a coating of colored pigment "fixed" with a small amount of white gum, gelatine or glue, and in this way the pure color of the pigment is obtained. In the engine colored papers the color is mixed with the paper pulp in the process of making the paper. In a paper mill the tub or vat in which the pulp is kept stirred up and perfectly mixed is called the engine, and hence this technical term has been applied to such papers as are colored in the pulp. In this class of papers both sides are alike, and for this reason in some of the folding exercises these papers are preferred, also because they are thinner and tougher. Heretofore, it has been impossible to obtain engine colored papers in "families" or scales, but in this assortment the numbers from one to six, furnish six scales of three tones each, comprising the normal tones with tints and shades. Following these from seven to sixteen are a collection of unclassified colors including grays which are much used. All these can be analyzed and classified by the color wheel. Black and white complete this class. It is impossible to make any close approximation to a black in this class of papers, as when they are compared with the coated blacks the result is a very gray black, or very dark gray. All the colors in these papers from No. 1 A to No. 13 are quite light broken spectrum colors, but less broken than the coated papers designated as broken spectrum colors.