How to mix colors

This chapter is intended for those who have never had any experience whatever in the use of colors, and is therefore devoted to the simplest elementary instruction. The first things to be learned are the names and properties of the different colors and their combinations. The three primary colors are blue, red, and yellow. Blue and yellow mixed together make green, while blue and red together make purple.

It is excellent practice for the beginner to make combinations of the different colors on his box, so as to find out how to use them. For example: take a piece of academy board, and mark it off into squares, measuring two inches each way, ruling the lines evenly with a lead-pencil or pen and ink. Begin with the crude colors, taking antwerp blue, light cadmium, and white. See how many different shades of green can be produced with these colors, filling one square with each shade. Next, combine madder lake, cobalt blue, and white, and see how many shades of purple and violet can be made. A little practice of this kind with the different colors will soon familiarize the student with their general properties, but this is only the first step. These combinations of color, though brilliant and pretty, are perfectly crude, and will appear to lack something, even to the untrained eye.  That something is what is known to artists as "quality," and  expresses exactly the  difference between the work of those who under- stand the use of colors and those who do not.

This "quality" is obtained by mixing other qualifying colors with the crude combinations already mentioned. For example: the greens used by artists in representing trees, foliage, or other natural objects, are not made simply with blue and yellow, but by combining other colors with these until the desired tone is reached. To practice such combinations, rule the squares as before, devoting one square to each tone, and mix antwerp blue, light cadmium, and white ; then add vermilion and ivory black to the crude color. The greens will instantly soften and change their character, losing their hard, crude, raw effects. In this way the colors are mixed for painting.  By substituting softer blues or richer reds still different shades of green are produced, but one thing must always be remembered, that no color is ever used entirely alone, but is always combined with others, which have a qualifying effect.

A little ivory black may safely be used with every thing, and white is almost always necessary, even though sometimes in very small quantities. Experiments in this way may be made with all the colors in the box, adding a little ivory black and white in all cases, and also any other colors which may sug- gest themselves. A very good way of learning how to combine colors readily is to take different pieces of plain stuff, such as cashmere, flannel, chintz, and putting it beside the easel, endeavor to copy exactly the shade of the cloth, mixing the different colors together until the right tone is obtained.