Color Value
Public-domain ebook
Color Value
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About this book
Color Value is a systematic treatise on the principles of interior decoration, written by C. R. Clifford (Chandler Robbins). The work opens with a concise statement that good design rests on the consistent relationship of light, color, form, proportion and dimensions, then proceeds to a detailed exposition of how light, described in terms of prismatic spectra and the ether‑based wave theory, governs the choice and behavior of color. From the definition of primary hues through the complexities of secondary, tertiary and quaternary shades, the author explains color harmony and contrast with numerous diagrams, proportional tables and practical examples, even extending the analysis to historic tile palettes. The text is firmly grounded in the scientific and technical knowledge of its era, emphasizing that successful decoration must obey these “immutable laws” rather than rely solely on historical precedent.
The voice is that of an early‑20th‑century educator, precise, didactic, and rich in technical terminology, reflecting the period’s confidence in scientific rationalism. Readers who enjoy methodical, almost laboratory‑style instruction, architects, designers, art students, or anyone fascinated by the intersection of optics and aesthetics, will find the book’s exhaustive color charts, proportional calculations, and analogies to music both illuminating and practically useful.
The opening · free to read
#light#
1. The white light of the sun is compounded of an almost innumerable number of color elements, as shown by the phenomena of the rainbow or by experimenting with the prism. (See ¶ 7.) When a ray of sunshine passes through a glass prism it is decomposed or separated, and if the prismatic colors are received upon a white screen you will find on the spectrum among the colors generated a pure blue, a pure red and a pure yellow. These are the primary colors, and it is necessary when thinking color to bear these prismatic colors in mind as standards.
2. Color is an internal sensation originating in the excitation of the optic nerve by a wave action which we call light.
3. The theory of light, the wave theory, is based upon the assumption that throughout all space there is an infinitely thin medium called ether. Scientists differ as to what this may be, but its movements constitute light, a reflection from a luminous body.
4. Everything which we see is visible because it either emits light, like a flame, or reflects light.
5. A piece of black cloth upon a white plate reflects but a small proportion of the light. The plate reflects a large proportion. A piece of black velvet reflects less light than black cloth and gives the effect of absolute blackness, or an empty and dark space.
6. In practical demonstrations the study of color will be confusing unless it is understood at the outstart that pure prismatic colors can seldom be found in manufactured pigments, hence any demonstration of the theory of color composition is usually unsatisfactory.
7. The theory which brings out of a ray of sunshine the disunited prismatic colors carries with it the deduction that before separation these colors constitute white light; but it must be manifest to even the superficial reader that such colors are mere spectrum colors--vision colors--and any amalgamation of material or pigment colors, so far from producing white, produces almost black.
8. The theory that red and yellow make orange, and that a red and blue make violet, is correct; but if one attempts to demonstrate the theory with pigments, one is confronted not only by the lack of standard manufactured colors but by impurities, adulterations and chemical reaction in the pigments. The adulteration may not be perceptible in one primary color, but it is manifest when that color is brought into action with another primary, for it is seldom that a pure secondary results.
#color Nomenclature--harmonies#
9. Color nomenclature includes primary, secondary and tertiary colors, and innumerable hues, shades and tints. All these colors bear relations to one another, either relations of analogy, or relations of contrast. (See ¶ 18 and ¶ 19.)
The Circle Diagram I shows the manner in which the various colors are formed. (See also Diagram III.)
The third circle shows how slate, citrine and russet are made. For instance, slate is one part of violet and one part of green. Hence, a tertiary color is made of equal parts of two secondaries.
The outer circle, buff, sage and plum, can be analyzed in the same way.
This Diagram I is arranged to show not only component parts of a color, but the parts that properly harmonize.
#contrasts#
10. In music it is an established fact that certain notes used in pleasing combination produce sounds we call harmonies. The moment that more than one note is struck, there is danger of discord, and when ten notes resound to the touch of the player, they must be the right notes, or they jar upon the sensibilities. In the use of color the same immutable law applies.
11. In Circle Diagram II the letters RV mean reddish violet, being a violet having more red than blue in its composition. BV means bluish violet, being a violet having more blue than red in its composition. BG means bluish green, being a green having more blue than yellow in its composition. YG means yellow green, being a green having more yellow than blue in its composition. YO means yellowish orange, being an orange having more yellow than red in its composition. RO means reddish orange, being an orange having more red than yellow in its composition. Thus we may advance from red to yellow by graduations almost imperceptible, by the addition of yellow, to a reddish orange, and so on gradually to orange, continuing on to yellowish orange, finally revealing pure yellow.
12. The contrasting color at any stage may be determined by proceeding in a direct line across the circle: Red has for its contrasting color green; hence, reddish orange would have for its contrasting color a bluish green, for the simple reason that if red contrasts with green and orange contrasts with blue, the color between the red and the orange would contrast with the color between the green and the blue. Let us determine the contrasting color for crimson. Crimson is simply a red slightly tinged with blue. If red contrasts with green, a shade a little to the left of red slightly tinged with blue would contrast with a shade a little to the right of green slightly tinged with yellow. In other words, crimson, RV, would contrast with yellowish green, YG. Determine at what point of the circle any color that you have in mind will come, and the contrasting color would be immediately opposite.
13. The harmony of analogy consists of the harmony of related colors or tones of one color. (See ¶ 17.)
14. The harmony of contrast consists of colors in no way related. As an example of the harmony of analogy, we would mention red and orange, because both of these colors have ingredients in common, red being one of the two component parts of orange. As an example of the harmony of contrast, we suggest red and green, because there is nothing in common between the two, red being a primary color, and green a secondary, composed of the other two primaries, yellow and blue. (See ¶ 17.)
15. Green is called the complement of red. The complement of blue would be orange, because orange is formed by combining the remaining primaries, red and yellow; and the complement of yellow would be violet, because violet is composed of blue and red, the other primaries.
16. In Diagram II we have arranged at opposite points the primaries 1, the secondaries 2, the tertiaries 3, the quaternaries 4.
But Diagram III goes further into the subject.
It is easy to understand the composition of secondaries, but it is not so easy to know the tertiaries and quaternaries. (See also Diagram I.)
#contrast Analogies#
17. Diagram III is of the utmost value to the colorist, illustrating not only the composition of color, but showing the origin of each secondary from the two primaries, the origin of each tertiary from two secondaries, and of each quaternary from two tertiaries. It shows by groupings the harmonies of analogy or related colors; also the harmonies of contrast: By moving on the board one color on one line to another color upon another line, like the moving of a knight in a game of chess, and confining the moves always to adjoining lines, like yellow to violet, violet to citrine, citrine to plum, plum to brown. Yellow and violet are true contrasts, the one color having nothing in common with the other. The citrine and the plum, however, are approximate contrasts. For greater convenience, we have numbered the contrasting colors A's and B's. Absolute contrast is where the two colors have nothing in common. For composition purposes, however, citrine and violet may be considered contrasts, or correctly speaking, contrast analogies. (See ¶ 19.)
18. A harmony of contrast means the utilization of a primary color with its complementary, or a color in conjunction with another color in no degree related: a primary with a secondary. But when we soften these contrasting colors by the addition of white we have in the lighter tints a scale of chroma that is a form of analogy.
19. All combinations of secondary and tertiary colors, while apparently harmonies of contrast (the tertiary being made by the composition of two secondaries), constitute, in fact, contrast analogies, because by analysis we find that all tertiaries possess color components occurring in the apparently contrasting secondaries. (See Diagram III.)
20. The harmony of contrast, literally, can only occur in the pure primary colors juxtaposed to the pure secondary colors, for in no case does the color formed by the combination of the two primaries have anything in common with the third primary; while a tertiary composed of two secondaries invariably has qualities possessed by the third secondary.
21. In a room which is small or dark, the light tints in harmonies of analogy are advisable.
#proportions#
22. In the use of one color with another of contrasting character the question frequently arises, what proportion of each should be used to obtain the best effect? Illustrative color books show usually samples of color of the same size, leading one unconsciously to the error that contrasting colors should occupy the same surface dimensions.
23. In every room there must be a prevailing or dominant color, and the use of a contrasting color must be limited to proportions which give simply a pleasing emphasis. Let us assume that a room has a deep frieze pronouncedly green. To treat the rest of the wall in red of a direct contrast would be ineffective.
24. If a rule can be applied we would say that no strong normal color should be used in large surfaces. If we were dealing with pigments we would say that if one-sixth of a side-wall is devoted to a frieze in green, the balance of the wall space should be treated with the same amount of red, mixed with the same amount of gray.
25. For a room that is small and well lighted the fresh tints are not as desirable as the gray shades or tertiaries in conjunction with secondaries.
#color in Large or Small Rooms#
26. For a large room well lighted, yellow, red and orange in delicate shades are not as desirable as orange, violet and russet in light shades. This rule, however, may be reversed for a large room that is dimly lighted.
A superabundance of light gives an uncomfortable glare.
27. One may mechanically obtain harmony of analogy in proper proportions for the treatment of a room or a design by following the guidance of Diagram I. It will be noted in this diagram that the inner circle is blue, red and yellow, the primary colors.
The second circle is composed of the secondaries; the third circle, the tertiaries, and the outer circle, the quaternaries.
There is a nice distinction in the combination of primaries for the formation of secondaries, and exact proportions are quite necessary.
An orange, for instance, would be off shade if it did not consist of half red and half yellow, but in the making of the quaternaries, which are, at best, gray shades, exact proportions are not necessary.
Nevertheless, in Diagram I we have observed exact proportions in order to make our demonstration clear.
The harmony of analogy is the combination of colors related, but the relationship must be displayed in proportions consistent with the origin of each and every color used.
Let us assume that the prevailing note in a room, in either the side-wall or floor, is sage.
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