Page:A color notation (Munsell).djvu/51

 they unite in YR$7$, which is two steps of the value scale above the middle; while Y$6$ and R$2$ make YR$4$, which is one step below the middle. Charts prepared with this system show each of these colors and their mixture with exactness.

(72) The foregoing mixtures of dark reds and light yellows are typical of the union of light and dark values of any neighboring hues, such as yellow and green, green and blue, blue and purple, or purple and red. Next let us think of the result of mixing different values in’ opposite hues; as, for instance, YR$7$ and B$3$ (Fig. 11). To this combination the color sphere gives a ready answer; for the middle of a straight line through the sphere, and joining them, coincides with the neutral centre, showing that they balance in neutral gray. This is also true of any opposite pair of surface hues where 3 the values are equally removed from the equator.

(73) Suppose we substitute familiar flowers for the notation, then YR$7$ becomes the buttercup, and B$3$ is the wild violet. But, in comparing the two, the eye is more stimulated by the buttercup than by the violet, not alone because it is lighter, but because it is stronger in chroma; that is, farther away from the neutral axis of the sphere, and in fact out beyond its surface, as shown in Fig. 11.

The head of a pin stuck in toward the axis on the 7th level of YR may represent the 9th step in the scale of chroma, such as the buttercup, while the “modest” violet with a chroma of only 4, is shown by its position to be nearer the neutral axis than the brilliant buttercup by five steps of chroma. This is the third dimension of color, and must be included in our notation