Page:Elementary Color (IA gri c00033125012656167).djvu/55

 All such statements as heretofore made in any popular treatment of the subject are understood to mean that in a pigmentary imitation of a spectrum the secondaries as enumerated may be produced by the mixtures of the primary pigments, because pigmentary mixtures are the only combinations generally recognized.

This theory has also included the statement that the primaries are complementary to the secondaries in pairs, and that the combination of the secondaries in pairs may produce- a distinct class of colors called tertiaries.

It will be the aim of the following pages to demonstrate that in all this there is neither scientific or aesthetic truth nor educational value.

Experiments in mixing the three pigments, red, yellow and blue, to produce the secondaries, orange, green and violet, have been very carefully made with interesting and instructive results. All such experiments are valueless unless made with one accepted set of primaries for the three combinations, because it is self-evident that if we select a vermilion red which is very decidedly an orange reel, and choose for our yellow one of the orange yellows, the mixture will more nearly approach a true orange than if a standard red and standard yellow are used. Also in making a violet, if we mix a carmine, which is a violet red, with a decidedly violet blue, of which there are many, the result will be a better violet than the combination of the standard reel and blue. So also in the mixing of blue and yellow to make green, a greenish yellow and a greenish blue will necessarily produce better results than the standards. Therefore, to test the matter fairly, the same pigments which are used to coat the standard red, yellow and blue papers have been combined so as to produce the best possible orange, green and violet, and these results when analyzed on the color wheel are as follows:—

The orange made by mixing standard red and yellow pig-