2l8 
liERAMlC STUDIO 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
Hugo l''roelich 
VERYTHING about us is seen as 
some color shape. It may be some 
delicate tint or some subtle shade 
but it is always color, ^^■ithout 
going into the scientific analj^sis of 
what color is, we may accept the 
artist's division which is the onlj^ 
one that interests us, namety the 
division of red, yellow, and blue 
as the primary colors. They are 
called primaries because all possible color combinations are 
made by mixing certain proportions of any two or three of the 
primaries. Thus by mixing Y and R we get O., Y and B 
produces G while B and R yield V. In the center of the circles 
is a smaller circle marked grey. As everyone knows, if a cer- 
tain proportion of R, Y, and B is mixed, grey must be the result. 
In No. 2 where six colors and a central grey are shown a further 
fact is brought out, namely, that if we take any color in this 
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■)1o.III 
circle and mix it with the color directly opposite, across the 
circle, a grey will result. For instance Y and V=Grey, G and 
R=Gre3^ and O and B^Gre3^ 
These three couples are called complementaries, because 
the use of a color near its complementary in a design or picture 
tends to intensify both. In circle No. 3 twelve colors are shown 
Y and 0=Y.O., O and R==R.O., etc. If the colors were 
actually painted in their full intensity, we would see that Y is 
the lightest, while V is the darkest, and the other colors range 
from light to dark between the two. This is better expressed 
in No. 4 where the warm colors are placed on the left side of 
the value scale (see Oct. number K. S., page 128 for value 
scale) and the cold colors on the right side. By this scale we 
see that Y is of the same value as HL; YO and YG^L; O and 
G=LL; RO and BG=M; R and B— HD; RV and BV=D; 
V=LD. 
But in nature we find the full intensity of colors a small 
proportion indeed as compared with the grey colors, so that it 
becomes necessary to add another scale as in No. 5 showing 
the relation of greyed colors to both the \'alue and the Full 
Intensity Scales. 
And lastly we know that any color may haAe a range from 
HL to LD, as red for instance in No. 6 is at its full intensity 
at HD yet it has tints of red up to HL, and shades of red 
down to LD. Yellow green has its full intensity at L. Hence 
it has only one tint and five shades according to our division. 
(For this color arrangement the writer is indebted to Dr. 
Denman Ross of Harvard University.) 
The question that nearly every reader will ask, namely, 
what is the meaning of all these scales? How will they help in 
the color study? In themselves these scales are not art anj^ 
more than the musical scale of eight notes, with cleffs, bars, 
measures, etc., is music. But they form an instrument 
whose use can be the means of a better understanding of color 
and a placing of the color notes, together with a nomenclature 
that approximates a universal color idea. For instance, if a 
design is to be done in black, green and grej^ violet, I may get 
as a result the widest range of blacks, greens, and violets and 
most of them would be discordant; whereas the saine color 
scheme expressed in the following terms: Black, blue green of 
low dark value and blue violet of middle value and one half 
intensity, or the same scheme abbreviated as 
Black-BG— BY 
LD M 
1 
would give an approximate notion of the colors used. In the 
same inanner the color scheme of the Japanese print in this 
number can be expressed by 
YO RO YG BG RV R 
L LL HD D HD LL 
X i i 1 1 i 
4 2 3 2 4 2 
A painting by Titian may be similarly analj^zed. A 
rapid note of any good color combination may be fixed in this 
way. If some fugitive out of door effect is to be remembered, 
a hastjr outline sketch may be made of the landscape with 
color notes showing their location in the scale, their intensity 
and their position as tints and shades. At first sight these 
scales seem bewildering. The cure seems worse than the 
disease. But it only seems so; for in reality it is not difficult, to 
learn, and once mastered, is of great help in the study of color. 
Color is at once the most fascinating and complicated of all 
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