Colour-Consideration

THE suggestion that only two ideas or starting-pointsin colour-composition are possible may seem at first sight to narrow unduly the range of colour-possibilities, yet it can be confidently asserted that on careful analysis all the satisfactory colour-schemes will be found to be based on one or the other. Such a starting-point has the merit of simplicity whilst allowing the utmost freedom of colour-expression consistent with order. There are in all probability many solutions to out colour-difficulties, and all that can be claimed for such a method as the one here outlined is that it helps to establish a definite colour-intention. When the student sees what appeats to be a satisfying colour-scheme, the areas should be sketched and the colour-notation filled in after which an analysis can be made. The conclusion formed will help to strengthen his colout-purpose. When Sir Joshua Reynolds thought that all pictures should be of a warm colour, with just enough cold colour to give value to the warm, he used the word “warm” to mean hues that approach orange-red, and by “cold” he meant the hues in the neighbourhood of blue. We find that such a scheme comes under our first category. When Gainsborough accepted such a challenge and painted The Blue Boy, it came under our second category, the blue being balanced by a warm against a neutral. Both painters often used small areas of discords in addition.

Maiy years after, Whistler “really” painted blue schemes, blue-green schemes, and purple-blue schemes. They still come under our first category. Several of his symphonies in white come under our second. Reynolds would in all likelihood have objected to the blue schemes, although a Chinese vase with precisely the same colour-sensation would probably have met with his approval. Colour-appreciation, like sound-appreciation, seems to have expanded since then; nevertheless Reynolds was tight in saying that the old masters, at their best, preferred a warm bias.

Nearly all the colour-difficulties we encounter are due to squeezing a colour-scheme into pre-arranged areas. A student sometimes requires a particular colour-scheme to fit into a certain “form-condition,” and it often happens that if there is no compromise there is no solution.

One well-known compromise, frequently seen in book-illustrations, occurs when it is required to give colour to what was primarily designed as a line-illustration. To give a special case, let us assume that a blue-green colour-scheme to represent moonlight is to be imposed on a lineat design where the colour-quantities had not been given consideration. Perhaps the only areas that can feasibly take blue-green are quite small against the remaining neutral white. Blue-green of a weak saturation is allowed to sptead over the neutral white. This gives unity of hue, but the greatest possible charm of blue-green as a hue is absent.

Many coloured illustrations, and even exhibition pictures, are given a “tinted” mount. It suits them—another compromise—for the balancing hue has arrived, but outside the picture.

When a pictute is to be framed in gold it should be painted in its frame, or we should find that even gold, a metallic value, affects our colout-balance, and adjustments will be necessary. In conditions of colour where atmosphere is to be expressed the elimination of the neutrals plays an important part. It might be said that during the last century a good deal of research has been directed to this elimination of the neutrals by the substitution of colours that in themselves cancel out. Thus in atmospheric renderings of colour the white is tuned warm and cold (or orange and blue), and the darks relieved from absolute flat neutrality by the substitution of purple and dark yellow-green hues that cancel each other. The hues that have been mentioned in this connection are obviously only illustrations, for any opposition hues will eliminate absolute neutrality. Such a titillation of the neutrals is a compromise to atmosphere—to three-dimensional renderings—in order to secure “plausibility.”

In such cases of colour-orchestration the student will do well to start from the colour-ideas originally outlined, allowing his neutrals to stand for a time. This may be more abstract, but it allows him to know his own colour-structure.

When a colour-scheme goes wrong or gets out of hand we must methodically go back to the simple colour-idea. Saturations must be scrutinized, after which the total pattern and form-content should be considered.

If this should be as we wish, the balance of hue is the probable offender. The track towards simplification could conveniently run as follows:

The areas occupied by the discords, if any, could be a by hues chosen from the first colour-intention. The complimentary colour, if any, could be reduced in area. The whole scheme of saturation could be made less intense. It will be clear from such advice that the track lies towards monochrome and neutrality.

Sometimes the forms were the real incentive in starting a composition, and these may have become nullified by the strongly-saturated colours.

Most students spend their time trying to effect a compromise instead of attempting a trenchant rendering of their aesthetic intention.