Colors in Full Intensity and their Neutral Values.
Light and Dark Colors. When you painted an autumn scene like the one on [page 2], you found that it could be done with three colors—yellow, red, and blue. Blue made the sky and water; blue and yellow the grass and the foliage of the smaller tree; blue and red the distance; yellow, red, and blue the tree trunks and the autumn colors of the large tree. Look again at the sketch. Do you see that the two trees are darker than the grass, that the water and the sky are of nearly the same value, and that the tree-trunks are the darkest colors in the picture? In the winter scene on [page 8], and in the spring picture of the yellow bush, both dark and light colors have been used. The colored flower studies all show dark and light colors. Both light and dark colors are needed to express truth and beauty, just as in music we need both high and low tones for perfect melody.
An Orderly Arrangement of Colors. In Chart A these colors are arranged in an orderly way. Yellow (Y) is the lightest color and is placed directly opposite violet (V), the darkest color in the circle. Yellow-orange (YO) and yellow-green (YG) come next to yellow on either side. Then orange (O) and green (G) follow, and next to them are red-orange (RO) and blue-green (BG). Next in the circle are red (R) and blue (B), and after them red-violet (RV) and blue-violet (BV). The colors in the chart are the strongest that your three colors can make. Colors of this strength are said to be in full intensity.
Expressing Colors in Neutral Values. On [page 4] are "finder" pictures taken from the autumn scene on [page 2]. These are done in gray washes that correspond to the colors in the autumn sketch. The trees are shown in grays that make them just as dark as the trees in the colored picture. When we make gray washes just as light and as dark as colors that we wish to represent, we say that we express those colors in neutral values.
The Neutral Value Scale. In Chart D the scales are arranged to show the grays or neutral values that correspond to the different colors in their full intensity. In this chart yellow is as light as the gray wash called High Light (HL). Yellow-orange and yellow-green are of the same value as Light (L). Orange and green are of the same value as Low Light (LL). Red-orange and blue-green are of the same value as Middle (M). Red and blue equal the neutral value High Dark (HD). Red-violet and blue-violet are equal to Dark (D), and violet, the darkest color, is expressed by Low Dark (LD). Low Dark is almost black.
The Neutral Value Scale.
A scale of neutral values, larger in size than that on [page 78], is printed on this page. White and black are added. They do not correspond to any color, but they help us to see the many steps that may be taken between them. Only seven of these steps from black to white are shown in our scale. Of course there are other grays, not represented in the scale, just as there are tones of music not expressed in the musical scale or octave. The musical scale and this value scale are used to help locate all other notes and all other degrees of light and dark. You could make, for instance, other grays between High Light and White. But it is useful to know that certain grays have definite names, and definite places in the scale.
With the aid of this larger scale, we can more easily compare the values of the colors of a landscape, a flower, or a still-life group with the same values in gray. Turn to pages [8] and [9]. On [page 8] the winter landscape is in color, and you see the same scene on [page 9] in neutral values. In it the sky and part of the snow are of the same value, and they match the gray marked High Light in the scale. The distant hill is Low Light; the dark band of trees on the horizon is High Dark, and the tree in the foreground is Dark. In this way you can find in the scale the neutral values used in a picture.