While there are a number of excellent systems of color notation, it is well to bear in mind that a color system, however excellent, is a good servant but a poor master. It is nevertheless considered as essential to have a definite knowledge of some systematically developed color system in order that we may methodically apply color to the structural form with some degree of certainty.
Color Pigments for Design Rendering
For rendering drawings of problems involving the use of color it is suggested that the beginner use the tempera, or opaque colors now on the market. These colors readily adapt themselves to the average problem, while their rich hues are more successful than those produced from the ordinary water colors. Tubes of cobalt blue, ultramarine, light chrome yellow, vermilion, emerald green, crimson madder, black, and white will serve to solve the problems demanded by this chapter.
Application of Pigment
Rendering of Wood Stains
White is used to lighten and black to darken the pigments, which should be mixed with water to the consistency of cream, and applied to cover well the surface of the paper. One should guard against a thin, transparent wash, as the desired effect is a velvety opaque and evenly tinted surface only possible with the thick application of color. The pigment will dry out about one-quarter lighter than when first applied. The usual school color box of three pigments is useful for rendering wood stains. These pigments may be used in thin flat washes and will exhibit a transparent effect analogous to the effect of a wood stain. The natural color of wood may be first represented and, when dry, followed by a second thin wash of the hue of the wood stain.
Lacking as we are in a definite color nomenclature or standards, it now becomes necessary to describe the processes and define the terms necessary to the designer.
Hue and Hue Rectangles
Hue is the technical name for color; a change of color means a change of hue. For the designer's purposes we will select twelve equally graded colors or hues from the spectrum and term them standard hues. Each hue will have twenty-seven modifications or gradations, which is a sufficient number for our purpose. These gradations are to be graphically recorded by and contained in a diagram to be known as a hue rectangle. There are twelve of these rectangles, one for each of the selected hues, and they are found arranged in sequence in [Figure 454].
Standard Hues
Full Chromatic Intensity
By referring to [Figure 455], it is seen that the twelve selected standard hues are represented at what is termed full chromatic intensity, which, to the designer, means hues of the full strength of his color pigment. This is far short of the true color intensity of the spectrum, but for industrial arts purposes these hues are strong enough to serve as standards for comparison and classification. The hues should be evenly graded from red at the left to red violet at the right without noticeable unevenness in the gradations. Red violet is the link which connects the right end with the left, thus completing the circuit of the twelve hues. The following pigment table gives name and symbol of various hues.