Sage should be in the preponderance; citrine and slate should occupy nearly one-sixth of the entire composition, green about one-fifth, and the whole should be picked out with touches of sharp blue and sharp yellow, representing each one-thirty-second.
Let us take, for instance, a room that is in white woodwork, and apply the sage to the walls and the slate to the floor, and lighten the sage with citrine and lighten the slate with violet, and intersperse orange and green in a way permitted by the proportions at our command. When the work is completed we find a harmony of analogy which can be then relieved by touches of the primitive colors, blue and yellow, in the proportions shown.
29. Good examples of contrast color effects may be found in the following series of combinations:
PROPORTIONS OF COLOR ANALYSIS FROM ASSYRIAN TILES.
Blue-Green 60 Greenish-Yellow 8 Orange 6 Purple-Brown 6 White 20 --- 100
Blue 35 Yellow 30 White 15 Dull Red 10 Black 10 --- 100
Blue 60 Deep Yellow 20 Light Yellow 10 White 10 --- 100
Pale Yellow 34 Green 27 Blue 25 Red 6 Gold 4 Black 2 White 2 --- 100
Black 63 Yellow 17 Green 9 Red 4 Light Red 3 Blue 3 White 1 --- 100
Green 36 Blue-Green 24 Yellow 14 Red 11 White 10 Dull Red 3 Black 2 --- 100
Green 36 Blue-Green 24 Yellow 14 Red 11 White 10 Dull Red 3 Black 2 --- 100
30. We do not wish to be understood as stating that the work of the colorist is solely mechanical; but we would emphasize that the influences of color are very largely the result of studied proportions. The basis upon which one operates must be soundly constructed upon the theory of scale, and scale is mechanically determined. If red is lightened by the addition of white, or darkened by the addition of black, it is removed to another scale, and can only harmonize by contrast with its complement by adding to green the same amount of white or black that has changed the character of the red, and this should be mathematically accurate.
31. To place white by the side of a color heightens or intensifies the tone of that color. To put black beside a color has the opposite effect. It weakens the color. Every woman looks better in white, hence white is the universal wedding gown, the universal party dress for children, and, wherever practical, the universal Summer dress for adults as well. White is worn universally by men and women next to the face, in collars or in neckwear, and the reason for it is that the contiguous white intensifies whatever color they may possess. Black, on the other hand, lessens the color or lowers its tone.