TONES AND TONE-RELATIONS
122. Up to this point I have avoided the consideration of Tones and Tone-Relations. I have spoken of possible changes of tone in dots and in lines; changes of value, of color, of color-intensity; but it is not in dots nor in lines that these changes call for particular attention. Our interest has been in the positions, measures, shapes, and attitudes of dots and lines, and in the possibilities of arrangement and composition. When it comes to the consideration of areas and area-systems, however, the subject of tone-relations becomes one of the greatest interest, because areas are defined and distinguished, not only by their outlines, but quite as much by differences of tone; that is to say, by tone-contrasts.
123. The first thing to consider is the tone of the surface upon which you are going to paint. You then take a tone differing from the ground-tone, in value, in color, or in color-intensity, you put it in a certain position, and you spread it over a certain extent of space. In so doing you give to the space a certain shape. This is the process of Painting, as distinguished from the process of Drawing. In Drawing we think of lines and outlines first. In Painting we think of Tones first, of positions, measures, and shapes afterwards.
124. In producing tones we use, necessarily, certain pigment-materials and mixtures of these materials. The effect of light produced by any particular material or mixture we call its tone. Though I have been using the wordToneI have not yet defined its meaning. I will now do that.
125. In every tone we have to distinguish two elements, the quantity of light in it—what we call its value—and the quality of the light in it—its color; and the color, whatever it is,—Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, or Violet,—may be intense or neutral. By intensity I mean the quality of a color in its highest or in a very high degree. By the intensity of Red I mean Red when it is as red as possible. The mixture of Vermilion and Rose Madder, for example, gives us a Red of great intensity. That is about the strongest Red which we are able to produce with the pigment-materials which we use. Intensity must not be confounded with value nor value with intensity. By value I mean more or less light. By intensity I mean a great purity and brilliancy of color. Intensity stands in opposition to neutrality, in which no color can be distinguished. The more color we have in any tone the more intensity we have. The less the intensity the less color, and the absence of color means neutrality or grayness. Neutrality or grayness, though it is the negation of color, the zero of color, so to speak, must be classed as a color because upon analysis it proves to be a result of color combination or mixture. When I speak, as I shall from time to time, of the neutral as a color, it will be understood that I am speaking of a combination or mixture of colors in which no particular color can be distinguished. I speak of the neutral as a color just as I speak of zero as a number. We use zero as a number though it is no number, and counts for nothing.
126. The study of tones and tone-relations means the study of pigment-materials and their effects, to find out what quantities of light we can produce, what qualities of color, what intensities of color, what neutralizations. That is the problem of tones and tone-relations. We cannot know much about tones and tone-relations until we have had experience in the use of pigment-materials. We mustbe able to distinguish tones, however slight the differences of value or of color or of color-intensity, and we must be able to produce tones according to our discriminations: this with exact precision. In order to think in tone-relations we must have definite ideas of tone and of tone-relations, in the form of visual images. In order to express our ideas we must be able to paint. We must have practice in painting and a great deal of it. I propose to describe this practice in tones and tone-relations: what it ought to be, what forms it should take.
127. Of pigments I use these: Blue Black, Madder Lake (Deep), Rose Madder, Indian Red, Venetian Red, Vermilion, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Orange, Yellow Ochre, Pale Cadmium, Aureolin, Cremnitz White, “Emeraude” Green (Green Oxide of Chromium, transparent), Cobalt Blue, French Ultramarine Blue. These are the pigments which I suggest for oil-painting. In water-color painting I should substitute Charcoal Gray for Blue Black. “Emeraude Green” is often called Viridian in the form in which it is used in water-color. For Cremnitz White I should substitute, in water-color painting, Chinese White. These are the pigment-materials which I use myself and recommend to others. There are, of course, many other pigments which may be used, but these will, I think, be found sufficient for all purposes. Provided with these pigments, with a palette upon which to put them, with brushes and other materials necessary for painting, we are prepared to take up the study of tones and tone-relations.
128. It is evident that we have in black paint the least quantity of light which we can produce. Black is the lowest of all values. It is equally evident that in white paint we have the greatest possible quantity of light. White is the highest of all values. Mixing Black and White in different proportions we can produce an indefinite number ofintermediates. We do not want, however, to be indefinite in our terms; on the contrary we want to be as definite as possible. Let us, therefore, establish, between Black and White, a Middle Value (M); between Black and Middle Value an intermediate Dark (D); between Middle Value and White an intermediate Light (Lt), and between these five values the intermediates, Low Dark (LD), High Dark (HD), Low Light (LLt), and High Light (HLt). Further intermediates (eight) may be established, but to these we need not give any particular names. If we have occasion to refer to any one of them we can say that it lies between certain quantities or values of light for which we have names. We can speak, for example, of the intermediate between Middle and High Dark, and it may be described in writing by the formula M-HD. With this terminology we shall be able to describe the principal quantities or values of light both in speech and in writing.
In order to study the principal quantities or values of light and the possibilities of contrast which they afford it is wise to avoid all differences of color and color-intensity. To do that we produce our Scale of Values in terms of perfect neutrality, in which no color can be distinguished. When we use the names of different values it is understood that they are values of Neutrality. The term M, for example, stands for Neutral Middle, D for Neutral Dark, Lt for Neutral Light.
129. Having produced a scale of nine neutral values, including White and Black, the question arises as to the number of contrasts which it affords, and it is easy to see that the number is thirty-six.
The vertical lines in the following diagram indicate the possible contrasts of value in the Scale of Values. Counting the lines, we see that the number of contrasts is thirty-six. Producing these contrasts, we shall see what each one amounts to.
Diagram 1
Diagram 1
130. The best method of describing and distinguishing these value-contrasts will be to use the value-names in a form of fractions. For example, Lt/D would mean a contrast of Dark on Light, D/Lt would mean a contrast of Light on Dark, Wt/Blk would mean a contrast of Black on White. That is to say, White is subdivided or crossed by Black. When we wish to describe several contrasts in combination, we set the value of the ground-tone above the line, always, the value of the tone or tones put upon it below, thus:—
This formula means, spots of White and Black on a ground of Light.
This formula means spots of White and Black on a ground-tone of Light, with a spot of Middle on the White, the Middle being altogether separated from the Light by the White.
There is no definite thinking except in definite terms, and without some such terminology as I have devised and described, it will be impossible to enter upon an experimental practice in value-relations with the hope of definite results. With definite terms, however, we can take up the practice in value-relations with a good chance of learning, in the course of time, all that there is to be learned.
131. We must now proceed to the consideration of the qualities of light beyond the Scale of Neutral Values, in the region of colors and color-intensities,—a region of tones which we have not yet explored.
It is evident that no color can exist either in the value of Black or in the value of White, but in every other value we have the possibility of all colors. That is to say, we may have Red (R) or Orange (O) or Yellow (Y) or Green (G) or Blue (B) or Violet (V) or any of the colors lying intermediate between them,—Red Orange (RO), Orange Yellow (OY), Yellow Green (YG), Green Blue (GB), Blue Violet (BV), or Violet Red (VR): all these, in any value of the Scale of Values, except in the value of Black and in the value of White. The possibilities of value and color, in tones, are exhibited in the following diagram:—
DIAGRAM OF VALUES AND COLORS
Diagram 2
132. It is important that the words which we use for the different colors should be well understood, that in using them we use them with the same meanings. By Red I mean the only positive color which shows no element either of Yellow or of Blue. It is the color which we often describe by the word crimson, and we produce it by the mixture of Rose Madder and Vermilion. By Yellow I mean the only positive color which shows no element either of Red or Blue. It is the color of the primrose which may be produced by the pigment Aureolin. By Blue I mean the only positive color which shows no element either of Yellow or of Red. Blue is seen in a clear sky after rain and in the pigment Cobalt. By Orange I mean a positive color showing equal elements of Red and of Yellow. By Green I mean a positive color showing equal elements of Yellow and of Blue. By Violet I mean a positive color showing equal elements of Blue and Red. The character of the intermediates is clearly indicated by their several names. In each one we see the adjacents in equalmeasures. This definition of the colors is only approximate. It does not pretend to be scientific, but it may help to bring us to a common understanding. To carry these definitions farther, I should have to produce examples. This I can do in my class-room, producing each color according to my idea, exactly. I might reach the same result approximately by color-printing, but the result would not, probably, be permanent. The samples produced by hand, for use in the class-room, can be reproduced from time to time when they no longer answer to the ideas which they are intended to express. In this treatise I shall use a terminology instead of colored illustrations which would not be satisfactory, or, if satisfactory, not so permanently.
133. If we proceed to carry out the idea ofDiagram 2, producing all the twelve colors in all of the seven values intermediate between the extremes of Black and White, making the colors, in every case, as strong, as intense, as is possible with the pigment-materials we have chosen to use, we shall discover that the twelve colors reach their greatest intensities in different values; that is to say, in different quantities of light. Red reaches its greatest intensity in the value High Dark, Orange in Low Light, Yellow in High Light, Green in Low Light, Blue in High Dark, Violet in Low Dark, approximately; and the intermediate colors reach their greatest intensities in the intermediate values, approximately. In order to indicate this fact in our diagram, we will mark the positions of greatest intensity by putting the color signs in larger type.
DIAGRAM OF VALUES, COLORS,AND COLOR-INTENSITIES
Diagram 3
134. It is probable that we have in the Spectrum an indication of the natural value-relations of the different colors when in their highest intensities. Owing to the limitations of pigment-material, however, it is impossible to reproduce the intensities of the Spectrum satisfactorily. An approximation is all that we can achieve in painting.
135. Having produced the scale of twelve colors in the values of their greatest intensities, and as intense as possible, we get an approximation to the Spectrum with this difference, that the color Violet-Red (Purple) which we get in pigments and mixtures of pigments does not occur in the Spectrum and, so far as we know, does not belong in the Spectrum. We have in the Spectrum a sequence which begins with Red and ends with Violet. It is a sequence, not a circuit. Inpigment-mixtures, however, we have a circuit, clearly enough, and Violet-Red is a connecting link between Violet and Red.
136. Considering the circuit of the colors which we are able to produce with our pigment-materials, the question arises, What contrasts of color are the strongest? what interval in the Scale of Colors gives us the strongest possible color-contrast? Producing the twelve colors in the values of their greatest intensities, and as intense as possible, and setting the tones in a circuit and in their natural and inevitable order, you will observe that the greatest color-contrast is the contrast between colors at the interval of the seventh: for example, the contrasts of Red and Green, or Orange and Blue, or Yellow and Violet. The colors at the interval of the sixth are less strong in contrast. The contrast diminishes gradually as we pass from the interval of the seventh to the interval of the second. The contrast of colors at the interval of the seventh, the greatest possible contrast, is called the contrast of the complementaries. In estimating intervals we count the colors between which the intervals occur.
137. Taking each color in the value of its greatest intensity (as shown in the Spectrum), and as intense as possible, the color may be neutralized in the direction of Black (neutral darkness) or White (neutral light) or in the direction of any value of neutrality intermediate between Black and White, including the value of the color in its greatest intensity. If we think of five degrees of neutralization, including the extremes of Intensity and Neutrality, we shall get as definite a terminology for color-intensities and color-neutralizations as we have for colors and for values. The choice of five degrees is arbitrary. It is a question how far the classification shall go, what it shall include. We are dealing with infinity, and our limitations are necessarily arbitrary.
InDiagram 3we have a general classification of tones as to value, color, color-intensity, and color-neutralization. Of values we have nine. Of colors we have twelve. Of degrees of intensity and of neutralization we have five.
138. It is important to distinguish between degrees of intensity and degrees of neutralization. The degrees of color-intensity and of color-neutralization, in any value, are described by fractions. The formula D-R¾ means, value Dark, color Red, intensity three quarters. The formula D-R, ¾N means, value Dark, color Red, three quarters neutralized. The formula M-O½ means, value Middle, color Orange, intensity one half. The formula M-O, ½N means, value Middle, color Orange, half neutralized. M-O, ½N is a tone somewhat less intense in color than M-O½, as may be seen on the diagram. The degree of neutralization has reference, in all cases, to the maximum intensity for the given value. What that is, theoretically, may be seen by referring to the triangle of the color, in which the possibilities of intensity, in different values, are clearly indicated.
139. To define any tone, in this classification, we must name its value, its color, and the degree of color-intensity or neutralization.
140. The general classification of tones in which is shown all the possibilities of value, color, color-intensity, and color-neutralization, in reflecting pigments, is necessarily theoretical, or rather ideal, because the degrees of intensity obtainable in any value depend upon the pigment-materials we have to use, or choose to use. No very great intensity of Yellow, even in the value of High Light, can be obtained if we choose to use a mixture ofYellow Ochre with Ultramarine Blue and White to produce it. It is only when we use the most brilliant pigments—the Madders, Vermilion, the Cadmiums, Aureolin, and Cobalt Blue—that we can approximate toward the highest intensities, as indicated in our diagram and exhibitedin the Spectrum.
141. The number of tone-contrasts—contrasts of value, of color, and of color-intensity or neutralization—is, evidently, beyond calculation.
The method of describing any particular contrast or contrasts is easy to understand. We have only to define the tones and to indicate how they cross one another.
This formula means that a spot of Violet-Red (Dark, full intensity) is put on a ground-tone of Middle Red-Orange, half neutralized.
This formula means that spots of Low Dark Violet-Red (full intensity) and White are put on a ground-tone of Middle Red-Orange, half intensity, and that on the spot of Low Dark Violet-Red (full intensity), as a ground-tone, is put a spot of Light Yellow-Green (full intensity). It is not necessary to name the value when the color occurs in the value of its greatest intensity, and it is not necessary to describe the intensity, in any value, when the greatest intensity possible to that value is meant. In the first case the value is understood, in the second case the intensity—the greatest for the value—is understood.