Page:Elementary Color (IA gri c00033125012656167).djvu/17

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PREFACE.
7

ing, but as has been the aim in literature for a long time and in drawing and music more recently, so in coloring, our instruction should be based on those principles on which highest art must rest.

When through the introduction of colored papers in the kindergartens and primary schools the teachers began to call for better assortments of colors in their papers than were to be found in the market, and some of us in the field attempted to meet their wants, the solution of the problem seemed almost a hopeless task, because no two wanted the same colors; each teacher was a law to herself and one thought a color "just lovely" which another declared "perfectly horrid." According to the early theories then in vogue the first colors called for were red, yellow and blue for primaries, but no two persons were sure just what they wanted for either of these, and there was no authority to be referred to for a decision.

In this strait, which was practically a serious difficulty, the artists were appealed to for a decision as to the three "primary colors," and also for examples showing in what proportions the "ideal primaries" must be mixed to produce the "ideal secondaries." But in this there was no satisfaction because hardly two agreed in the primaries and necessarily the secondaries w r ere much less definite, which was the result that should have been expected.

It is a self-evident proposition that if two indefinite primaries are combined in indefinite proportions the possible secondaries which may thus be produced must be exceedingly numerous, and if this idea is carried out in the production of tertiaries by the combination of the secondaries the resulting colors may be almost infinite. In view of the indifference of the artists and the popular ignorance regarding the subject the solution of this question and the discovery of any solid basis on which to formulate a system of elementary color instruction seemed very problematical. But after much experimenting and many conferences with artists and scientists a basis for operation was