15 MIX OF FLOWERS

In order to penetrate the richness of the color world, it would be good to do several systematic exercises on mixing colors among themselves.

Based on the sensitivity to color and technical abilities, for individual exercises you can choose a greater or lesser number of colors to be mixed. Each color can be mixed with black, white or gray or with any other color of the chromatic series. A huge number of new color formations that occur during mixing, form the immense wealth of the color world.

STRIPS.

At the two ends of the narrow strip, we place any two colors and gradually begin to mix them. Depending on the two source we get the corresponding mixed colors, which in turn can be lightened or darkened.

TRIANGLES.

We divide each side of an equilateral triangle into three equal parts and connect the obtained points with lines parallel to the sides of the triangle. Thus, it turns out nine small triangles, in the corner of which we put yellow, red and blue color and successively mix red with yellow, yellow with blue and red with blue, placing these mixtures in the triangles located between the corner ones. In each of the remaining triangles, we place a mixture of three colors in contact with it. Similar exercises can be carried out with other colors.

SQUARES.

In the four corners of the scheme, consisting of 25 squares, put white, black and the main pair of additional colors - red and green, then proceed to mixing them. First, let's go from the original angles, then proceed to mixing along the diagonal, and as a result we get new chromatic series. Instead of black, white, red and green, you can use two other pairs of additional colors, as it is shown in Figure 30.

The color spectrum of the triangle and square taken by us forms a closed unified system of colors that are related to each other.

Anyone who wants to learn more about mixing colors should try to mix each color with any other. To do this, divide the large square into 13 x 13 small squares. In this case, the first square in the top row on the left must be left white. Twelve colors of the color wheel should be placed in the squares of the upper horizontal row, starting with yellow, through yellow-orange to yellow-green. In the squares of the first vertical row you need to consistently give purple color and through blue-violet and blue come to red-violet color. The squares of the second horizontal row are obtained by mixing each color of the first horizontal row with a violet color. The squares of the third horizontal row are filled with a mixture of colors of the first horizontal row with blue-violet. When each color of the first vertical row is mixed with the colors of the first horizontal row, the diagonal of gray tones will be clearly visible in the general scheme from left to right, for it is here that the combination of additional colors occurs.

After studying the problem of color perform the exercises on mixing colors, they can proceed to a more accurate copy of the specified chromatic series. Examples for copying can be taken from nature, works of art or from any other artistically meaningful things.

The value of such exercises is that you can check your color perception. It is absolutely clear that, as in the most subtlest technical processes, measurements and calculations often end up being insufficient and the desired result can only be obtained thanks to the subtle sense of a particularly gifted worker, and in the artistic sense mixtures of colors and color compositions can be perfectly executed only due to high sensitivity. artist to color.

Generally speaking, the perception of color corresponds to the subjective taste. People who are especially sensitive to blue will distinguish between many of its shades, while shades of red may be inaccessible to them. For this reason, it is very important to gain experience with the colors of the entire chromatic series, and therefore the "alien" for someone groups of flowers can be assessed in accordance with their merits.

In addition to the principles of pigment mixing set forth here, there is also a method of optical color mixing. It is based on the fact that the mixed colors in small brushstrokes or dots are located next to each other. When a surface covered in this way begins to be viewed at a certain distance, then all these color dots blend in the eyes into a single color sensation. The advantage of this kind of blending is that the colors acting on our eyes are cleaner and vibrate more.

The division of the color surface into elementary raster points is used in printing and, in particular, in full-color offset printing, where all these points are combined in the eyes of perceivers into solid color surfaces. If we consider the book reproductions, printed on offset, in a magnifying glass, then these points are clearly visible. In ordinary four-color printing, various shades are obtained by combinations or mixtures of four standard colors — yellow, blue-green, bluish-red, and black. It is absolutely clear that these four components and their mixtures will not always give the maximum accuracy of reproduction. In cases where extremely high quality reproduction is needed, seven or even more colors are used.

Another clear example of blending colors can be found in weaving. Differently colored base and ducks are combined according to the pattern of the fabric in more or less one color whole. A very familiar pattern is Scottish fabrics. In those places where the colored warp threads intersect with weft threads of the same color, squares of pure color appear. But where the threads dyed in different colors intersect and mix, the fabric is formed as if from colored dots, and its color is perceived to be quite concrete only at a certain distance. The original solutions of these checkered fabrics of fine wool were the heraldic affiliation of individual Scottish clans and, until now, in their color scheme and color relationships, serve as models for textile designs.