CHAPTER II.

COLOURS OR STAINERS.--We have thus far omitted to take into consideration the colours--or stainers, as most painters call them--that have to be used in the mixtures given in the last chapter, excepting, of course, when a white paint is required.

As a rule, one or several colours are added to the base producing a tint, shade, or hue, as may be required. Sometimes, but not often, colours are employed as “body colours,” that is, they are employed just as they are purchased, ground in oil, excepting that they are thinned down with the requisite quantity of oil and turpentine.

We may now give consideration to actual colour mixture, but must first make one or two points clear, so that the lists which follow may be properly understood.

First, then, it should be said that colours vary in appearance according to the light in which they are viewed. For example, a colour, when looked at in the light of a sunny day in the open, has a very different appearance to that when viewed in a dark room. This will be explained at greater length further on. The mixtures here given refer only to oil colours, and it must be clearly understood that the same results will not be obtained with artists’ water colours. In the case of the latter, tints are obtained by the addition of water just as they are produced in oil colours by the addition of white lead or other white pigment.

In examining the lists which follow the reader may ask why we do not give the actual proportions of the different parts. The answer is that this is impossible for two reasons, the first being that colours vary so largely in quality that the proportions would be useless unless some particular make of colours was taken as a standard, while the second is that the names of the same colour vary also largely. Let us consider this point at once.

THE NOMENCLATURE OF COLOURS.--If half a dozen practical painters, experienced in colour mixing, were asked separately to mix a given colour, say a sea green, it is almost certain that when the six colours were compared there would not be two alike. Each of the six painters might have had precisely the same make of colours to work with and yet the “sea green” would in each case be different. The explanation, of course, is that opinions differ as to what is a “sea green.”

In giving the samples of colour which are contained in this work the author was, under the circumstances, somewhat puzzled to know exactly the right names to give each. His idea as to what was a bronze green, for example, might differ materially from the opinion of others, indeed, as it has already been explained, no two practical men would probably be found to agree as to the exact colour of two or three dozen differently named colours. Under these circumstances, he hit upon the plan of following what appeared to be the general rule in the trade. With this object he obtained the colour cards issued by all the leading paint manufacturing firms in the country, as well as some from abroad. He then took out the colours which he thought would be most useful to his readers, and then very carefully, and with a considerable amount of labour, compared each colour with similar colours in the different colour cards, taking note of the different names which different manufacturers called them. The result was very surprising, because it was found that in many cases there were as many names as there were manufacturers’ cards represented. When, however, the same name was used by several manufacturers, that name was selected for the purpose of this work. The reader may, therefore, take it that the names employed here are those which are most general in the trade. As an instance of the variation in these names we may cite a few examples.

Bronze green was called by different manufacturers’ dark green, olive green, and sage green. In this case bronze green occurred more frequently than any other name.

Tea green was called also olive green and Queen Anne green.

Apple green was called very light sea green and Eau de Nil green.

Sage green was called also olive and pale Quaker green.

Venetian green was called also Imperial French green, light green, shamrock green, bright green, mountain green, middle green, and engine green.

Light chocolate was called dark maroon, red lake, metallic brown, and in one case the sample given of burnt sienna was almost identical.

Olive green was called also sage green, deep olive green, and Quaker green.

Dark green was called also medium green, Brunswick green, middle green, and deep coach green.

Moss green some manufacturers evidently thought was the same thing as bronze green.

Pea green was called also sea green and eau de Nil.

Ivy green was called bronze green, sage green, Quaker green, olive green.

Slate was called also Quaker blue and dark lead.

Pearl gray was called also light gray.

Lilac was called also French gray.

Warm gray was called also deep stone, French gray, and light stone.

Silver gray was called also lavender.

Steel gray was called French gray in several instances, but we prefer to use the other term, as it appears to be nearer to what is usually known in this country as a French gray, that is one which has a touch of red and blue in it.

Another instance of the variation in the names of these colours is shown by light stone, which one would think was sufficiently well known to remove any doubt about it, but this was called smoke gray, French gray, and dove.

Middle stone was called also light drab.

Dark oak was called also dark drab and yellow bronze green.

Light drab was called also middle drab and doe colour.

Sandstone was called also dark stone.

Dove colour was called also deep stone.

Stone colour was called also ecru and light stone.

Colonial yellow was called also straw, light stone, and deep Naples yellow.

Buff in one case was called yellow ochre.