Practical Hints on Colour in Painting Author:John Burnet Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PRACTICAL HINTS COLOUR IN PAINTING. OP COLOUR. THE proper situation of strong colour is neither in the high light nor in the deep shade, for it would de... more »stroy the character of either; but if it is made use of as an intermediate link, it will unite both; at the same time preserve a greater consequence. Whether it is to be warm or cold must depend upon the colour of the principal light, of which it is to be considered as an extension, conveying its influence into the darkest recesses; and the light will be either warm or cold, according as it mixes itself with the folloAving arrangements: white, yellow, red, brown, black; white, gray, green, blue, black. Vide Plate I. Jigs. 4 and 5. Yet, although colour holds the station of middle tint, it is nevertheless more capable of giving the true representation of natural objects than the most scientific arrangements of chiaroscuro; and by the judicious management of it, a picture is rendered pleasing and attractive. Reynolds justly observes, " By this the first effect of a picture is produced; and as this is performed, the spectator, as he walks the gallery, will stop or pass along." That this principal light influences the other lights, we see in nature, and in the best colourists; but Mengs says, " that the deepest shades ought also to be of the tint of which the general harmony is composed; because it is supposed that the air is already tinged with this colour, through which the light must of necessity pass." The general tone of the picture, therefore, ought to be determined on in the first instance, as everything ought to accord with it for the sake of harmony and truth; what this tone is to consist of is therefore of the utmost importance to the student to inquire. Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the notes to Du Fresnoy, says, " T...« less