Blue at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

BLUES Prussian blue—A strong tinting blue, very dark with a greenish cast. Good for producing brilliant greens when combined with yellow. Cobalt blue—A strong blue with a reddish cast. Good for mixing. Cerulean blue—A strong blue with a greenish cast. Ultramarine—Sometimes called French blue. It has a reddish cast and makes a beautiful purple when mixed with alizarin crimson.

Because Clerk Maxwell added red, green, and blue light together, this technique is called additive. An equal addition of the three colors forms white; red and green add to form yellow; red and blue, magenta; green and blue, the blue-green known by photographers as cyan. It is important to bear in mind that this theory holds true only for colored light; the mixture of pigments is another matter.

Permanent—Raw sienna, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, raw umber, burnt umber, yellow ochre, Van Dyke brown, ivory, lamp black, vermilion. Semipermanent—Chrome yellow, green, cadmium yellow, Indian red, Venetian red. Fugitive—Carmine, crimson lake, madders, Prussian blue, cerulean blue. White lead makes a poor chemical mixture when combined with ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, English vermilion, and chrome yellows. When using oil paints, it is better to combine these pigments with zinc white for tinting.