Colour Mixing

COLOUR MIXING

While Eugene Chevreul’s book on Simultaneous Contrast  focuses on the ways in which dye colors intensify or mute each other when printed side by side, David Paterson’s book, The Science of Colour Mixing discusses the ways in which dyes produce colors when printed on top of each other. The illustration demonstrates that red dye printed on blue produces a subdued color, while red printed on blue produces a nice purple. At the same time, however, he notes that two dyes that are the same color might mix with other colors differently because of their chemical structure. In other words, different reds (madder, cochineal, bloodroot, or any number of synthetic reds) will combine with the same blue dye differently to produce different purples.  
 
— Written by Sarah Rich (Art History, Center for Virtual/Material Studies)
 
David Paterson 
The Science of Colour Mixing: A Manual Intended for the Use of Dyers, Calico Printers and Colour Chemists 
London: Scott, Greenwood and Co., 1900