Combinations

This is a complete list of the 3,683 combinations of two and three colors Earhart detailed in the second half his treatise.

Each combination comprises two or three of the 178 colors Earhart created and classified as “good,” “very good,” or “excellent.” Color examples have been added to enhance the original list which only listed numbers without a visual reference.

The following list of two-color combinations taken from the colors shown on Plates 1 to 21, inclusive, are in the writer’s judgement, either good, very good, or excellent. We first give a list of combinations including red; this is followed by a list including yellow; then a list including blue; then a number of lists including, orange, green, purple, deep blue, rose-lake, lemon-yellow, vermilion, gray, and black, in the order named. Then these are followed by lists including colors 17, 34, 36, 41, 44, 45, 52, 59, 60, 67, 73, 75, 80, 81, 83, 94, 110, 115, 118, 119, 123, 135, 138, 139, 142, 144, and 148, in the order given. The principal color in each list of combinations is given at the head of same.

We will now give a number of lists of three-color combinations taken from the colors shown on Plates 1 to 21, inclusive, which we consider good, very good, or excellent. The first is a list of combinations including red and yellow; this is followed by a list including red and blue; then a number of lists including red and green, red and deep blue, red and lemon-yellow, red and gray, and red and black in the order named. Then these are followed by lists including red and colors 34, 41, 45, 52, 67, 75, 83, 110, 135, 139 and 148 in the order given, altogether making a collection of several hundred combinations, in which red is the principal color. In forming these combinations we were governed solely by the natural laws of harmony and contrast of colors.

The following is a list of excellent three-color combinations taken from the mixed colors on Plates 2 to 21, inclusive.