Monday, February 17, 2014

Eight Colors

Talking recently with a friend, I mentioned that I know eight colors, the eight they taught me in first grade for art projects.

Red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, green, black, and brown.  Those are the colors.  Teal is a bird, mauve is a girl that lives down the street, and burgundy is a drink.  Ivory comes from elephant tusks, and fluorescent is a type of light fixture.

Needless to say, I didn't spend much time in art class after the first grade.  I have to admit that the colors they're referring to these days, especially in the military fabrics have me a mite amuzed.  Flat, dark earth is brown, as is coyote tan.  They're both brown.  Don't get me started on pastels.  When we move into this house, Milady told me that she was going to do the bedroom in toile.  I asked what color that is.  She's still laughing about that one.  Turns out it can be any number of colors, maybe blue, or brown, or black.

Let's keep this simple.  There are eight colors.  That's enough for anyone.

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

Yep, more than enough... Toile???

BobF said...

Uh, wait a minute while I look up how to pronounce it...


OK, but that's just a pattern.
You can still have it in your brown. :-)

Eaton Rapids Joe said...

I worked in an automotive paint shop for a while. Those people have "imagination". Crystal Claret (red), Switchblade Silver (light gray metalic), Taupe(cow poop brown), Camel (calf poop brown).

White was the friendlies color to paint, light gray metallic the most technically challenging and black highlighted every metal defect.

I don't mind a few adjectives in front of a color but I sure like one of the basic eight somewhere in the name. For some reason the marketing people never invited me to help them with naming colors.

Pawpaw said...

I also worked in a paint shop once upon a time. A guy came in wanting his car painted, so they prepped it and he came in to pick the color. Couldn't find anything in the chip book, but a gal wandered by to pick up her car, and the guy pointed at her toenails. The boss sent me to a beauty supply store and I bought two cases of toenail polish. Poured all those little bottles into a gallon can, and the boss blew it on to the car. Two coats, then a coat of top-coat. That sonofabitch shined like a new penny. Only car I ever knew, painted with toenail polish.