ch holds the glory of the
coloured light together, really enhances its splendour, and in affording
opportunities for decoration and expressive linear composition imparts
to the whole work its particular character and beauty.

This after all is the principle to cling to in all designing, to adapt
our designs to the particular distinctive character and beauty of the
material for which they are destined, to endeavour to think them out in
those materials, and not only on paper. Whatever the work may
be--carving, inlays, modelling, mosaic, textiles--through the whole
range of surface decoration, we should think out our designs, not only
in relation to the limitations of their material, but also in their
relation to each other, to their effect in actual use, and even to their
possible use in association together, which, of course, is of paramount
importance in designing a complete room or any comprehensive piece of
decoration.

And when we leave plane surfaces and seek to invent appropriate, that is
to say, _expressive_ ornament allied to concave and convex surfaces, to
the varied forms of pottery for instance, metal-work, and glass vessels,
furniture, and accessories of all kinds, we shall find the same laws and
principles hold good which should guide us in all design--to adapt
design to the characteristics and conditions of the material, to its
structural capacity, its use and purpose, as well as to use or invention
in line, both as a controlling plan or base of ornament, as well as a
means of the association and expression of form.

CHAPTER X

Of the Expression and Relief of Line and Form by _Colour_--Effect
of same Colour upon different Grounds--Radiation of Colour--White
Outline to clear Colours--Quality of Tints relieved upon other
Tints--Complementaries--Harmony--The Colour Sense--Colour
Proportions--Importance of Pure Tints--Tones and Planes--The Tone
of Time--Pattern and Picture--A Pattern not necessarily a Picture,
but a Picture in principle a Pattern--Chiaroscuro--Examples of
Pattern-work and Picture-work--Picture-patterns and Pattern-pictures.

Perhaps the most striking means of the expression of relief of line and
form, certainly the most attractive, is by colour. By colour we obtain
the most complete and beautiful means of expression in art.

[Relief of Line and Form by Colour]

Our earliest idea