Mixing up the browns is quite entertaining.
- Brown is a tertiary colour made by mixing red, yellow and blue/black pigments together, or by blending red and green light.
- The hex code of brown is #964B00 while the RGB code is (150, 75, 0), and the colour sits on a variety of wavelengths approximate to red, orange or yellow.
- Common shades of brown include khaki, beige, chocolate, dirty, sandy, wooden, amber, umber and tan.
- ‘Brown’ comes from the word ‘brún’, which is an old English word meaning ‘dusky’ or ‘dark’.
- Various brown shades were used in depictions of both animal and people in prehistoric paintings and ancient art, and this has been evident in both Egypt and Greece.
- After the Ancient Age, brown was rarely chosen for artworks until later in the 1400s, and after this time the colour became particularly common and its use peaked around the 1600s and 1700s.
- Natural brown colour is often sourced from clay, and two of the shades, umber and sienna, are high in iron oxide which contributes to their colour; while sepia is sourced from certain cuttlefish; and nuts and nut-trees have been used to produce natural dyes in this colour.
- Hair, eye and skin are commonly brown, while other objects commonly found in this colour include chocolate, coffee, dirt, and some military uniforms; while many mammals such as bears and deer, as well as birds, display this colour.
- Brown is often used to symbolise dependability, plainness, humility, a rustic nature, low wealth and peasantry.
- According to surveys conducted across both the United States and Europe, brown is marked by the majority as the least appealing colour.
Bibliography:
Brown, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown
Color & Branding, 2015, Color Matters, http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-marketing/color-and-branding
