COLOR (and light)

These images are all from an art instructional book (for painters) on color. The descriptions (and the whole book) are fairly rudimentary and simple - as are most instructional books that try to take place of a class or actual practice. I do not know how "mixing together any two secondary colors" equals a tertiary color. I was taught (and it is common color knowledge) that tertiaries are made by mixing a secondary with one of it's two primaries next to it on the color wheel. Such as Yellow-Green and Blue-Violet. Maybe color was taught differently in 1967? That might explain why the Coal City Public Library was giving it away in a free pile. The illustrations of light acting are really beautiful and odd though - visual and solid renditions of what light looks like. Also, the little "doll" in the "Ominous Shadows" illustration looks like the little prince. All images and text are from: Color, A Complete Guide for Artists. Fabri, Ralph. Watson-Gill, 1967.

This find causes me to question myself as an art teacher. How can I really get abstract ideas (such as painting light) across to my students? It is clear that this book has specific and determined ways of representing light that narrow and determine the reader/maker's way of rendering light. I hope that my pedagogical tactics and strategies are not restrictive in this way. I want my students to solve problems for themselves, in their own way. Ideally, I am the facilitator of this problem and subsequent solving.