The Color Kittens The Color Kittens The Color Kittens is a children's book by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen published as part of the Little Golden Books series in 1949. The story revolves around two kittens, "Hush" and "Brush," who attempt to create green paint through mixing their other paints. Their attempts lead to a variety of different hues—none of them green. The book's famous catch phrase is "Blue is blue, and red is red! They still need green!" Children's book author and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky, for whom the book was a childhood favorite and inspiration, said that,
Venetian red red with lime white, in proportions of two to one, to paint the skin tones of faces, hands and nudes. The first recorded use of "Venetian red" as a color name in English was in 1753. Venetian red was the defining colour used by the British Army since the end of the English Civil War until its replacement with khaki, in the 1890s, mainly noted as being the primary colour of a Redcoat's dress, during the 18th and 19th centuries. Venetian red Venetian red is a light and warm (somewhat unsaturated) pigment that is a darker shade of scarlet, derived