Ballard's End might also be called "A Study in Blue." While blue is, of course, a cool color, the colorist sees everyting as relative — warmer blues (shifting to green) or cooler blues (shifting to violet). To see this painting as monochromatic, then, would be a mistake. Ballard's End is actually comprised of many, many colors. No less than four blues were used — pthalo, ultramarine, cobalt, and blue-black — which are then mixed together and/or modified with the following colors: burnt and raw umber, various reds, dioxazine purple, yellows, ochres, black, titanium buff, and white. Full color variations are are at play, but in narrower ranges than might be found in an ordinary painting.