The Munsell Color System for Artists

[Verdaccio]

Per a question in another topic, I thought I would share this post I did back a few years ago in another forum on the Munsell Color system for artists:

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Alfred Munsell was a color theorist who published a book called "A Grammar of Color" back around 1924.

Munsell's system was based on "color as it relates to light" and not "color as it relates to selling paint". Many artists prefer Munsell's color wheel and color system to the systems offered by paint companies like Grumbacher who have an interest in selling you something - and their color wheel reflects it.

Munsell's system is based on color having three basic properties:

- Hue - The attribute by which we distinguish the color - blue, yellow, red, etc.
- Value - The lightness or darkness of the hue.
- Chroma - The intensity of the color or the amount of grayness the color exhibits.

HUE
Munsell's color wheel has the following "primary" hues:

Red
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple

It also has the following "tertiary" hues:

Yellow-Red
Green-Yellow
Blue-Green
Purple-Blue
Red-Purple

They come together like this:

Red
Yellow-Red
Yellow
Green-Yellow
Green
Blue-Green
Blue
Purple-Blue
Purple
Red-Purple

The Munsell color wheel reflects these hues. Here is a Munsell Color Wheel that I made for myself:

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/Pics/Wheel.jpg

VALUE

Munsell expressed value as a measure of lightness. Munsell's scale of value ranges from Black at value 0 to White at value 10. It is important to distinguish that Munsell separated out Black and White from the hues listed above. When a color or hue has value, then it is expressed as a "Chromatic" value. Chroma is the next topic.

Here is a Munsell value scale:

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/valuekey11.gif

CHROMA

Chroma can be confusing. The easiest expression of Chroma is that it is the amount of gray in a color. By adding gray, you gradually neutralize the hue. Chroma is often also referred to as "intensity".

The key to the Munsell system as it applies to artists is that you use the value scale of grays to neutralize your hues instead of using the color on the opposite end of the color wheel. It is important to realize thereby, that each hue will have a value/chroma scale of its own - Dark Blue at Value 1 to Light Blue at Value 9. To neutralize the chroma or intensity of a value 5 blue, you add to it a value 5 gray. If you added pure black or a lighter or darker gray, then you would contaminate the value and possibly the hue of that value 5 blue.

Munsell has a 14 step sequence of chroma, but I have found it easier to express chroma in three categories - High, Medium, and Low. In artistic terms, the high medium and low categories refer to the amount of (equal value) gray you add to a hue to neutralize it - High=25%, Medium=50%, and Low=75%. The more gray you add to the pure hue, the lower the intensity or chroma of the hue becomes.

You can actually build charts of each hue in values from 1 to 9 and then neutralize each value into high, medium, and low categories.

Here is a simple chroma example using Purple:

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/chroma.jpg

[Verdaccio]

So what's all this mean to us as artists?

Well, the Munsell system is a good way to teach yourself about color and how color works. You can really delve into this buying books and creating very complex color charts for each hue if you like:

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/Pics/PB.jpg

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/Pics/RP.jpg

Or you can read it, absorb what you can and move on. I have to say that for me, making the charts really did help a lot.

It is also a way to learn to paint using a "value-based" system. This means that as you paint, you are more focused on getting the values right - many people will actually mix their paints up in value ranges. I think this pre-mixing of paint becomes somewhat limiting over time, and now try to mix on the fly...though I still do value range studies of things like fleshtones:

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/Cad_Skintones02.jpg

An artist explained to me once that the human eye sees value first, then color. Thereby, it is useful to understand that if you get the values right in a painting, the color really doesn't matter:

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/Midnight_Rendvous_Web.jpg

This system is only one way to learn colors. There are multiple others, and they are quite viable in their own right.

Hope this helps! :)

[Aardvarkphil]

Thanks again for your time and effort Verdaccio. Thanks for the prompt reply to my questions too. This gives me a good start towards the solution of my problem. Cheers Phil

[thinairart]

Verdaccio, thanks for putting this information together!

Good to see you on ConceptArt, I remember your posts from the Oil Painting forum back on WC in years past.

[Applecide]

An artist explained to me once that the human eye sees value first, then color. Thereby, it is useful to understand that if you get the values right in a painting, the color really doesn't matter

It's true there's several times the amount of rod cells than cone cells in the human eye. However, that doesn't mean the eye will distinguish value over colour every time. You can use an arrangement of hues to trick the eye to see a colour before their value or give a false value.

[amit3d]

very helpful tutorials. Thanks for the tuto.

[dbclemons]

The main benefit of the Munsell system is using it as a notation chart to identify each color. It allows you to isolate each aspect of a color in a consistent manner. There's a book called the New Munsell Student Color Set that is the best way to learn the system, with charts and exercises you make yourself.

...if you get the values right in a painting, the color really doesn't matter:
...

I wouldn't go that far; although, if the value is wrong, the error is more noticeable. Still, hue is important in it's own right, especially if you're painting gradients of color. You need to be able to control the hue as well as the value. Saturation or intensity is likely less important or critical, but that all depends on how you're using color.

[Verdaccio]

You certainly have to control the chromatic value of the colors you are using, yes. My real point was was that if you get the values right, you can paint almost anything any color and it will be recognizable and look correct - flesh, rendered in fuschia will look like flesh if you handle the values correctly. Hence the pic of my painting right below that with blue flesh. :)

[Dizon]

I've been wanting to know more about his system. Thanks for sharing!

[Flynt]

It is nice to see Munsell being discussed here. Thanks Verdaccio for sharing a bit.

However, just a couple of things that Verdaccio mentioned might need a bit of clarification so as to not cause confusion:

"Albert Munsell" as opposed to “Alfred Munsell”

“A Color Notation” first published in 1905 was by Munsell
Google books has the whole thing online—link for that is here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=PgcCAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22a+color+notation%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=otBE9sFKjj&sig=ZUdWoRjCgDe28na--2mMJPyneWI

I believe “A Grammer of Color” was first published in 1921 by T. M. Cleland with the full name being, “A Grammar of Color: A Basic Treatise on the Color System of Albert H. Munsell.” This book contains quotes from “A color notation”
Much of that is online here:

http://www.applepainter.com

Happy reading….