The Munsell Color System for Artists

[Michael Georges]

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:

[Michael Georges]

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.

The black and white value scale has no hue. Here is a value scale:

[Michael Georges]

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.

[Michael Georges]

Here is a simple chroma example using Purple:

[Marvin Mattelson]

I started writing this before Michael posted his above explanation. Hopefully it doesn't seem too redundant.

The Munsell System is the scientifically accepted standard of color identification. It designates a numerical measurement to the three traits of any given color. Hue is classified according to it

[Michael Georges]

Excellent additional information Marvin, thank you.

Another place to go to learn about the Munsell system is www.munsell.com.

[Khaimraj Seepersad]

Michael,

Sorry to be a pest, but could you show how you have adapted this information for practical use? Anything done with simple images? Say a vase,or other?


I have been interested in the value system for a while now, but have spent more time locking in the actual colours I use with the grey scale. Nothing
dramatic, just trying to develop a simple system.

[Michael Georges]

Kim:

The Munsell system was adapted for painters by Frank Reilly - I learned it from Covino who learned it from Reilly.

If you want to see it in practical use, just look at any of my paintings where I use the verdaccio underpainting. They begin by expressing pure values over which I lay in color of a corresponding value - a value 7 gray in the undertone gets a value 7 color over the top. This is best shown in the flesh palette which I still use a modified version of - you mix nine values of flesh to correspond to your values of undertone. Chroma or intensity is expressed in many places, but can specifically be seen in passages where the form turns or as objects recede.

It is interesting that the system I learned from Bill Whitaker also depends on understanding the relationships between hue, value, and chroma, but you begin with color rather than monochrome. It would have been much harder for me to adapt to it if I did not have a good understanding of the Munsell system. Bill mixes on the fly and adjusts hue, value and chroma all on his palette as he paints - very difficult thing to do unless you understand it. He does and the results are amazing.

[Mike McCarty]

I always appreciate an opportunity to show my ignorance.

Is it possible that an artist can have an eye for color the way a musician can have an ear for music?

I understand when someone says they play music "by ear." I, not in an accomplished way, play the harmonica. I know nothing about written music but I can mimic what I hear pretty well. I have heard that there are very accomplished musicians who cannot do this at all. They must read music in order to play music.

Could it be that there is a similar dynamic with regard to an artist either "seeing, then painting color and value intuitively", the way a musician would "play by ear." OR, an artist having to "read and paint color" the way it is presented above in this thread?

[Michael Georges]

Mike:

I think your concept is completely believable. I have never met one, but I can believe that there have been, are, and will be artists who have a real natural affinity for color, value and hue and can "do" without someone training them. I believe them to be few and far between.

But that ain't me! For me, art is hard. I have to learn in order to do, and I have to do and do and do in order to do with any proficiency at all.