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: