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The Munsell Color Notation System, Part 1
From experimentation with light we have learnt that the three primary pigment colors cannot be made from mixing any other colors, and that by mixing the 3 primaries we create the secondaries and then mixing one primary with one adjoining secondary color we create the tertiary colors.
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The ability to mix all other colors from the three primaries is only possible with printer’s ink and photography.
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Therefore, in paint, by mixing, it is not possible to create all colors from any three primaries.
The American Artist Albert Henry Munsell published a system in which he proposed a five pigment primary system, the principal hues using green, blue, purple, red and yellow. He wanted to create a “rational way to describe color” using an alphanumeric notation system rather than a haphazard color naming system. This is currently the most adopted way of communicating about color and forms the basis for measuring color in the world today. The Munsell Notation System can be described as the three attributes of color. Hue, Value and Chroma. Any color can be viewed and broken down/identified by these. The attributes are given symbols H, V & C and are written in the Munsell Notation form. H V/C i.e. 5R 6/8 HueHue is the color and the way that we can tell one apart from the other i.e. red from blue. Munsell created a five color principal system Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple and a 5 color intermediate system. Yellow / Red, Green / Yellow, Blue / Green, Purple / Blue, Red / Purple. Using these hues he created a circle divided into 100 compass points, each primary and intermediate color was placed at 10° intervals, creating a hue each sector around the circle as shown on the diagram. Each color had a letter to identify it, R - Red, YR - Yellow Red, Y - Yellow, GY - Green Yellow etc. He then documented a numeric system from 1-100 around the outside of the circle. (Zero is not used; it begins at 5, which is red). Munsell believed that his system was a good tool for creating color balance and harmony, and could be used to select more exact color combinations. The Munsell Color Notation System Part 2 |
