Post #1 : Munsell Colour System

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MUNSELL COLOUR SYSTEM

How to mix your colour with Munsell method.

Maybe you are like me and color mixing is very intuitive. As it is intuitive, it is also pretty messy and I can tell that your painting will get a new level if you add method to the intuition.

If mixing color is not that simple for you as you just start, so it will become much easy by following the method. Let’s me explain.

What is Munsell?

Albert Henry Munsell is an artist and teacher who propore to reference by numbers a very large of quantity of colors. HIs system is now recognized internationaly so very praticle in industry using product with colors.

The method used can be very usefull for painters to apply the same logic of the classificaiton while mixing.  It will simplify the mixing by following a method very easy.

So how colors are define color with Munsell ?

Three criteria :

1)      7 Family color or hue color : Yellow, green, blue, blue purple, red purple, red.

2)      Value from number 1 (dark) to number 9 (light)

3)      Chroma (or intensity of colors). 1 / 2.5 /5 / 7.5 /10

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Here the method it is great to keep in mind while mixing :

It is actually questions to have while seeing our color on our subject :

-          What is the family color or hue amongs Munsell system? Find it and take the proper paint tube. Mix color is necessary.

-          What is the value? Find out and add white until you get to the right value

-         What is the chroma ? You add the neutral color of the same value.

What is the neutral color ?

It is grey that you mix and add to your palette before starting.

You can create your own recipe but here the most comon one :

  • Add ivory black and burn umber and white (white for the value). You also can add a little of raw umber.

  • My recipe these days : I mix use ultramarine blue instead of ivory black + burn umber + titanium white.   


Plus …

An other way to low chroma of a color :

You also can use color directly  from a tube of low chroma of the family colour.

 Exemple : raw umber if we are in yellow family

Burnt umber if we are in red family


At the difference of what you have learn to do, we don’t think of complementary color to low the chroma but our mixed grey colour. Of course, fondamentally it is kind of the same optical process under it. The difference is the approach. This method made my mixing very easy and more controle on the process.

 

Amelie Oliviermunsell, mixingComment