Read Ebook: A Color Notation A measured color system based on the three qualities Hue Value and Chroma by Munsell A H Albert Henry

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 357 lines and 34164 words, and 8 pages

Pigments, rather than the solar spectrum, are the practical agents of color work. Certain of them, selected and measured by this system , will be known as MIDDLE COLORS, because they stand midway in the scales of value and chroma. These middle colors are preserved in imperishable enamels, so that the child may handle and fix them in his memory, and thus gain a permanent basis for comparing all degrees of color. He learns to grade each middle color to its extremes of value and chroma.

Experiments with crayons and paints, and efforts to match middle colors, train his color sense to finer perceptions. Having learned to name colors, he compares them with the enamels of middle value, and can describe how light or dark they are. Later he perceives their differences of strength, and, comparing them with the enamels of middle chroma, can describe how weak or strong they are. Thus the full significance of these middle colors as a practical basis for all color estimates becomes apparent; and, when at a more advanced stage he studies the best examples of decorative color, he will again encounter them in the most beautiful products of Oriental art.

+Is it possible to define the endless varieties of color?+

At first glance it would seem almost hopeless to attempt the naming of every kind and degree of color. But, if all these varieties possess the same three qualities, only in different degrees, and if each quality can be measured by a scale, then there is a clue to this labyrinth.

+A COLOR SPHERE and COLOR TREE to unite hue, value, and chroma.+

This chroma scale may be raised or lowered to any level of value, always remaining perpendicular to the axis, and serving to measure the chroma of every hue at every level of value. The fact that some colors exceed others to such an extent as to carry them out beyond the sphere is proved by measuring instruments, but the fact is a new one to many persons.

For this reason the COLOR TREE is a completer model than the sphere, although the simplicity of the latter makes it best for a child's comprehension.

Such models set up a permanent image of color relations. Every point is self-described by its place in the united scales of hue, value, and chroma. These scales fix each new perception of color in the child's mind by its situation in the color solid. The importance of such a definite image can hardly be overestimated, for without it one color sensation tends to efface another. When the child looks at a color, and has no basis of comparison, it soon leaves a vague memory that cannot be described. These models, on the contrary, lead to an intelligent estimate of each color in terms of its hue, its value, and its chroma; while the permanent enamels correct any personal bias by a definite standard.

Thus defined, a color falls into logical relation with all other colors in the system, and is easily memorized, so that its image may be recalled at any distance of time or place by the notation.

Musical art has long enjoyed the advantages of a definite scale and notation. Should not the art of coloring gain by similar definition? The musical scale is not left to personal whim, nor does it change from day to day; and something as clear and stable would be an advantage in training the color sense.

Perception of color is crude at first. The child sees only the most obvious distinctions, and prefers the strongest stimulation. But perception soon becomes refined by exercise, and, when a child tries to imitate the subtle colors of nature with paints, he begins to realize that the strongest colors are not the most beautiful,--rather the tempered ones, which may be compared to the moderate sounds in music. To describe these tempered colors, he must estimate their hue, value, and chroma, and be able to describe in what degree his copy departs from the natural color. And, with this gain in perception and imitation of natural color, he finds a strong desire to invent combinations to please his fancy. Thus the study divides into three related attitudes, which may be called recognition, imitation, and invention. Recognition of color is fundamental, but it would be tedious to spend a year or two in formal and dry exercises to train recognition of color alone; for each step in recognition of color is best tested by exercise in its imitation and arrangement. When perception becomes keener, emphasis can be placed on imitation of the colors found in art and in nature, resting finally on the selection and grouping of colors for design.

+Every color can be recognized, named, matched, imitated, and written by its HUE, VALUE, and CHROMA.+

The notation used in this system places Hue at the left; Value at the right and above a line; and Chroma at the right, below the line. Thus R 5/9 means HUE , VALUE /CHROMA , and will be found to represent the qualities of the pigment vermilion.

It may be long before he can imitate the intervening steps of chroma, many children finding it difficult to express more than five steps of the chroma scale, although easily making ten steps of value and from twenty to thirty-five steps of hue. This interesting feature is of psychologic value, and has been followed in the color tree and color sphere.

+Does such a scientific scheme leave any outlet for feeling and personal expression of beauty?+

Lest this exact attitude in color study should seem inartistic, compared with the free and almost chaotic methods in use, let it be said that the stage thus far outlined is frankly disciplinary. It is somewhat dry and unattractive, just as the early musical training is fatiguing without inventive exercises. The child should be encouraged at each step to exercise his fancy.

Instead of cramping his outlook upon nature, it widens his grasp of color, and stores the memory with finer differences, supplying more material by which to express his sense of coloristic beauty.

Color harmony, as now treated, is a purely personal affair, difficult to refer to any clear principles or definite laws. The very terms by which it seeks expression are borrowed from music, and suggest vague analogies that fail when put to the test. Color needs a new set of expressive terms, appropriate to its qualities, before we can make an analysis as to the harmony or discord of our color sensations.

Let us make an outline of the course of color study traced in the preceding pages.

+PERCEPTION of color.+

Middle hues . Middle hues . Middle hues .

+EXPRESSION of color.+

Initial for hue, numeral above for value, numeral below for chroma.

Two scales united, as hue and value, or chroma and value. Three scales united,--each step a change of hue, value, and chroma.

Opposites of equal value and chroma . Opposites of equal value and unequal chroma . Opposites unequal both in value and chroma . AREA as an element of balance.

+HARMONY of color.+

Study of butterfly wings and flowers, recorded by the NOTATION. Study of painted ornament, rugs, and mosaics, recorded by the NOTATION. Personal choice of color PAIRS, balanced by H, V, C, and area. Personal choice of color TRIADS, balanced by H, V, C, and area.

Their analysis by the written notation. Search for principles of harmony, expressed in measured terms.

+A definite plan of color study, with freedom as to details of presentation.+

Having memorized these broad divisions of the study, a clever teacher will introduce many a detail, to meet the mood of the class, or correlate this subject with other studies, without for a moment losing the thread of thought or befogging the presentation. But to range at random in the immense field of color sensations, without plan or definite aim in view, only courts fatigue of the retina and a chaotic state of mind.

THE COLOR SPHERE, WITH MEASURED SCALES OF HUE, VALUE, AND CHROMA.

+All colors grasped in the hand.+

Let us recall the names and order of colors given in the last chapter, with their assemblage in a sphere by the three qualities of HUE, VALUE, and CHROMA. It will aid the memory to call the thumb of the left hand RED, the forefinger YELLOW, the middle finger GREEN, the ring finger BLUE, and the little finger PURPLE . When the finger tips are in a circle, they represent a circuit of hues, which has neither beginning nor end, for we can start with any finger and trace a sequence forward or backward. Now close the tips together for white, and imagine that the five strong hues have slipped down to the knuckles, where they stand for the equator of the color Sphere. Still lower down at the wrist is black.

The hand thus becomes a color holder, with white at the finger tips, black at the wrist, strong colors around the outside, and weaker colors within the hollow. Each finger is a scale of its own color, with white above and black below, while the graying of all the hues is traced by imaginary lines which meet in the middle of the hand. Thus a child's hand may be his substitute for the color sphere, and also make him realize that it is filled with grayer degrees of the outside colors, all of which melt into gray in the centre.

+Neighborly and opposite hues; and their mixture.+

Let this circle stand for the equator of the color sphere with the five principal hues spaced evenly about it. Some colors are neighbors, as red and yellow, while others are opposites. As soon as a child experiments with paints, he will notice the different results obtained by mixing them.

Green and yellow unite to form GREEN-YELLOW, blue and green make BLUE-GREEN, and so on with each succeeding pair. These intermediates are to be written by their initials, and inserted in their proper place between the principal hues. It is as if an orange were split into ten sectors instead of five, with red, yellow, green, blue, and purple as alternate sectors, while half of each adjoining color pair were united to form the sector between them. The original order of five hues is in no wise disturbed, but linked together by five intermediate steps.

Here is a table of the intermediates made by mixing each pair:--

Red and yellow unite to form yellow-red , popularly called orange. Yellow and green unite to form green-yellow , popularly called grass green. Green and blue unite to form blue-green , popularly called peacock blue. Blue and purple unite to form purple-blue , popularly called violet. Purple and red unite to form red-purple , popularly called plum.

Each principal hue has thus made two close neighbors by mixing with the nearest principal hue on either hand. The neighbors of red are a yellow-red on one side and a purple-red on the other. The neighbors of green are a green-yellow on one hand and a blue-green on the other. It is evident that a still closer neighbor could be made by again mixing each consecutive pair in this circle of ten hues; and, if the process were continued long enough, the color steps would become so fine that the eye could see only a circuit of hues melting imperceptibly one into another.

But it is better for the child to gain a fixed idea of red, yellow, green, blue, and purple, with their intermediates, before attempting to mix pigments, and these ten steps are sufficient for primary education.

Next comes the question of opposites in this circle. A line drawn from red, through the centre, finds its opposite, blue-green. If these colors are mixed, they unite to form gray. Indeed, the centre of the circle stands for a middle gray, not only because it is the centre of the neutral axis between black and white, but also because any pair of opposites will unite to form gray.

This is a table of five mixtures which make neutral gray:

Opposites Each pair of which unites in neutral gray.

+Hues once removed, and their mixture.+

+Mixture of white and black: a scale of grays.+

So far we have thought only of the plane of the equator, with its circle of middle hues in ten steps, and studied their mixture by drawing lines to join them. Now let us start at the neutral centre, and think upward to white and downward to black

If left to personal preference, an estimate of middle value will vary with each individual who attempts to make it. This appears in the neutral scales already published for schools, and students who depend upon them, discover a variation of over 10 per cent. in the selection of middle gray. Since this VALUE SCALE underlies all color work, it needs accurate adjustment by scientific means, as in scales of sound, of length, of weight, or of temperature.

A PHOTOMETER is shown on the next page. It measures the relative amount of light which the eye receives from any source, and so enables us to make a scale with any number of regular steps. The principle on which it acts is very simple.

Let us now test one of these personal decisions about middle value. A sample replaces the white field in the fixed half, and by means of the valve, the white field in the variable half is alternately darkened and lightened, until it matches the sample and the eye sees no difference in the two. The dial then discloses the fact that this supposedly MIDDLE VALUE reflects only 42 per cent. of the light; that is to say, it is nearly a whole step too low in a decimal scale. Other samples err nearly as far on the light side of middle value, and further tests prove not only the varying color sensitiveness of individuals, but detect a difference between the left and right eye of the same person.

The vagaries of color estimate thus disclosed, lead some to seek shelter in "feeling and inspiration"; but feeling and inspiration are temperamental, and have nothing to do with the simple facts of vision. A measured and unchanging scale is as necessary and valuable in the training of the eye as the musical scale in the discipline of the ear.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet