Produced by Louise Hope, K.D. Thornton and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[This text uses utf-8 (unicode) file encoding. If the apostrophes and
quotation marks in this paragraph appear as garbage, make sure your
text reader's "character set" or "file encoding" is set to Unicode
(UTF-8). You may also need to change the default font. As a last
resort, use the ascii-7 version of the file instead.
The Table of Contents, Index, and all cross-references use paragraph
numbers, shown in (parentheses).
Braces have been added to a few long fractions that were originally
printed on two lines.
The numbers in expressions such as R2, R3, R4 were printed as
superscripts.]
[Illustration: A BALANCED COLOR SPHERE
PASTEL SKETCH]
A COLOR NOTATION
_By_
A. H. MUNSELL
A MEASURED COLOR SYSTEM, BASED ON THE THREE QUALITIES
_Hue, Value, and Chroma_
with
Illustrative Models, Charts, and
a Course of Study Arranged for Teachers
_2nd Edition
Revised &
Enlarged_
GEO. H. ELLIS CO.
BOSTON
1907
COPYRIGHT, 1905
by
A. H. MUNSELL
_All rights reserved_
ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
At various times during the past ten years, the gist of these pages has
been given in the form of lectures to students of the Normal Art School,
the Art Teachers' Association, and the Twentieth Century Club. In
October of last year it was presented before the Society of Arts of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at the suggestion of Professor
Charles R. Cross.
Grateful acknowledgment is due to many whose helpful criticism has aided
in its development, notably Mr. Benjamin Ives Gilman, Secretary of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Professor Harry E. Clifford, of the Institute, and
Mr. Myron T. Pritchard, master of the Everett School, Boston.
A. H. M.
CHESTNUT HILL, MASS., 1905.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
The new illustrations in this edition are facsimiles of children's
studies with measured color, made under ordinary school-room conditions.
Notes and appendices are introduced to meet the questions most
frequently asked, stress being laid on the unbalanced nature of colors
usually given to beginners, and the mischief done by teaching that red,
yellow, and blue are primary hues.
The need of a scientific basis for color values is also emphasized,
believing this to be essential in the discipline of the color sense.
A. H. M.
CHESTNUT HILL, MASS., 1907.
INTRODUCTION.
The lack of definiteness which is at present so general in color
nomenclature, is due in large measure to the failure to appreciate the
fundamental characteristics on which color differences depend. For the
physicist, the expression of the wave length of any particular light is
in most cases sufficient, but in the great majority of instances where
colors are referred to, something more than this and something easier of
realization is essential.
The attempt to express color relations by using merely two dimensions,
or two definite characteristics, can never lead to a successful system.
For this reason alone the system proposed by Mr. Munsell, with its three
dimensions of hue, value, and chroma, is a decided step in advance over
any previous proposition. By means of these three dimensions it is
possible to completely express any particular color, and to
differentiate it from colors ordinarily classed as of the same
general character.
The expression of the essential characteristics of a color is, however,
not all that is necessary. There must be some accurate and not too
complicated system for duplicating these characteristics, one which
shall not alter with time or place, and which shall be susceptible of
easy and accurate redetermination. From the teaching standpoint also a
logical and sequential development is absolutely essential. This Mr.
Munsell seems to have most successfully accomplished.
In the determination of his relationships he has made use of distinctly
scientific methods, and there seems no reason why his suggestions should
not lead to an exact and definite system of color essentials. The
Munsell photometer, which is briefly referred to, is an instrument of
wide range, high precision, and great sensitiveness, and permits the
valuations which are necessary in his system to be accurately made. We
all appreciate the necessity for some improvement in our ideas of color,
and the natural inference is that the training should be begun in early
youth. The present system in its modified form possesses elements of
simplicity and attractiveness which should appeal to children, and give
them almost unconsciously a power of discrimination which would prove of
immense value in later life. The possibilities in this system are very
great, and it has been a privilege to be allowed during the past few
years to keep in touch with its development. I cannot but feel that we
have here not only a rational color nomenclature, but also a system of
scientific importance and of practical value.
H. E. CLIFFORD.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,
February, 1905.
CONTENTS.
Introduction By Professor Clifford.
Part I.
Chapter Paragraph
I. COLOR NAMES: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple 1
Appendix I.--Misnomers for Color.
II. COLOR QUALITIES: Hue, Value, Chroma 20
Appendix II.--Scales of Hue, Value, and Chroma.
III. COLOR MIXTURE: A Tri-Dimensional Balance 54
Appendix III.--False Color Balance.
IV. PRISMATIC COLORS 87
Appendix IV.--Children's Color Studies.
V. THE PIGMENT COLOR SPHERE: TRUE COLOR BALANCE 102
Appendix V.--Schemes based on Brewster's Theory.
VI. COLOR NOTATION: A Written Color System 132
VII. COLOR HARMONY: A Measured Relation 146
Part II.
A COLOR SYSTEM AND COURSE OF STUDY
BASED ON THE COLOR SOLID AND ITS CHARTS.
Arranged for nine years of school life.
GLOSSARY OF COLOR TERMS.
Taken from the Century Dictionary.
INDEX
(by paragraphs).
CHAPTER I.
COLOR NAMES.
Writing from Samoa to Sidney Colvin in London, Stevenson[1] says:
"Perhaps in the same way it might amuse you to send us any pattern of
wall paper that might strike you as cheap, pretty, and suitable for a
room in a hot and extremely bright climate. It should be borne in mind
that our climate can be extremely dark, too. Our sitting-room is to be
in varnished wood. The room I have particularly in mind is a sort of bed
and sitting room, pretty large, lit on three sides, and the colour in
favour of its proprietor at present is a topazy yellow. But then with
what colour to relieve it? For a little work-room of my own at the back
I should rather like to see some patterns of unglossy--well, I'll be
hanged if I can describe this red. It's not Turkish, and it's not Roman,
and it's not Indian; but it seems to partake of the last two, and yet it
can't be either of them, because it ought to be able to go with
vermilion. Ah, what a tangled web we weave! Anyway, with what brains you
have left choose me and send me some--many--patterns of the exact
shade."
[Footnote 1: Vailima Letters, Oct. 8, 1902.]
(1) Where could be found a more delightful cry for some rational way to
describe color? He wants "a topazy yellow" and a red that is not Turkish
nor Roman nor Indian, but that "seems to partake of the last two, and
yet it can't be either of them." As a cap to the climax comes his demand
for "patterns of the exact shade." Thus one of the clearest and most
forceful writers of English finds himself unable to describe the color
he wants. And why? Simply because popular language does not clearly
state a single one of the three qualities united in every color, and
which must be known before one may even hope to convey his color
conceptions to another.
(2) The incongruous and bizarre nature of our present color names must
appear to any thoughtful person. Baby blue, peacock blue, Nile green,
apple green, lemon yellow, straw yellow, rose pink, heliotrope, royal
purple, Magenta, Solferino, plum, and automobile are popular terms,
conveying different ideas to different persons and utterly failing to
define colors. The terms used for a single hue, such as pea green, sea
green, olive green, grass green, sage green, evergreen, invisible green,
are not to be trusted in ordering a piece of cloth. They invite mistakes
and disappointment. Not only are they inaccurate: they are
inappropriate. Can we imagine musical tones called lark, canary,
cockatoo, crow, cat, dog, or mouse, because they bear some distant
resemblance to the cries of those animals? See paragraph 131.
+Color needs a system.+
(3) Music is equipped with a system by which it defines each sound in
terms of its pitch, intensify, and duration, without dragging in loose
allusions to the endlessly varying sounds of nature. So should color be
supplied with an appropriate system, based on the hue, value, and
chroma[2] of our sensations, and not attempting to describe them by the
indefinite and varying colors of natural objects. The system now to be
considered portrays the three dimensions of color, and measures each by
an appropriate scale. It does not rest upon the whim of an individual,
but upon physical measurements made possible by special color apparatus.
The results may be tested by any one who comes to the problem with "a
clear mind, a good eye, and a fair supply of patience."
[Footnote 2: See color variables in Glossary.]
+Clear mental images make clear speech. Vague thoughts find vague
utterance.+
(4) The child gathers flowers, hoards colored beads, chases butterflies,
and begs for the gaudiest painted toys. At first his strong color
sensations are sufficiently described by the simple terms of red,
yellow, green, blue, and purple. But he soon sees that some are light,
while others are dark, and later comes to perceive that each hue has
many grayer degrees. Now, if he wants to describe a particular
red,--such as that of his faded cap,--he is not content to merely call
it red, since he is aware of other red objects which are very unlike it.
So he gropes for means to define this particular red; and, having no
standard of comparison,--no scale by which to estimate,--he hesitatingly
says it is a "sort of dull red."
(5) Thus early is he cramped by the poverty of color language. He has
never been given an appropriate word for this color quality, and has to
borrow one signifying the opposite of sharp, which belongs to edge tools
rather than to colors.
+Most color terms are borrowed from other senses.+
(6) When his older sister refers to the "tone" of her green dress, or
speaks of the "key of color" in a picture, he is naturally confused,
because tone and key are terms associated in his mind with music. It may
not be long before he will hear that "a color note has been pitched too
high," or that a certain artist "paints in a minor key." All these terms
lead to mixed and indefinite ideas, and leave him unequipped for the
clear expression of color qualities.
(7) Musical art is not so handicapped. It has an established scale with
measured intervals and definite terms. Likewise, coloristic art must
establish a scale, measure its intervals, and name its qualities in
unmistakable fashion.
+Color has three dimensions.+
(8) It may sound strange to say that color has three dimensions, but it
is easily proved by the fact that each of them can be measured. Thus in
the case of the boy's faded cap its redness or HUE[3] is determined by
one instrument; the amount of light in the red, which is its VALUE,[3]
is found by another instrument; while still a third instrument
determines the purity or CHROMA[3] of the red.
The omission of any one of these three qualities leaves us in doubt as
to the character of a color, just as truly as the character of this
studio would remain undefined if the length were omitted and we
described it as 22 feet wide by 14 feet high. The imagination would be
free to ascribe any length it chose, from 25 to 100 feet. This length
might be differently conceived by every individual who tried to supply
the missing factor.
(9) To illustrate the tri-dimensional nature of colors. Suppose we peel
an orange and divide it in five parts, leaving the sections slightly
connected below (Fig. 4). Then let us say that all the reds we have ever
seen are gathered in one of the sections, all yellows in another, all
greens in the third, blues in the fourth, and purples in the fifth. Next
we will assort these HUES in each section so that the lightest are near
the top, and grade regularly to the darkest near the bottom. A white
wafer connects all the sections at the top, and a black wafer may be
added beneath. See Plate I.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
[Footnote 3: For definitions of Hue, Value, and Chroma, see
paragraphs 20-23.]
(10) The fruit is then filled with assorted colors, graded from white to
black, according to their VALUES, and disposed by their HUES in the five
sections. A slice near the top will uncover light values in all hues,
and a slice near the bottom will find dark values in the same hues.
A slice across the middle discloses a circuit of hues all of MIDDLE
VALUE; that is, midway between the extremes of white and black.
(11) Two color dimensions are thus shown in the orange, and it remains
to exhibit the third, which is called CHROMA, or strength of color. To
do this, we have only to take each section in turn, and, without
disturbing the values already assorted, shove the grayest in toward the
narrow edge, and grade outward to the purest on the surface. Each slice
across the fruit still shows the circuit of hues in one uniform value;
but the strong chromas are at the outside, while grayer and grayer
chromas make a gradation inward to neutral gray at the centre, where all
trace of color disappears. The thin edges of all sections unite in a
scale of gray from black to white, no matter what hue each contains.
The curved outside of each section shows its particular hue graded from
black to white; and, should the section be cut at right angles to the
thin edge, it would show the third dimension,--chroma,--for the color is
graded evenly from the surface to neutral gray. A pin stuck in at any
point traces the third dimension.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
+A color sphere can be used to unite the three dimensions of hue,
value, and chroma.+
(12) Having used the familiar structure of the orange as a help in
classifying colors, let us substitute a geometric solid, like a
sphere,[4] and make use of geographical terms. The north pole is white.
The south pole is black. The equator is a circuit of middle reds,
yellows, greens, blues, and purples. Parallels above the equator
describe this circuit in lighter values, and parallels below trace it in
darker values. The vertical axis joining black and white is a neutral
scale of gray values, while perpendiculars to it (like a pin thrust into
the orange) are scales of chroma. Thus our color notions may be brought
into an orderly relation by the color sphere. Any color describes its
light and strength by its location in the solid or on the surface, and
is named by its place in the combined scales of hue, value, and chroma.
[Footnote 4: See frontispiece.]
+Two dimensions fail to describe a color.+
(13) Much of the popular misunderstanding of color is caused by
ignorance of these three dimensions or by an attempt to make two
dimensions do the work of three.
(14) Flat diagrams showing hues and values, but omitting to define
chromas, are as incomplete as would be a map of Switzerland with the
mountains left out, or a harbor chart without indications of the depth
of water. We find by aid of the measuring instruments that pigments are
very unequal in this third dimension,--chroma,--producing mountains and
valleys on the color sphere, so that, when the color system is worked
out in pigments and charted, some colors must be traced well out beyond
the spherical surface (paragraphs 125-127). Indeed, a COLOR TREE[5] is
needed to display by the unequal levels and lengths of its branches the
individuality of pigment colors. But, whatever solid or figure is used
to illustrate color relations, it must combine the three scales of hue,
value, and chroma, and these definite scales furnish a name for every
color based upon its intrinsic qualities, and free from terms purloined
in other sensations, or caught from the fluctuating colors of natural
objects.
[Footnote 5: For description of the Color Tree see paragraphs 33
and 34.]
+How this system describes the spectrum.+
(15) The solar spectrum and rainbow are the most stimulating color
experiences with which we are acquainted. Can they be described by this
solid system?
(16) The lightest part of the spectrum is a narrow field of greenish
yellow, grading into darker red on one side and into darker green upon
the other, followed by still darker blue and purple. Upon the sphere the
values of these spectral colors trace a path high up on the yellow
section, near white, and slanting downward across the red and green
sections, which are traversed near the level of the equator, it goes on
to cross the blue and purple well down toward black.
(17) This forms an inclined circuit, crossing the equator at opposite
points, and suggests the ecliptic or the rings of Saturn (see outside
cover). A pale rainbow would describe a slanting circuit nearer white,
and a dimmer one would fall within the sphere, while an intensely
brilliant spectrum projects far beyond the surface of the sphere, so
greatly is the chroma of its hues in excess of the common pigments with
which we work out our problems.
(18) At the outset it is well to recognize the place of the spectrum in
this system, not only because it is the established basis of scientific
study, but especially because the invariable order assumed by its hues
is the only stable hint which Nature affords us in her infinite color
play.
(19) All our color sensations are included in the color solid. None are
left out by its scales of hue, value, and chroma. Indeed, the
imagination is led to conceive and locate still purer colors than any we
now possess. Such increased degrees of color sensation can be named, and
clearly conveyed by symbols to another person as soon as the system is
comprehended.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I.
+Misnomers for Color.+
The Century Dictionary helps an intelligent study of color by its clear
definitions and cross-references to HUE, VALUE, and CHROMA,--leaving no
excuse for those who would confuse these three qualities or treat a
degree of any quality as the quality itself.
Obscure statements were frequent in text-books before these new
definitions appeared. Thus the term "shade" should be applied only to
darkened values, and not to hues or chromas. Yet one writer says, "This
yellow shades into green," which is certainly a change of hue, and then
speaks of "a brighter shade" in spite of his evident intention to
suggest a stronger chroma, which is neither a shade nor brighter
luminosity.
Children gain wrong notions of "tint and shade" from the so-called
standard colors shown to them, which present "tints" of red and blue
much darker than the "shades" of yellow. This is bewildering, and, like
their elders, they soon drop into the loose habit of calling any degree
of color-strength or color-light a "shade." _Value_ is a better term to
describe the light which color reflects to the eye, and all color
values, light or dark, are measured by the _value-scale_.
"Tone" is used in a confusing way to mean different things. Thus in the
same sentence we see it refers to a single touch of the brush,--which is
not a tone, but a paint spot,--and then we read that the "tone of the
canvas is golden." This cannot mean that each paint spot is the color of
gold, but is intended to suggest that the various objects depicted seem
enveloped in a yellow atmosphere. Tone is, in fact, a musical term
appropriate to sound, but out of place in color. It seems better to call
the brush touch a _color-spot_: then the result of an harmonious
relation between all the spots is _color-envelope_, or, as in Rood, "the
chromatic composition."
"Intensity" is a misleading term, if chroma be intended, for it depends
on the relative light of spectral hues. It is a degree rather than a
quality, as appears in the expressions, intense heat, light,
sound,--intensity of stimulus and reaction. Being a degree of many
qualities, it should not be used to describe the quality itself. The
word becomes especially unfit when used to describe two very different
phases of a color,--as its intense illumination, where the chroma is
greatly weakened, and the strongest chroma which is found in a much
lower value. "Purity" is also to be avoided in speaking of pigments, for
not one of our pigments represents a single pure ray of the spectrum.
Examples are constantly found of the mental blur caused by such
unfortunate terms, and, since misunderstanding becomes impossible with
measured degrees of hue, value, and chroma, it seems only a question of
time when they will take the place of tint, tone, shade, purity and
intensity.
CHAPTER II.
COLOR QUALITIES.
(20) The three color qualities are hue, value, and chroma.
+HUE is the name of a color.+
(21) Hue is the quality by which we distinguish one color from another,
as a red from a yellow, a green, a blue, or a purple. This names the
hue, but does not tell whether it is light or dark, weak or
strong,--leaving us in doubt as to its value and its chroma.
Science attributes this quality to difference in the LENGTH of ether
waves impinging on the retina, which causes the sensation of color. The
wave length M. 5269 gives a sensation of green, while M. 6867 gives a
sensation of red.[6]
[Footnote 6: See Glossary for definitions of Micron, Photometer,
Retina, and Red, also for Hue, Tint, Shade, Value, Color
Variables, Luminosity, and Chroma.]
+VALUE is the light of a color.+
(22) Value is the quality by which we distinguish a light color from a
dark one. Color values are loosely called tints and shades, but the
terms are frequently misapplied. A tint should be a light value, and a
shade should be darker; but the word "shade" has become a general term
for any sort of color, so that a shade of yellow may prove to be lighter
than a tint of blue. A photometric[7] scale of value places all colors
in relation to the extremes of white and black, but cannot describe
their hue or their chroma.
Science describes this quality as due to difference in the HEIGHT or
amplitude of ether waves impinging on the retina. Small amplitudes of
the wave lengths given in paragraph 21 produce the sensation of dark
green and dark red: larger amplitudes give the sensation of lighter
green and lighter red.
[Footnote 7: See Photometer in paragraph 65.]
+CHROMA is the strength of a color.+
(23) Chroma is the quality by which we distinguish a strong color from a
weak one. To say that a rug is strong in color gives no hint of its hues
or values, only its chromas. Loss of chroma is loosely called fading,
but this word is frequently used to include changes of value and hue.
Take two autumn leaves, identical in color, and expose one to the
weather, while the other is waxed and pressed in a book. Soon the
exposed leaf fades into a neutral gray, while the protected one
preserves its strong chroma almost intact. If, in fading, the leaf does
not change its hue or its value, there is only a loss of chroma, but the
fading process is more likely to induce some change of the other two
qualities. Fading, however, cannot define these changes.
Science describes chroma as the purity of one wave length separated from
all others. Other wave lengths, INTERMINGLING, make its chroma less
pure. A beam of daylight can combine all wave lengths in such balance as
to give the sensation of whiteness, because no single wave is in
excess.[8]
[Footnote 8: See definition of White in Glossary.]
(24) The color sphere (see Fig. 1) is a convenient model to illustrate
these three qualities,--hue, value, and chroma,--and unite them by
measured scales.
(25) The north pole of the color sphere is white, and the south pole
black. Value or luminosity of colors ranges between these two extremes.
This is the vertical scale, to be memorized as _V_, the initial for both
value and vertical. Vertical movement through color may thus be thought
of as a change of value, but not as a change of hue or of chroma. Hues
of color are spread around the equator of the sphere. This is a
horizontal scale, memorized as _H_, the initial for both hue and
horizontal. Horizontal movement around the color solid is thus thought
of as a change of hue, but not of value or of chroma. A line inward from
the strong surface hues to the neutral gray axis, traces the graying of
each color, which is loss of chroma, and conversely a line beginning
with neutral gray at the vertical axis, and becoming more and more
colored until it passes outside the sphere, is a scale of chroma, which
is memorized as _C_, the initial both for chroma and centre. Thus the
sphere lends its three dimensions to color description, and a color
applied anywhere within, without, or on its surface is located and named
by its degree of hue, of value, and of chroma.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
+HUES first appeal to the child, VALUES next, and CHROMAS last.+
(26) Color education begins with ability to recognize and name certain
hues, such as red, yellow, green, blue, and purple (see paragraphs 182
and 183). Nature presents these hues in union with such varieties of
value and chroma that, unless there be some standard of comparison, it
is impossible for one person to describe them intelligently to another.
(27) The solar spectrum forms a basis for scientific color analysis,
taught in technical schools; but it is quite beyond the comprehension of
a child. He needs something more tangible and constantly in view to
train his color notions. He needs to handle colors, place them side by
side for comparison, imitate them with crayons, paints, and colored
stuffs, so as to test the growth of perception, and learn by simple yet
accurate terms to describe each by its hue, its value, and its chroma.
(28) Pigments, rather than the solar spectrum, are the practical agents
of color work. Certain of them, selected and measured by this system
(see Chapter V.), 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,[9] 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.
[Footnote 9: When recognized for the first time, a middle green,
blue, or purple, is accepted by most persons as well within
their color habit, but middle red and middle yellow cause
somewhat of a shock. "That isn't red," they say, "it's terra
cotta." "Yellow?" "Oh, no, that's--well, it's a very peculiar
shade."
Yet these are as surely the middle degrees of red and yellow as
are the more familiar degrees of green, blue, and purple. This
becomes evident as soon as one accepts physical tests of color
in place of personal whim. It also opens the mind to a generally
ignored fact, that middle reds and yellows, instead of the
screaming red and yellow first given a child, are constantly
found in examples of rich and beautiful color, such as Persian
rugs, Japanese prints, and the masterpieces of painting.]
(29) 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?+
(30) 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.+
(31) This clue is found in the union of these three qualities by
measured scales in a _color sphere and color tree_.[10] The equator of
the sphere[11] may be divided into ten parts, and serve as the scale of
hue, marked R, YR, Y, GY, G, BG, B, PB, P, and RP. Its vertical axis may
be divided into ten parts to serve as the scale of value, numbered from
black (0) to white (10). Any perpendicular to the neutral axis is a
scale of chroma. On the plane of the equator this scale is numbered 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, from the centre to the surface.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
[Footnote 10: See Color Tree in paragraph 14.]
[Footnote 11: Unaware that the spherical arrangement had been
used years before, I devised a double tetrahedron to classify
colors, while a student of painting in 1879. It now appears that
the sphere was common property with psychologists, having been
described by Runge in 1810. Earlier still, Lambert had suggested
a pyramidal form. Both are based on the erroneous assumption
that red, yellow, and blue are primary sensations, and also fail
to place these hues in a just scale of luminosity. My twirling
color solid and its completer development in the present model
have always made prominent the artistic feeling for color value.
It differs in this and in other ways from previous systems, and
is fortunate in possessing new apparatus to measure the degree
of hue, value, and chroma.]
(32) 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. (Figs. 2 and 3.)
[Illustration: Fig. 2. (See Fig. 20) The Color Tree]
(33) 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.
(34) The color tree is made by taking the vertical axis of the sphere,
which carries a scale of value, for the trunk. The branches are at right
angles to the trunk; and, as in the sphere, they carry the scale of
chroma. Colored balls on the branches tell their Hue. In order to show
the MAXIMA of color, each branch is attached to the trunk (or neutral
axis) at a level demanded by its value,--the yellow nearest white at the
top, then the green, red, blue, and purple branches, approaching black
in the order of their lower values. It will be remembered that the
chroma of the sphere ceased with 5 at the equator. The color tree
prolongs this through 6, 7, 8, and 9. The branch ends carry colored
balls, representing the most powerful red, yellow, green, blue, and
purple pigments which we now possess, and could be lengthened, should
stronger chromas be discovered.[12]
[Footnote 12: See Plate I.]
(35) 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.
(36) 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.
(37) These solid models help to memorize and assemble colors and the
memory is further strengthened by a simple NOTATION, which records each
color so that it cannot be mistaken for any other. By these written
scales a child gains an instinctive estimate of relations, so that, when
he is delighted with a new color combination, its proportions are noted
and understood.
(38) 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.
(39) 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.[13]
[Footnote 13: See Course of Study, Part II.]
+Every color can be recognized, named, matched, imitated, and written
by its HUE, VALUE, and CHROMA.+
(40) The notation used in this system places Hue (expressed by an
initial) at the left; Value (expressed by a number) at the right and
above a line; and Chroma (also expressed by a number) at the right,
below the line. Thus R 5/9 means HUE (red), VALUE (5)/CHROMA (9), and
will be found to represent the qualities of the pigment vermilion.[14]
[Footnote 14: See Chapter VI.]
Hue, value, and chroma unite in every color sensation, but the child
cannot grasp them all at once. _Hue-difference appeals to him first_,
and he gains a permanent idea of five principal hues from the enamels of
MIDDLE COLORS, learning to name, match, imitate, and finally write them
by their initials: R (red), Y (yellow), G (green), B (blue), and P
(purple). Intermediates formed by uniting successive pairs are also
written by the joined initials, YR (yellow-red), GY (green-yellow), BG
(blue-green), PB (purple-blue), and RP (red-purple).
(41) Ten differences of hue are as many as a child can render at the
outset, yet in matching and imitating them he becomes aware of their
light and dark quality, and learns to separate it from hue as
_value-difference_. Middle colors, as implied by that name, stand midway
between white and black,--that is, on the equator of the sphere,--so
that a middle red will be written R 5/, suggesting the steps 6, 7, 8,
and 9 which are above the equator, while steps 4, 3, 2, and 1 are below.
It is well to show only three values of a color at first; for instance,
the middle value contrasted with a light and a dark one. These are
written R 3/, R 5/, R 7/. Soon he perceives and can imitate finer
differences, and the red scale may be written entire, as R 1/, R 2/,
R 3/, R 4/, R 5/, R 6/, R 7/, R 8/, R 9/, with black as 0 and white
as 10.
(42) _Chroma-difference is the third_ and most subtle color quality. The
child is already unconsciously familiar with the middle chroma of red,
having had the enamels of MIDDLE COLOR always in view, and the red
enamel is to be contrasted with the strongest and weakest red chromas
obtainable. These he writes R /1, R /5, R /9, seeing that this describes
the chromas of red, but leaves out its values. R 5/1, R 5/5, R 5/9, is
the complete statement, showing that, while both hue and value are
unchanged, the chroma passes from grayish red to middle red (enamel
first learned) and out to the strongest red in the chroma scale obtained
by vermilion.
(43) 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?+
(44) 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.
(45) 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.
(46) 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.
(47) This need is supplied in the present system by measured CHARTS, and
a NOTATION. Their very construction preserves the _balance of colors_,
as will be shown in the next chapter, while the chapter on harmony
(Chapter VII.) shows how harmonious pairs and triads of color may be
found by MASKS with measured intervals. In fact, practice in the use of
the charts supplies the imagination with scales and sequences of color
quite as definite and quite as easily written as those sound intervals
by which the musician conveys to others his sense of harmony. And,
although in neither art can training alone make the artist, yet a
technical grasp of these formal scales gives acquaintance with the full
range of the instrument, and is indispensable to artistic expression.
From these color scales each individual is free to choose combinations
in accord with his feeling for color harmony.
Let us make an outline of the course of color study traced in the
preceding pages.[15]
[Footnote 15: _See_ Part II., A Color System and Course of
Study.]
+PERCEPTION of color.+
(48) _Hue-difference._
Middle hues (5 principals).
Middle hues (5 intermediates).
Middle hues (10 placed in sequence as SCALE of HUE).
_Value-difference._
Light, middle, and dark values (without change of hue).
Light, middle, and dark values (traced with 5 principal hues).
10 values traced with each hue. SCALE of VALUE. _The Color Sphere_.
_Chroma-difference._
Strong, middle, and weak chroma (without change of hue).
Strong, middle and weak chroma (traced with three values without
change of hue).
Strong, middle, and weak chroma (traced with three values and
ten hues).
Maxima of color and their gradation to white, black, and gray.
_The Color Tree._
+EXPRESSION of color.+
(49) _Matching and imitation_ of hues (using stuffs, crayons, and
paints).
_Matching and imitation_ of values and hues (using stuffs, crayons,
and paints).
_Matching and imitation_ of chromas, values, and hues (using stuffs,
crayons, and paints).
_Notation of color._
Value V
Hue ------ , H - ,
Chroma C
Initial for hue, numeral above for value, numeral below for chroma.
_Sequences of color._
Two scales united, as hue and value, or chroma and value.
Three scales united,--each step a change of hue, value, and chroma.
_Balance of color._
Opposites of equal value and chroma (R 5/5 and BG 5/5).
Opposites of equal value and unequal chroma (R 5/9 and BG 5/3).
Opposites unequal both in value and chroma (R 7/3 and BG 3/7).
AREA as an element of balance.
+HARMONY of color.+
(50) _Selection of colors_ that give pleasure.
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.
_Grouping of colors_ to suit some practical use: wall papers, rugs,
book covers, etc.
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.[16]+
[Footnote 16: See Color Study assigned to each grade, in
Part II.]
(51) 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.
(52) The same broad principles which govern the presentation of other
ideas apply with equal force in this study. A little, well apprehended,
is better than a mass of undigested facts. If the child is led to
discover, or at least to think he is discovering, new things about
color, the mind will be kept alert and seek out novel illustrations at
every step. Now and then a pupil will be found who leads both teacher
and class by _intuitive_ appreciation of color, and it is a subtle
question how far such a nature can be helped or hurt by formal
exercises. But such an exception is rare, and goes to prove that
systematic discipline of the color sense is necessary for most children.
(53) Outdoor nature and indoor surroundings offer endless color
illustrations. Birds, flowers, minerals, and the objects in daily use
take on a new interest when their varied colors are brought into a
conscious relation, and clearly named. A tri-dimensional perception,
like this sense of color, requires skilful training, and each lesson
must be simplified to the last point practicable. It must not be too
long, and should lead to some definite result which a child can grasp
and express with tolerable accuracy, while its difficulties should be
approached by easy stages, so as to avoid failure or discouragement. The
success of the present effort is the best incentive to further
achievement.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II.
PLATE I.
THE COLOR SPHERE, WITH MEASURED SCALES OF HUE, VALUE, AND CHROMA.
The teacher of elementary grades introduces these scales of tempered
color as fast as the child's interest is awakened to their need by the
exercises shown in Plates II. and III. Thus the Hue scale is learned
before the end of the second year, the Value scale during the next two
years, and the Chroma scale in the fifth year. By the time a child is
ten years old these definite color scales have become part of his mental
furnishing, so that he can name, write, and memorize any color group.
1. _The Color Sphere in Skeleton._ This diagram shows the middle colors
on the equator, with strong red, yellow, green, blue, and purple, each
at its proper level in the value scale, and projecting in accordance
with its scale of chroma. See the complete description of these scales
in Chapter II.
2. _The Color Score._ Fifteen typical steps taken from the color sphere
are here spread out in a flat field. The FIVE MIDDLE COLORS form the
centre level, with the same hues in a lighter value above and in a
darker value below. Chapter VI. describes the making of this Score, and
its use in analyzing colors and preserving a written record of their
groups.
3. _The Value Scale and Chroma Scale._ Each of the five color maxima is
thus shown at its proper level in the scale of light, and graded by
uniform steps from its strongest chroma inward to neutrality at the axis
of the sphere. Pigment inequalities here become very apparent.
[Illustration: PLATE I.
Copyright 1907 by A. H. Munsell.]
FOR PLATES II. & III.,
SEE APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV.,
CHILDREN'S COLOR STUDIES.