A Color Notation: A measured color system, based on the three qualities Hue, Value and ChromaMunsell, A. H. (Albert Henry)
Science
A Color Notation: A measured color system, based on the three qualities Hue, Value and Chroma
Munsell, A. H. (Albert Henry)
Color
all of the hues in the right-hand column being compound sensations. The
sensation of green is not due to a mixture of yellow and blue, as the
absorptive action of pigments might lead one to think: GREEN IS
FUNDAMENTAL, and not made by mixing any hues of the spectrum, while
YELLOW IS NOT FUNDAMENTAL, but caused by the mingled sensations of red
and green. This is easily proved by a controlled spectrum, for all
yellow-reds, yellows, and green-yellows can be matched by certain
proportions of red and green light, all blue-greens, blues, and
purple-blues can be obtained by the union of green and violet light,
while purple-blue, purple, and red-purple result from the union of
violet and red light. But there is no point where a mixture gives red,
green, or violet-blue. They are the true primaries, whose mixtures
produce all other hues.
Studio and school-room practice still cling to the discredited theory,
claiming that, if it fails to describe our color sensations, yet it may
be called practically true of pigments, because a red, yellow, and blue
pigment suffice to imitate most natural colors. This discrepancy between
pigment mixture and retinal mixture becomes clear as soon as one learns
the physical make-up and behavior of paints.
[Illustration:
{ Vermilion
Spectra {
{ Em. Green
P. B. G. Y. R.]
Spectral analysis shows that no pigment is a pure example of the
dominant hue which it sends to the eye. Take, for example, the very
chromatic pigments representing red and green, such as vermilion and
emerald green. If each emitted a single pure hue free from trace of any
other hue, then their mixture would appear yellow, as when spectral red
and green unite. But, instead of yellow, their mixture produces a warm
gray, called brown or “dull salmon,” and this is to be inferred from
their spectra, where it is seen that vermilion emits some green and
purple as well as its dominant color, while the green also sends some
blue and red light to the eye.[20]
[Footnote 20: See Rood, Chapter VII., on Color by Absorption.]
Thus stray hues from other parts of the spectrum tend to neutralize the
yellow sensation, which would be strong if each of the pigments were
pure in the spectral sense. Pigment absorption affects all palette
mixtures, and, failing to obtain a satisfactory yellow by mixture of red
and green, painters use original yellow pigments,--such as aureolin,
cadmium, and lead chromate,--each of them also impure but giving a
dominant sensation of yellow. Did the eye discriminate, as does the ear
when it analyzes the separate tones of a chord, then we should recognize
that yellow pigments emit both red and green rays.
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