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
Such a color score, or notation diagram, to be made small or large as
the case demands, offers a very convenient means for recording color
combinations, when pigments are not at hand.
[Illustration: Fig. 24.]
(141) To display its three dimensions, a little model can be made with
three visiting cards, so placed as to present their mutual intersection
at right angles (Fig. 24).
5G 5/5 is their centre of mutual balance. A central plane separates all
colors into two contrasted fields. To the right are all warm colors, to
the left are all cool colors. Each of these fields is again divided by
the plane of the equator into lighter colors above and darker colors
below. These four color fields are again subdivided by a transverse
plane through 5G 5/5 into strong colors in front and weak colors beyond
or behind it.
(142) Any color group, whose record must all be written to the right of
the centre, is warm, because red and yellow are dominant. One to the
left of the centre must be cool, because it is dominated by blue.
A group written all above the centre must have light in excess, while
one written entirely below is dark to excess. Finally, a score written
all in front of the centre represents only strong chromas, while one
written behind it contains only weak chromas. From this we gather that a
balanced composition of color preserves some sort of equilibrium,
uniting degrees of warm and cool, of light and dark, and of weak and
strong, which is made at once apparent by the dots on the score.
(143) A single color, like that of a violet, a rose, or a buttercup,
appears as a dot on the score, with a numeral added for its chroma.
A parti-colored flower, such as a nasturtium, is shown by two dots with
their chromas, and a bunch of red and yellow flowers will give by their
dots a color passage, or “silhouette,” whose warmth and lightness is
unmistakable.
The chroma of each flower written with the silhouette completes the
record. The hues of a beautiful Persian rug, with dark red
predominating, or a verdure tapestry, in which green is dominant, or a
Japanese print, with blue dominant, will trace upon the score a pattern
descriptive of its color qualities. These records, with practice, become
as significant to the eye as the musical score. The general character of
a color combination is apparent at a glance, while its degrees of chroma
are readily joined to fill out the mental image.
(144) Such a plan of color notation grows naturally from the spherical
system of measured colors. It is hardly to be hoped, in devising a color
score, that it should not seem crude at first. But the measures forming
the basis of this record can be verified by impartial instruments, and
have a permanent value in the general study of color. They also afford
some definite data as to personal bias in color estimates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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