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Old 01-12-2003, 02:38 PM   #8
Michael Georges Michael Georges is offline
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Joined: Nov 2001
Location: Loveland, CO
Posts: 846
Kim:

The Munsell system was adapted for painters by Frank Reilly - I learned it from Covino who learned it from Reilly.

If you want to see it in practical use, just look at any of my paintings where I use the verdaccio underpainting. They begin by expressing pure values over which I lay in color of a corresponding value - a value 7 gray in the undertone gets a value 7 color over the top. This is best shown in the flesh palette which I still use a modified version of - you mix nine values of flesh to correspond to your values of undertone. Chroma or intensity is expressed in many places, but can specifically be seen in passages where the form turns or as objects recede.

It is interesting that the system I learned from Bill Whitaker also depends on understanding the relationships between hue, value, and chroma, but you begin with color rather than monochrome. It would have been much harder for me to adapt to it if I did not have a good understanding of the Munsell system. Bill mixes on the fly and adjusts hue, value and chroma all on his palette as he paints - very difficult thing to do unless you understand it. He does and the results are amazing.
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