The Munsell Student Color Set

[Marvin Mattelson]

Richard,

Once you understand the Munsell notations it's very easy to identify the hue value and chroma of any color. I don't use the exact value designation of Munsell which is based on a theoretical black and white as the extreme points on the scale. My scale is also made up of eleven steps. My extremes are black and white paint with nine intermediate values. White is designated as value 10 and black is value 0. According to the Munsell notations Black paint is value 1.5 and white paint is 9.5 because Munsell is used to identify colors that go beyond the range of artist colors.

I mix my grays from white, ivory black and raw umber, varying the admixtures to adjust the value, as well as the coolness (too much black) or warmness (too much umber).

If I wanted to neutralize a yellow ochre I'd add neutral gray value 6. When I gray down a color I don't want to alter the value of that color. Using just black and white to make the grays will shift the hue of the color you are neutralizing towards blue.

Hope this helps.

[Richard Monro]

Marvin,

If I understand what you are saying, you have 11 values ranging from white to black. To then gray a particular color of a particular value you choose a neutral of the same value to mix with the color. The more neutral gray of that value that you mix with the color the more gray the color. If what I have stated is correct, the system makes great sense to me. Thanks for the input.

[Steven Sweeney]

I'm not trying to draw away from this, but to augment it, in that I found experimenting with John Howard Sanden's paint system equally as interesting and useful, in that he also grays his colors with grays. Of course, a lot of folks protest that they're premixed grays, and those folks remain free to spend the time mixing their own (arriving, eventually, at the premixed mix, while time marches on), but the lesson is the same. You're ahead of the game by not altering chroma in a way that alters value. Once you introduce two variables, you begin to lose control.

[Marvin Mattelson]

You got it Richard.

When a string of grays are coupled with value strings of various hues the amount of control in color mixing is geometrically magnified. I find using nine steps to be more efficient by virtue of the elimination of some extra steps. Using such an approach is what allows my workshop students to make such amazing progress in just two weeks, or even less. Color mixing becomes much less of a struggle and more attention can be focused on value control.

I know there are certain people who read my posts and don't like that I mention my teaching, but I believe that the fact my approach works so well for so many gives my ideas greater credibility.

Steven, Sanden's Pro Mix Colors utilize two or three grays, I believe. The concept of using neutrals to reduce intensities has been around since DaVinci. Bouguereau also used a similar approach as did many many others.

Artists of the past may not necessarily have used the exact nomenclature of the Munsell System but using value strings of various hues and neutralizing them to control intensity go back much further than Munsell. Without such an approach Bouguereau wouldn't have been able to achieve the subtlety that made his work so noteworthy.

[Steven Sweeney]

Originally Posted by Marvin Mattelson

Steven, Sanden's Pro Mix Colors utilize two or three grays, I believe

Yes, I was merely citing but one example of a similar, though not the same, approach. Daniel Greene

[Linda Ciallelo]

I have been reading about the Munsell theory on various forums for a long time. I never really understood what they used it for until now. I knew what it was, but not what it was for. Thank you for clear explanation.

[Julie Deane]

I sat in Marvin's color theory class, and then tried an experiment.

I mixed a certain shade of gray-green using
1. green and a complementary color and
2. green plus a neutral gray.
I couldn't believe my eyes! I could see no difference in my end results.

Using the gray made it faster and easier to produce the desired color.

[Richard Bingham]

What is a forum, if not a teaching opportunity?

Any problems lie in arriving at methodology by consensus . . . so as not to hurt anyone's feelings.

Only the outline of Marvin's teaching approach can be fully apprehended here, you'd have to take his class to get the full benefit. Meantime, even those of us who insist on re-inventing the wheel can benefit from the ordered approach that identifying one's major value separations and working from a set-palette bring to the process.

Too many beginning painters are seduced by the blather of critical word-stuffing that lauds 'intuitive" approaches, saying stupid things like "He mixed his colors right on the canvas'. If you think that's the way to approach a painting, it's going to be a long, tough haul!

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I like to throw in a little friendly "challenge". Marvin has a three Student Gallery pages on his web site. For anyone doubting the effectiveness of this approach, I would google the students and look at work done prior to the workshops and after the workshops.

The results speak for themselves and that for me is all the validation necessary to prove that this technique can make a change in the way students learn to deal with color. As Marvin said, this method has been around for years. He just happens to be one of the very few instructors who I have found, who teach this method.

Just as Allan pointed out there are many ways to reach similar results, but why struggle for years, when there is an easier way to learn?!

[Linda Ciallelo]

I spent a lot of years mixing compliments with triads, but recently started using black instead. Often times the color that I'm aiming for isn't the color I end up using. Once I put it on the canvas I change my mind. It's not always about matching a hue, chroma, and value exactly to the reference, but about what looks best in the painting. I have found that there can be a multitude of options as to how someone can interpret the colors of the reference as well as the options of how to mix them. I think Whistler is closest to my inherent color sense. His chroma is very subtle but he still uses some soft blues. It's not a matter of using blue "or" black, but "both". I usually don't have trouble "hitting" the color I'm after, but often change my mind after I put it on the canvas. I don't see how the Munsell system could help me with that. Maybe if I grayed the chroma down enough, it would look good with anything because it would be very neutral.