RSITY OF CALIFORNIA. SAN DIEGO 3 1822022100283 01 7 LOR BALANCE California ional cility ILLUSTRATED A. H, MUNSELL Social Sciences & Humanities Library University of California, San Diego Please Note: This item is subject to recall. Date Due B n 7 ml CI39(2#5) UCSDLt). PLATE Liaht Values Copyright 1907 by A.H. Munsell. COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MUNSELL SYSTEM BOSTON OP GEO. H. ELLIS CO. 1913 FOREWORD. This brief introduction refers by many a foot-note to more com- plete statements in a larger book, giving a detailed account of the system, with reproductions of beautiful work in measured color, which children have made in the graded course of study.* Beauty of color flows from balance and measure. Tempered sensations not extremes are the source of refined pleasure, and in this system the crude extremes of red, yellow, and blue which make the bill-poster hideous are replaced by those moder- ate degrees of color which abound in the best decorative and fine art. Later, when the principle of balance is well understood, the measured charts of the Atlas f teach the proportion by which small accents of strongest color may balance large fields of quiet chroma. A color sense thus trained by accurate scales instead of the prevalent guesswork, develops fine discriminations. These model lessons have been tested by teachers of long experience, and when accompanied by the Color Sphere, Color Tree, Color Atlas, and special materials designed for the study, they cannot fail to strengthen the color thought and build a com- plete image of all color relations. A. H. M. CHESTNUT HILL, MASS., 1913. * "A Color Notation." Munsell. Boston, 1907. Geo. H. Ellis Co. t" Atlas of the Munsell Color System." Boston: Wadsworth, Rowland Co., who also make the illustrative models, balls, spheres, cards, crayons, and water colors specially devised for thia work. CONTENTS. PAGE FOREWORD 2 BALANCE AND UNBALANCE OF COLOR 4 THREE COLOR QUALITIES AND THEIR SCALES 5 A COLOR SPHERE UNITES HUE, VALUE, AND CHROMA 6 NEIGHBORS AND OPPOSITES IN COLOR 7 THREE WAYS TO CORRECT UNBALANCE 8 A COLOR TREE MEASURES ALL COLOR RELATIONS 11 QUESTIONS AND THOUGHTS FOR THE TEACHER 12 OUTLINE OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 15 FIRST YEAR PLAN AND A MODEL LESSON ABOUT RED 16 REVIEW: FIVE MIDDLE COLORS BALANCED 20 MODEL LESSONS FOR SUCCEEDING GRADES 22 AFTERWORD .... .32 COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED BALANCE AND UNBALANCE OF COLOR. In a paint-shop the eye becomes so confused and wearied by a disordered variety of discordant colors that it gladly finds relief in a patch of quiet gray. Similar relief for the ear is wittily de- scribed by Dr. Holmes when "silence like a poultice comes to heal the blows of sound." As a timely escape from its opposite ex- treme, we welcome silence, but by no means would we wish it perpetual, for musical pleasure lies in a balance between no sound and too much sound. So the eye enjoys a balance between excess of color and its absence, and, when the mind is satisfied by the relations of light and color, we call the result beautiful. Nature seems bent upon the preservation of this balance. She alternates sunshine and shadow, fiery sunset and gray day, yellow sand and purple-blue sea, teaching a great law, that only as small accents should strong colors be used to balance wide fields of grayer color. This seems simple enough as a broad statement, but grows complex as soon as we learn that a color is not the simple hue it appears to the eye, but a variable union of three qualities which the thought must separate and judge. Let us at once define these three qualities so clearly that they may never be confused, using a color sphere (Plate I.). COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED THREE COLOR QUALITIES AND THEIR SCALES. Color has three qualities: HUE, VALUE, and CHROMA (see page 9). HUE is the name for a color, but not its value or chroma. The names and their order in a scale of hue are easily learned if one calls the thumb red, forefinger yellow, middle finger green, third finger blue, and little finger purple, between which come yellow- red (orange), green-yellow, blue-green, purple-blue, and red- purple.* These mark ten regular steps in a scale of hues spaced about the equator of a sphere. H., Hue: horizontal color change. VALUE is the light of a color, but not its hue or chroma. With white at the top of a sphere and black at the bottom, the axis is imagined as a vertical scale of neutral grays from (black) to 10 (white), with 5, or middle value, at the centre. Each hue on the equator is also graded by the same ten steps of value, often called tints and shades. F., Value: vertical color change. CHROMA is the strength of a color, but not its hue or value. Gray added to red weakens its chroma, and the red on the equator of the sphere may be thus "grayed" in five equal steps to the neutral centre. Five stronger steps are outside the sphere, mak- ing a chroma scale from strongest red (10) to no red at the axis, with "middle red" at the surface. When middle gray is added to red, it does not change its hue (scarlet or crimson) nor change its value (lighter or darker) : it only draws red in toward the neutral axis, which is loss of redness or chroma. As red escapes from gray, it grows to strongest chroma, loosely called pure, or intense. C., Chroma: centrifugal color change. * See "Color Notation," Chapter III., The Hand as a Color Holder. COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED To omit one of these three qualities in describing a color is like stating the size of this room by two dimensions and ignoring the third, which leaves a vague and varying impression with each person. Thus viridian paint is called a "shade of green" (green hue and dark value), but that gives no hint of its chroma, which may be weak or strong, while the same word is used for a change of hue, as "this green shades on the blue." To avoid confusion, we must define viridian by stating where it stands in the scales of hue, value, and chroma, which are combined in the color sphere. Until this is done, the color is not clearly before our thought, nor can we make it clear to others.* A COLOR SPHERE UNITES HUE, VALUE, AND CHROMA, f (See Plate I. and page 9.) The equator of a sphere serves for a scale of hue, its vertical axis for a scale of value, and a perpendicular to the axis for a scale of chroma. The north pole is white, the south pole black. Middle gray is at the centre of the sphere, and middle colors at the same level on the surface. These middle colors are graded by regular steps of value to white and black on a large sphere for the teacher, and on a smaller model for children. Slowly revolved, these colors give a beautiful sequence that delights the eye, and, if rap- idly spun, they all melt into neutral gray. This proves their perfect balance, for, were any hue too strong or too weak, it would destroy balance, making a colored gray. In handling this simple model, the child gains an unconscious grasp of color measure, and balance, without the least allusion to color theory. * See Chapter I. and Appendix in "Color Notation" for "misleading color terms." t See Chapter II. for the color sphere and tree. COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED NEIGHBORS AND OPPOSITES IN COLOR. (See page 9.) An amusing game will fix these relations in mind if the teacher furnishes conical finger-caps representing the five middle colors. These may be cut from sheets spread with water colors or special crayons.* The red cap is placed on the thumb (see page 5), yellow on forefinger, green on middle finger, blue on ring finger, and purple on the little finger, f In grouping three hues, it is well to use neighbors for likeness and opposites for contrast, the former serving to soothe the eye and the latter to excite it. Thus yellow and purple are the neighbors of red (forefinger and little finger), while the spaces between them are its close neighbors, yellow-red (alias orange) and red-purple. Closing down or taking off the caps of two neighbors of red, there remain its two opposites, blue and green (the middle and ring fingers), between which lies its exact oppo- site, blue-green. This game may be played with each finger in turn until all the groups are memorized. The contrasts, or opposites (called complements), are: RED and BLUE-GREEN YELLOW and PURPLE-BLUE (ULTRAMARINE) GREEN and RED-PURPLE BLUE and YELLOW-RED (ORANGE) PURPLE and GREEN- YELLOW * The five middle colors are made both in crayons and water color. tSee Chapter III. of "Color Notation," and note that green is not the complement of red, as wrongly taught by Froebel balls and a three-color box. COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED THREE WAYS TO CORRECT UNBALANCE. When first seen, the middle green, blue, and purple of the sphere are not unfamiliar, but middle red and middle yellow seem strange, because the extreme red and yellow, popularly taught, have much stronger chroma than their fellows. It is an educational blunder to ignore this fact, which the charts of the Atlas not only prove, but also help to correct by their written symbols. Colors of such unequal strength may be brought to a balance in three ways (see opposite page). (a) The stronger of two colors may be grayed until both are of equal chroma. Thus middle red and middle blue-green are bal- anced, being of equal value, chroma, and mass. (6) A lighter color may balance a darker when equally removed from the neutral gray centre. Dark red and light blue-green of equal chroma will balance if equally above and below middle gray, and of equal mass. (c) A larger area of one color may balance a smaller area of another if its chroma be weakened to the proportion indicated by the symbols printed on the charts, or the stronger color may retain its chroma, but be proportionally diminished in area. Thus a small area of the strongest yellow will balance a large area of weak purple-blue (ultramarine). This is a balance of unequal strength and light by compensation of quantity. Nature illustrates this by the spot of a brilliant sunflower against a background of gray-blue sky, or a purple aster against the large sunlit field of yellow-green, and countless examples appear in gems, insects, butterflies, and birds.* * See page 44 of "Color Notation" for balancing point of color. COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED White Palette NeigHtors 8e OpposVfes Three Color Scales unite in a. Sphere Balance Balance a. Bxj equality o| chroma, value Mid mass: t BJJ e^ual departure jrmn neutral gray: c Bij compensation oj to correct unequal value and chroma. 10 COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED The COLOR TREE AND COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED 11 A COLOR TREE MEASURES ALL COLOR RELATIONS. The color sphere can be no larger than its weakest blue-green paint, viridian, which is only half the strength of red vermilion, and the other colors will project beyond the surface in proportion to their chroma, as shown in the drawing opposite, with its four corner diagrams. The irregular projections of this Color Tree describe the uneven light and strength of colors: thus yellow is near white, but as strong as the dark purple-blue, which is near black; while the red, which is strongest of all, has for its opposite the blue-green, which is weakest. Ten threads are drawn from black to white, each tracing a single hue in all its values, while each of the three hori- zontal slices contains the ten hues at a single level of value with all their chroma steps to gray of that level. These are worked out in solid oil paint in the charts of the Color Atlas, and indicate the proportions needed to make balance. A model of this Color Tree* is supplied to aid the imagination of those who find its irregular form difficult to realize. Prismatic color differs greatly from pigments, both in its qual- ities of value and chroma, and its behavior when mixed. Its spec- tral hues add their light when mixed, as in the case of red and green, which unite to form a yellow twice as luminous; but a mixture of red and green paint makes a weak yellow-gray, as shown by a line joining them on the charts of the Atlas. An explanation of this will be found on page 51 of "Color Notation." *See Appendix to Chapter II. of "Color Notation," and note that lithographic inka used in Plate I. reverse the chroma of blue and green. 12 COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED QUESTIONS AND THOUGHTS FOR THE TEACHER. Why is the training of the color sense left so much to guesswork and accident? "I don't know much about color,but I know what I like," is often heard, and many who, without chart or compass, brave the sea of color daily, refuse to recognize the cause of their blunders, although willing to acknowledge ignorance in other lines. Haphazardly they pick up loose notions, which fail when put to a test. Music is definitely taught, but color remains vague. Color guesses are loose and fluctuating: they should be corrected by measured scales, so as to free the mind from false tradition and lead to straight color thinking. To see and feel color is not enough, for an idiot may see it, but does not think about it, and, in order that the thought may lay hold on color, we must have a definite method. To illustrate this, take a painter's palette and mahl-stick (see page 9). From a host of paints let us choose a few, and place them around the palette's rim. Some are dark, like blue, and others, like yellow, very light, but, mixing some of each, we may make a middle gray. Placing this gray at the middle of the stick, we may lighten it to white at the top and darken it to black below: then, supposing a sphere to enclose both stick and palette, the colors on the latter's rim may be graded upward to white and down to black. This is the germ of the color sphere and its measured scales. * Those who would rather practise than reason about color may pass at once to the model lessons (page 16), although a method of thought here suggested might save them from "im- modestly smearing from muddled palettes, amazing pigments mismated " (Kipling). COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED 13 How does this system differ from others? It starts in the middle of color, not at the extremes. These middle colors are named, imitated, and memorized, then sought in one's surroundings, and thus form a threshold from which the thought may range by uniform scales to white and to black, to strongest chroma and to neutral gray. Measure and balance are thus learned without any attempt to explain theory, and lead to skill and good taste in the use of color. This puts science under the art of design instead of whim, accident, and the vagaries of personal assertion; while the Sphere, Atlas, and Tree build a stable image of all color relations, essential in every line of work, artistic, scientific, or industrial. Why begin with such quiet colors, if the child craves the strongest obtainable? A child craves many things beyond his control, and they are wisely withheld until he is trained to their proper use. Long training and experiment teach the colorist how to use even the strongest colors so as to preserve a pleasing balance, but the novice cannot fail to blunder and misuse them. We have grown up in a bad tradition that the strongest red, yellow, and blue paints are "primary," which teaches a false idea of balance,* ignores the fundamental action of the eye, and refutes the wisdom shown in every other form of sense training, where, to introduce the study of music, motion, or speech, extreme stimuli are never used. Instead of extremes we seek moderate and tempered relations, convinced that they are the basis of beauty. This is true in both fine and decorative uses of color, and may be proved easily in any museum of art. Take in one hand the un- * See Appendix to Chapter III. of "Color Notation." 14 COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED balanced maxima and in the other the balanced middle colors of the sphere, and it becomes evident that the latter, with their neighbors, recur constantly in the most beautiful examples, while the maxima are absent or only admitted as small accents. Gaudy colors are avoided by persons of good taste. They "clash, howl, and swear," and belong to the circus rather than the home; and, since first impressions are lasting, children should not be exposed to such crude and unbalanced effects, which must delay, if they do not destroy, the feeling and love for beautiful color. * The lessons which follow have been tested in the school-room, and are economic of time. They train the appreciation of color by simple, progressive steps that may be accurately described, intelligently taken, and clearly criticised by both pupil and teacher. They discard the hazy statements which have proved so mis- leading in the past and whose further retention in the teaching of color can be due only to mental inertia or ignorance. * See Plates II. and III. of "Color Notation." COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED 15 A COLOR SYSTEM AND COURSE OF STUDY BASED ON THE COLOR SOLID AND ITS CHARTS, ADAPTED TO NINE YEARS OF SCHOOL LIFE. Grade. Subject. Colors Studied. Illustration. Applica- tion. Materials. 1. HUES of color. Red. R. Yellow. Y. Green. G. Blue. B. Purple. P. Sought in Nature and Art. Borders and Rosettes. Colored crayons and papers. 2. HUES of color. Yellow-red. YR. Green-yellow. GY. Blue-green. BG. Purple-blue. PB. Red^purple. RP. Sought in Nature and Art. Borders and Rosettes. Colored crayons and papers. 3. VALUES Light, middle, and dark R. :: :: ',: '.'. 1 : Sought in Nature and Art. Design . Color sphere. 4. VALUES of color. 5 values of YR. \ " " " BG! > V.V, 1 . Sought in Nature and Ait. Design. Charts. 5. CHROMAS of color. 3 chromas of R-. :: :: :g ' p*. Sought in Nature and Art. Design. Charts. 6. CHROMAS of color. 3 chromas of YR 6 . GY a . BG 6 . PB*. RP 6 . R* and R 3 . ^ Y* " Y. f G* " G 3 . > BI " B*. C PL pa. ) Sought in Nature and Art. Design. Color Tree. 7. To OBSERVE IMITATE color by HUE, VALUE, and CHROMA " Paints. & WRITE 8. QUANTITY of color. Pairs of equal area and unequal area Paints. Balanced by HUE, VALUE, and CHROMA. 9. QUANTITY of color. Triads of equal area and unequal area Paints. Balanced bv HUE.VALUE, and CHROMA. Copyright, 1904, by A. H. Munsell. 16 COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED PLAN FOR FIRST YEAR. Three short lessons of fifteen to twenty minutes per week. Materials: five crayons and light gray paper. To learn the five principal hues: to name them promptly, match them with cards and crayons, and place them in right order. Make the child familiar with MIDDLE HUES, and contrast middle red, yellow, green, blue, and purple with the strongest red, yellow, and blue. Keep these balanced colors in sight, as cards, crayons, balls, and common objects, and spin the sphere to show their balance. Place a circle of middle red at the top of a card to be taken home, asking each child to collect similar reds to be fastened on the card. Compare the samples collected, and ask, "Do they match?" First note the like colors, then the unlike ones, asking, "What difference is there? Is one lighter than another? is one darker? Is one stronger or weaker than another?" (Terms "value" and "chroma" may wait until later.) Which is most like the red circle among all the samples, such as a rubber ball, piece of coral, autumn leaf, piece of cloth or paper, or stone or glass? Then find middle red on the sphere, imitate it with the red crayon, and use it in a simple border or pattern until it is easily remembered and correctly named. COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED 17 Treat middle yellow, green, blue, and purple in the same way, and, when the five cards are filled with samples, place them in a circle to learn the order of hues. Show this order on the sphere, and devise games with the fingers, crayons, cards, etc., to fix this order in memory (see page 7). On a new card place the five middle hues in a circle, and, filling one with the red crayon, ask, "Which color comes next?" and so on until each child has made the set. Spin the sphere until the middle hues all melt in a MIDDLE GRAY, and imitate this with the gray crayon. Give children a hectographed outline of man with five toy balloons (one may substitute a bear or other animal in place of the man), and let them fill the balloons with four of the five colors, asking, Which has been left out and why? Give a rule for design. Use a hue and its two neighbors for likeness (or its two opposites for contrast). Do not use all five together. The six cards made this year can be tied in order into a small book of HUES of COLOR, with simple design on cover.* * See Plate II., page 62, "Color Notation." 18 COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED A LESSON ABOUT RED. Place the color sphere before the class, with cards, crayons, and balls ready for comparison, and give the child a red crayon with light gray paper, after he learns the name. This first lesson should resemble a game, and last not over fifteen minutes. Spin the sphere until it becomes neutral gray, and then slow it down until the colors flash (seeming to float over the surface and be brilliant). This will fix the atten- tion and excite questions. Ask, "What do you see? Colors? What colors?" Red is generally noticed first, so hold up a large red card (middle red), and ask, " What else has this color? " Apple, tulip, head of match, coral, rubber band, lips, and cheek. Say, "This is red" "middle red" and match it with card, ball, and crayon. Hide something of this color, and suggest a hunt for it. When found, hold them up together, and call them red. Tell a story that brings in a red soldier, doll, or sealing wax, and ask child for other reds, which are not "middle." COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED 19 SECOND LESSON ON RED. Give hectographed outline of simple figure, such as bear, sunbonnet baby, or rose, to be filled with the red crayon or partly uncovered, as the child prefers. Place these in a row, and call them the red family. Show white and black on the sphere, and say, "This red is in the middle between them." Then show reds that are lighter or darker, merely to emphasize middle red. Devise a game with the red ball, and then show it against the other balls and the sphere to contrast red with the other hues. Give child a card with a circle of red at the top, to be taken home, and have other red samples added, as near middle red as may be found. (With succeeding cards for the other colors this will make a book of MIDDLE HUES during the year.) Likeness is first sought, "Can we find another like this? Is it just the same? What difference is there? Bring all that look like this." Name is then learned, using stories and games to fix it. Color is imitated with crayon after finding it on sphere and among a collection of the cards and balls, which may be strung together as a necklace or bracelet. (Teacher should fill this outline as best fits the class). 20 COLOR BALANCE ILLUSTRATED REVIEW LESSON ON FIVE MIDDLE COLORS. Each child spreads out his five cards. Sphere is spun to show balance in gray. Ask what objects have been found like the middle red, and how they differ. Same for yellow: butterfly, window- shade, horse-blanket, marble, autumn leaf. A A