The Munsell Color Tree Colors everywhere, but who can count them all?!

1
The Munsell Color TreeColors everywhere, but who
can count them all?!

• Janice Ahn Elaine Yau
• CS99D Winter 99/00
• Marc Levoy

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Historical Problems with Identifying Colors

• Theoretical Problems
• Numerous color concepts
• Different theorists organize properties of color
  into different functional systems
• Leonardo da Vinci (15th Century)
• Newton discovered spectrum and devised color
  circle
• J.C. Le Blon observed primary nature of red,
  yellow, blue and described hues from mixing
  (1756)
• Moses Harris published first color circle in
  full color (1766)

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Different Color Wheels

• Color wheel 1

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Historical Problems with Identifying Colors

• Practical Problems
• Individual color vocabulary
• Breadth
• Definitions/associations
• Trade names and commercial naming
• Behr Paints

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Various Color Classifications
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Munsell Solves Color Problems!

• Albert H. Munsell
• Seascape painter of the 1890s
• Munsell System of Color Notation (1905)
• One of the color standards used by the US
  National Bureau of Standards
• Used in science, industry, and art
• Soil samples

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What is the Munsell Color Tree?

• 3D Spherical Model
• Incorporates concepts of hue, value, and chroma
  in one model
• Organized in a numerical classification system
• Inclusive of all colors each color has its own
  place

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How does it work?

• Based on the 2D Color Wheel
• Includes primary, secondary colors, i.e. hues
• Can be expanded to include intermediary hues
• Shows all variations of colors/hues, which are at
  full intensity on the wheel
• Notation 5.0 letter 5.0 R red
• 5.0 BG blue green

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How does it work?

• Value Scale
• The lightness/darkness of a particular hue
• Related to brightness, luminosity
• Vertical arrangement the trunk of the color
  tree
• Nine levels of values
• 1 black
• 9 white
• Notation 5.0 R 5/ 5.0 BG 7/
• Values of hues are compared with this neutral
  gray pole

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How does it work?

• Chroma
• Refers to strength/weakness of a hue at a certain
  value
• Related to purity, saturation, intensity
• Horizontal arrangement the branches of the tree

• Fourteen levels of chromas
• 1 dullest, most gray variation of the hue
• 14 most intense, pure state of the hue
• Notation 5.0 R 5/6 5.0 BG 7/8 (even numbers)
• 5.0 R 5/12 is redder than 5.0 R 5/10

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Value and Chroma
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To sum up

• Hue purest form of a color
• 5.0 R 10.0 YRY
• Leaves of the tree

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To sum up

• Hue purest form of a color
• 5.0 R 10.0 YRY
• Leaves of the tree
• Value placement along the gray scale
• vertical axis (trunk)
• 5.0 R 5/

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To sum up

• Hue purest form of a color
• 5.0 R 10.0 YRY
• Leaves of the tree
• Value placement along the gray scale
• vertical axis (trunk)
• 5.0 R 5/
• Chroma intensity of a hue
• horizontal axis (branches)
• 5.0 R 5/14 (most intense red)

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To sum up

• Hue purest form of a color
• 5.0 R 10.0 YRY
• Leaves of the tree
• Value placement along the gray scale
• vertical axis (trunk)
• 5.0 R 5/
• Chroma intensity of a hue
• horizontal axis (branches)
• 5.0 R 5/14 (most intense red) Each hue has its
  own page on the tree
• Each hue chart also has different of chips
  depending on the chroma possibilities of each hue
  at value levels

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Making our Munsell Color TreeObstacles

• Sorting through vast pool of color chips 1500 at
  Home Depot (we got lost getting there, too)
• Taunts from the Home Depot Staff
• Eyestrain and bodily fatigue from constant visual
  comparisons and matching, and fluorescent
  lighting
• Limited spectrum of Behr color palette
• Resulted in several empty slots

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Making our Munsell Color TreeChoices

• Construction/Display of our Color Tree
• Wanted 3-dimensional, rotating pages, upright
• Black background to emphasize color contrasts
• Shortened chroma range on each page
• Eliminated 1 gray tone
• Eliminated 14 most hues do not reach this
  intensity, only red

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Color in Art
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Mark Rothko (1956) Orange and Yellow
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Rothko (1954) Red, Orange, Tan, and Purple
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Henri Matisse (1943-44) Icarus (Jazz)
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Summer (1890) Thomas Wilmer Dewing

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Josef Albers (1966) White Line Square XIII

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Piet Mondrian (1922) Composition with Blue,
Yellow, Black, and Red

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Marc Chagall (1913) Paris Through My Window
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The End
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If we have time
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And since we have time
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Bibliography
Birren, Faber. Principles of Color. NY Van
Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1969. Color Matters.
http//www.colormatters.com. March 2000. Color
Theory. http//www.busybrushes.com/Classroom/color
elem.html. March 2000.  Leland, Nita.
Exploring Color. OH North Light Publishers,
1985.  Parramon, Jose M. The Book of Color. NY
Watson-Guptill Publications, 1993.  Sidelinger,
Stephen J. Color Manual. New Jersey
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1985.  National Gallery of
Art. http//www.nga.gov/home.htm. March,
2000.  Artcyclopedia. www.artcyclopedia.com.
March, 2000.