Monday, September 6, 2010

Color wheel

I am way too tired to be writing tonight. It is past 2:00 in the morning and I must sleep. However, I never go a day without writing the daily post, so here it is. I went to a dinner party tonight with some students from snowcamp.

The illustration above is a Munsell color wheel. I have been writing about the Munsell color system and this wheel is the system in its simplest form. Designed , though later modified and improved by Munsell. Munsell was an American artist and teacher who lived from 1858 - 1918. His system for understanding color is still the standard for painters today.

About the outer ring are arranged five principle hues, red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Tomorrow I will continue with this, I will see you then.

6 comments:

Daniel Ljunggren said...

Hi Stapleton,

Not so much a comment to your post today, but a huge thank you for your commitment in teaching art. I found your blog a couple of months ago I think, and I've read all your previous posts up until now, as soon as I realized what a gold mine it is. And I've saved a lot of it as well. I love landscape paintings, and much of what you say makes a lot of sense to me. Variation of shape & color, asymmetrical composition, balance, importance of unity, edge control..

You've made art history easily accessible, and easier for me to appreciate after I've learned how much design thinking lie behind them.

And I really didn't know there is so much design behind landscape painting. There has been quite a few revelations that I treasure very much.

And I really enjoy your paintings!

So again, a heart-warm thank you!

-Daniel

Philip Koch said...

Stape I hadn't realized Musell lived that long ago- had always assumed he was from the '20's or '30's. My bad.

I wonder if before him there were others who talked about the color wheel and that Munsell just wrote about it and elaborated the system into his 3D color solid idea? It would seem artists would have been thinking in terms of the "wheel" idea for a very long time. Or is that just me projecting the way I was taught to think about color back onto the past artists.

barbara b. land of boz said...

Sounds like you may have missed some sleep last evening Stape. We had the sound of laughter thru the house this holiday with a few late nights too.
Great posts the last few days on color. You are a good teacher, you talked about this a bit in your workshop.
Have a restful day and night Stape I think you have earned one!

Stapleton Kearns said...

Daniel;
Thank you. I noticed you live in Sweden. I am not only useful but I am useful internationally!
....................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Philip:
There are a number of systems that predate Munsell, even some which lay out color space. But Munsell's was better thought out and researched. When I get further into the color wheel posts perhaps I should do a post on some of the older systems.
.............Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Barbara:
Thank you. It was a good dinner party and I got home real late. Mind you I was tired, but SOBER.
...............Stape