Field Trips in Fiber

More support for Munsell

I haven't accomplished much sewing this week but I have made a little more progress in my personal study of color theory. In my last post I concluded with this statement:

I believe that color systems for dyeing/painting fabric are different from color systems for putting already colored fabrics together are different from color systems used by artist painters are different from web designers are different from........learn them and use the right one for the right job.

Since I am approaching this study more as a user of materials that are already colored, I determined that the Munsell system is the best for my purposes. I knew that there was a student's guide to the Munsell system out there somewhere so I began a search for it. What a surprise to discover that the author, Jim Long, resides right here in Richmond, VA and is the Chair of the Film and Photography Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. I found his email address to ask where to find his book (Amazon.com). That led to a few email exchanges. I eventually had to explain why this random person was so interested in color theory - a topic that he says most artists aren't interested in at all! I told him about my background and the root of my interest (proclamations about there being only one right color system) and my conclusion that there are several that are right for different uses but that for fiber artists I felt that the Munsell system was most appropriate. Here's what he had to say on that:

"Color theory can get a bit sticky because there are several systems. Regarding color wheels it is important to recognize that there are different types. The Munsell color wheel is based on human perception, NOT paint mixing. Artist color wheels generally are based on paint mixing, although pigments of the same color but different chemical composition will mix differently. "

A little validation is nice! So here I am $100 poorer but 3 books richer. The yellow one, I believe is Munsell's original work. I just got these in today so haven't had a chance to look at them. The Student Color Set is the one that I was specifically looking for. Aside form information on the Munsell system it has little paint chips for the colors and gradients on the system. Now I get to paste all of these tiny chips onto corresponding pages. Now if I were a real art student at university I would hang myself before doing all of this. Things really change when it's something that is holding your mind hostage! Off to find the glue stick.........I probably should get some kind of medication too.......

Color Theory – Last post on the Color Wheel, maybe

This post actually deals with two points: one on additional color wheel research and a tiny rant about an article I read.

Another project that I did during Craft Week (the first week of September) was to work on my color study a little more. I had a full set of Color-Aid cards so I decided to create my own versions of the Process, Pigment and Munsell color wheels. As I mentioned in previous posts, there are lots of other color systems but I believe that these three are the most relevant to our work in fiber – putting fabrics together and dyeing fabrics.  I left these photos formatted very large so that you could print them if you want. Click on the image to see it full scale. I am certain that the colors are probably NOT translating perfectly from my camera to my PC to your PC but you will be able to tell the relative difference between the colors on each wheel.

Article 3 - Color Wheels and Systems

Thanks so much to everyone who read through my first missive on color and very special thanks to everyone who took the time to comment and share your insight into color theory and for providing more book recommendations.  I did buy a couple of additional books from your recommendations.  I’ve been doing a little more reading and just have a little more to say about the color wheels before I move on to using and selecting colors. Please don’t think that I obsess over color selection for my quilts. I don’t! I work intuitively like most of you do but I do find that knowing a little about color and color interaction helps me to solve some of my design dilemmas. It also helps when trying to analyze art produced by someone else, including commercially produced prints and fabrics.

Bear with me as I talk just a little more about color wheels and color systems. Edith Anderson Feisner, in her books Colour and Color Studies has some of the best information on color systems. Most of today’s information comes from her books.

There are 3 types of color systems:

·         Subtractive systems represent the process of mixing colors together – as in the Pigment wheel and the Process (Ives) wheel. In a subtractive system you are absorbing light. The more color added the less light reflected. All of the colors mixed together make black.

·         Additive systems represent the process of mixing colored light. The more light added the lighter the color. The primaries are red, green and blue. Mixing all of the colors together makes white.

·         The Partitive system is based on colors relationships to each other. This is system a new concept to me but in studying this, I believe that it might actually be the most applicable to quilting and fiber art.

So where do the color wheels from the previous post fit into these systems?

The Primary and Process wheels are subtractive systems. The Munsell wheel is Partitive and the Light and Visual wheels are Additive. Feisner makes the point that just one system or wheel may not satisfy all needs. Joen Wolfrom says that the Process wheel is the right wheel for textile artists because it is the wheel used by manufacturers that print fabrics. Feisner says that painters and dyers use the Subtractive wheels (Primary and Process) to create colors (paints, inks an dyes) but that they use a Partitive wheel to create color reactions in the design. She contends that all art media use Partitive color in the media but that the materials used can be either additive or subtractive. She also says that specifically the Munsell partitive wheel is used in fabric manufacturing and interior design.

That makes sense to me!  I’ve never been able to reconcile that putting fabrics next to each other is the same as mixing dye colors. I’ve also found that in the little bit of dyeing and fabric painting that I have done that I really need the primaries from both the Process (yellow, cyan, magenta) and Primary wheels (red, yellow, blue) to mix the target colors that I want. I have more faith in Feisner’s books than I do in any of the color books written for quilters because she is a university professor teaching color theory and the books are college text books.

The Munsell wheel is a ten to twenty step wheel with 5 primaries: yellow, red, green, blue and purple. Looking at the wheel it appears to be a merger of the Process and Primary wheels and that makes sense to me too.  Munsell also built a color tree that represents value (lightness or darkness) and relative purity of the colors. He developed a code for each color on the tree. His color system was the one adopted by the US Bureau of Standards as the acceptable language of color. My next step will be to do some experiments with my Dye-na flo paints (I have the process and pigment primaries) and see if I can make my own Process, Pigment and Munsell color wheels.

I’m not going to talk much about the Additive systems but I do think it’s important to understand them. After all, once you photograph your work you need to be able to accurately edit those photos for publication. You have to know to change the red and green colors to alter the yellow image. But that’s a photo editing class and I don’t know much of anything about that yet! Maybe later.

Article 2 - Color Feedback

Thanks to everyone who posted a comment to my first Color Theory post. I don't believe there is a right or wrong color wheel to use. I agree with several of you that said that we usually follow the wheel that we were first taught to use. I'm not sure what I've ever intended to do with any color theory knowledge that I've been gathering. I simply find the subject fascinating. I also find that if I write it down as I learn it I have a better chance to retaining some of the information. I'll keep posting as I study but don't ever assume that I really think I know what I am talking about! I always welcome your comments to set me straight on my information.

Thanks to you I also picked up a couple of new books for my color theory library:

Color Studies by Edith Anderson Feisner and Color Choices by Stephen Quiller. They both look very interesting. 

This weekend I am going to do some fabric dyeing but I will just some fun experimental dyeing from Color by Accident by Ann Johnston. That's the first book that we used for our fabric dyeing a couple of years ago. But I think I will do some painting with my new Dye-na-flow paints. I have the primaries for both the process and pigment color wheels and black and white. I think I will try to mix the colors to paint both wheels along with shades and tints.

My order of lye came in the mail today also so I can make soap again! The package also came with a brochure warning about the dangers of running a meth lab....good to know that information!

Article 1 - Color Theory - The Color Wheel

Fair warning - this is a long post!