In some previous posts I have talked about writing a national correspondence course for EGA on color along with my co-author Carole Rinard. We are about finished with Lesson 1 of six lessons. Lesson 1 deals with color systems, color wheels, and color attributes. Okay, that sounds more complex than it is. Color systems are just different ways of explaining the phenomenon of color. People as far back as Aristotle have been curious about color, how it manifests, and what it is. We talk about three color systems, but basically use only one, the simplest, for the lessons.
The three systems are the Prang, the Ives, and the Munsell. The Munsell is the most complex. In the Munsell there are five primary colors, Yellow, Blue, Red, Green and Purple. With five primaries, the color wheel is ten part with the secondaries between each of the primaries. These are all numbered in the three dimensions of color: hue--what color it is; saturation--how much pigment is present in the color, for instance, a grayed lavender has less pigment than a purple; and value--the darks and lights of a color, for instance red on the color wheel is its middle value, while maroon is a darker value of red and pink is a lighter value. With all of these steps numbered, in the Munsell System any of hyndreds of color can be identified by numbers and be recognized as the same color by anyone in the world. Very tidy.
In the Ives System, the primaries are Cyan (or Turquoise Blue), Yellow, and Magenta. This sytem is used mostly in the printing industry with dots of ink, but it is also popular with some quilters, with dyers of fabrics, and with photographers. I am looking at a nifty little gadget right now called the 3-in 1 Color Tool by Joen Wolfrom that has about 750 numberd color dabs for matching fabrics and threads.
The third system we talk about in the color correspondence course is the Prang System or the 12 Part Color Wheel. This is the color wheel that Carole and I are using in the course. It is by far the simplest and easiest to use. This is the one that I as an artist have used for many years. The primaries are Red, Yellow, and Blue. The secondaries--colors that can be directly mixed in paints from RYB--are Orange, Green, and Violet. The intermediaties come in between the primaries and secondaries and are colors like Yellow-Green, and Blue-Violet. Using this system, the colors relate easily across the color wheel in logical ways.
Each of these color systems have their strengths and weaknesses I know people who swear by Munsell and will use no other--possibly because of the huge amount of numbered colors. I am not fond of it because it is complex and not easy to use in a quick way when I am creating. I know some quilters who like the Ives System. Those colors tend to be bright and transparent, ideal for silk dyes and paints, ideal for photography. I like the Prang. In the first place, it is what I learned from childhood and it is what I have been teaching for many years. I think it is the simplest and it shows me all I need it to show when I work. Also the Prang system has Color-Aid paper in all its brilliance to help artists. Color-Aid paper is a set of color swatches for the 12 Part.
As stitchers or scrapbookers or photographers, choose which system that fits your needs and learn it, get comfortable with it. But color is so important to an artist and a craftsman, that it bears studying. Don't be lazy about your passion.
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