The Munsell colour wheel features in my colour lessons soon to be released on my Online Art School
In the meantime I thought some of my fellow colour nerds might enjoy this…
I’ve received several requests to produce a Munsell colour wheel using Michael Harding‘s pigments.
So here it is, my attempt at painting a Munsell wheel using a single tube of colour from Michael Harding‘s range for each segment. It is not possible to produce a perfect wheel in this way because using only a single tube of colour for each segment of the wheel restricts the precise hue I’m able to produce, so I’ve selected the paints that I think will get me closest to the Munsell hues required.
Now let me attempt to explain why I have chosen each pigment and whether I think they are spot-on or just a close approximation. Let’s start with the ‘Yellow’, I’ve chosen Yellow Lake because it’s a bright unbiased yellow, neither green-ish nor orange-ish, it sits squarely in the yellow section of the wheel and has a high saturation level, Cadmium Yellow would also fit this position on the wheel perfectly well and I think this is a really good match for a Munsell yellow.
The ‘Yellow Red’ is also a good match, I’ve used Cadmium Orange and I don’t think there’s anything else in the range that would give such a pure, vivid orange, I considered Permanent Orange but dismissed it because it’s too pinkish.
For the ‘Red’ I’ve selected Scarlett Lake because it offers a good unbiased red, it is rich and deep leaning neither towards orange nor purple. Cadmium Red would do a similar job and Pyrrole Red probably would also be suitable for this position on the wheel.
For the ‘Red Purple’ I selected Magenta for its high saturation and purple-ish hue. I think Quinacridone Rose could also be used in this place though it would have a slightly less blue bias.
For the ‘Purple’ I’ve chosen Amethyst because it’s a good rich strong high saturation purple. Though it comes in a single tube it is a combination of two pigments.
For the ‘Blue Purple’ I’ve selected Deep Purple though I wish this pigment was slightly more blue biased but there really isn’t a purple with a blue enough bias to sit perfectly in this position on the wheel. I guess Ultramarine Violet would have a similarly blue bias, (though much lower saturation) but for a true Munsell ‘Blue Purple’ I think this colour should be a little more blue, so ideally I would mix a little Ultramarine blue with it to alter the hue slightly.
For the ‘Blue’ segment of the wheel I encountered a similar problem; I’ve chosen Cobalt Blue but I’m not sure that it’s really a neutral enough blue to satisfy the Munsell wheel requirements, when teaching people to paint the Munsell wheel in my colour course I recommend students add a little tiny touch of Phthalocyanine Blue to the Cobalt Blue to create a neutral or ‘unbiased’ blue. Cobalt blue has a slightly red note to it that makes it a little less than perfect as a Munsell blue.
For the ‘Blue Green’ I have employed Caribbean Turquoise which again is a mixture of two pigments though it comes in a single tube. You could substitute Cobalt Teal Blue Shade here or perhaps even Cobalt Turquoise (though I think that’s probably too green).
Now the ‘Greens’ get really tricky, there are not a large number of green pigments or mixtures available and the ones that exist don’t really match the greens required for a Munsell wheel very accurately! So I’ve plumped for ‘Pthalo Green Yellow Shade’ for the ‘Green’ and Bright Green Lake for the ‘Yellow Green’ but in truth I feel like a mixture of those two colours would be more appropriate for the ‘Green’ and the ‘Yellow Green’ would actually need to be a more yellow-ish hue than I can achieve using Bright Green Lake alone, so ideally I would incorporate a little of my Yellow Lake into the Bright Green Lake to create a mixture for a more accurate ‘Yellow Green’ … so,effectively, both the ‘Yellow Green’ and the ‘Green’ hues need to be made more yellow-ish to create more accurate Munsell colours.
With the exception of Scarlet Lake and Cadmium Orange I added a speck of Titanium White to all of the colours because their deep transparent richness makes them look too dark on camera if left undiluted. Titanium White makes them all appear slightly more blue than they look in their pure state. You would see more of the warmth in the colours when spread thinly in a glaze over a white background as opposed to adding Titanium White which brings out their cooler notes.