Shadow Colours for Painters

Paul Centore

c May 4, 2013

Abstract

This article presents a simple, practical method for painting realistic shadowcolours. The method involves the Munsell colour system. A straight line isdrawn on the Munsell hue leaf, whose hue is that of the object being painted.The line starts at the Munsell specification of the objects colour (when viewedin full light), and ends one value step below N0, on the neutral axis. Thecolours on this line are the colours of the object in various degrees of shadow.The Reilly paint mixing approach is presented as an intuitive way for a painterto mix these colours. A step-by-step shadow painting demonstration is given,using readily available materials. Although presented non-technically here, themethod has a technical basis, which has been published previously.

Introduction

A realistic painting depicts scenes or objects by reproducing the visual stimuli theywould present to a viewer. In any ordinary setting, some parts of an object willreceive more light than other, more shaded parts, so a realist painter cannot avoidconsidering shadows. In a black and white painting or drawing, the shadowed parts ofan object are a darker grey than the more strongly lit parts. In a realistic painting incolour, there is also a relationship between the shadowed and lit parts. This articlewill use the Munsell system to describe that relationship, and suggest a practicalpaint mixing method to produce shadow colours.

Like many artists working methods, the procedure starts with some idealiza-tions and assumptions, which the artist then refines. For example, a sculptor mightconceive of a human neck as a cylinder [1], and attach a roughly cylindrical chunkof clay to an armature. Later, he will refine the cylinder by adding bulges for thesterno-mastoid muscles and the Adams apple, hollowing out the pit of the throat,

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and so on. Similar simplifying assumptions were made in deriving the shadow colourprocedure [2,3].

One assumption is that the local colour of an object being represented does notvary. Like the cylindrical approximation, this assumption is not an exact statement.An object such as an apple might be predominantly red, but likely has many flecksor areas of other colours. A painter would first paint the entire apple loosely withthe light and shadow colours (to be described in this article) corresponding to thedominant red. Then he would work back into the wet layer of paint, mixing in bitsof purple or brown, or other local colours that occur on the apple, taking account oftheir differences in light and shadow, too. Progressively finer distinctions would bemade until the desired detail and finish were reached.

Artists usually divide shadows into form shadows, which occur because the shad-owed part faces away from the light source, and cast shadows, which occur whenanother object blocks light from reaching the shadowed part. The colorimetric anal-ysis of form and cast shadows is identical, and the method in this article appliesequally well to both kinds.

The procedure discussed in this article usually produces adequate results, butsome technical limitations should be kept in mind. First, the method assumes aneutral, approximately white, light source, such as indirect daylight. Strongly tintedlight sources can cause noticeable changes in the hues of shadows. At sunset, forexample, sunlight is much redder than it is during most of the day. The shadows ona white object, such as the pages of a book, can actually look blue at sunset, ratherthan the grey that would be expected. Second, the method assumes that the objectto be painted has a matte finish. If the object has a glossy surface, then light fromsome directions might be reflected as off a mirror, which will affect colours. A thirdfactor is light that is reflected off nearby objects of different colour. If a red cubewere placed near the shadowed side of a blue cube, for example, then some red lightcould reflect into the blue shadow, lightening it and altering its hue. In practice,it will be found that most of these exceptions are easily recognized and adjustedfor. Furthermore, even in a realistic painting, there is some latitude when paintingshadow colours. And, of course, a painter is free to bend rules for expressive effect.The method of painting described in this article is a general-purpose approach, that,in most cases, quickly and easily produces acceptably realistic shadow colours.

1 The Munsell System

The Munsell colour system is a colour classification and specification system that istailored for painting and the visual arts. It was developed by the American painter

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and teacher Albert Munsell, at the start of the 20th century, as an educational tool.Early versions of the system were collections of hand-painted swatches, which wereused as physical standards for judging other colours. A major advance was the1943 Munsell renotation [4], which superseded previous versions, and is the standardtoday. The renotation used thousands of visual assessments of paint samples, by 41human observers, to provide a firm empirical basis for the system. In addition, therenotation specified a set of 2,745 Munsell colours scientifically. A paint swatch canbe measured with a spectrophotometer, and its colour can be specified objectively,in terms of three coordinates. Any two swatches with the same three coordinates,even if they are made from different paint mixtures, will have identical colours. Byinterpolating between the 2,745 specified colours, any surface colour can be located.The Munsell renotation extends to theoretical limits, providing specifications forcolours, such as very intense reds, that have never been produced in paints or inks.The scientific specification is an important factor for us, because it allows shadowcolours to be calculated.

Even without understanding the science behind the Munsell system, painters canstill use it profitably, because it is based on natural colour perception. The Munsellcolour system classifies surface colours by three perceptual attributes that are basicto painting: hue, value and chroma.

Hue is universally understood. It says whether a colour is red, yellow, purple,etc. Munsell designates 10 basic hues: R (red), YR (yellow-red, or orange), Y(yellow), GY (green-yellow), G (green), BG (blue-green), B (blue), PB (purple-blue),P (purple), and RP (red-purple). Each basic hue is further subdivided into 4 steps,denoted with a prefix. For example, the four greens are denoted 2.5G, 5G, 7.5G,and 10G. 2.5G is a yellower green, that is closer to GY than it is to BG. 10G isa bluer green, that is closer to BG than it is to GY. A prefix of 10 is sometimesreplaced with a prefix of 0 and the next hue. For example, 10G is sometimes written0BG. In all, then, the Munsell system specifies 40 hues (4 steps for each of the 10basic hues). These 40 hues are equally spaced perceptually. For example, the huedifference between 2.5G and 5G is the same size as the hue difference between 5Gand 7.5G. The 40 hues are discrete stopping points on a continuous hue circle. Onecould interpolate any desired amount between two adjacent hues. For example, thehue 6GY is a yellowish green that is between 5GY and 7.5GY, but closer to 5GY.White, black, and greys are not considered hues in the Munsell system. An N, forneutral, is used to designate them.

Many different colours can have the same hue. Figure 1, for example, showsthe hue leaf for 6GY, a set of colours all of which have hue 6GY. The differentcolours within a hue leaf are specified further by value and chroma. The empty boxes

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N2

N9

N8

N7

N6

N5

N4

N3

N1

6GY8/10

-1

2 4 6 8 10 12

Chroma

Hue: 6GY

Va

lue

Figure 1: The Hue Leaf for 6GY in the Munsell System

indicate colours that are in the Munsell system, but that are beyond the gamut ofthe printing process used to produce the figure.

Munsell value designates how light or dark a colour is. The theoretically darkestblack has a value of 0, and is denoted N0. The theoretically lightest white has avalue of 10, and is denoted N10. N0 and N10 are theoretical ideals, that actualpaints approach, but have so far not reached. Most artists blacks, such as carbonblack, are about N1, rather than N0. Similarly, titanium white is just below N10.Between N0 and N10 are 9 progressively lighter greys, denoted N1, N2, and so onup to N9. The spacing between the greys is perceptually equal. All colours havea Munsell value, not just the neutrals. For example, there are light blues and darkblues. A blue with value 8.5 has the same lightness as N8.5.

Munsell chroma refers to how intense, or saturated, a colour is. For example,a lemon is an intense yellow, while masking tape is a dull yellow. A dull colouris closer to a neutral grey than an intense colour. The Munsell system denoteschroma numerically. Greys have chroma 0. A colour with a chroma of 10 is generallyperceived as saturated, and it is rare for paints to have chromas greater than about16. Colours of low chroma, say 4 or less, are perceived as subdued, with a highgrey content. It is often difficult to distinguish the hue of low-chroma colours. Forexample, one cannot say readily whether masking tape is more yellow or more orange.

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The hue of high-chroma colours, by contrast, can easily be identified.The Munsell notation for a colour takes the form H V/C, where H stands for

hue, V stands for value, and C stands for chroma. For example, the colour 10R 9/6would be a very light (V is 9), moderately intense (C is 6), orangish red (H is 10R