Munsell-Accurate Value/Gray Scale for Artists, Designers, Quilters, etc.
A VALUE SCALE YOU CAN PAINT ON. A good arrangement of lights and darks makes a painting,design, or quilt compositionally sound and visually interesting. Every colour has a particular light/dark level, called its value. A value scale, also called a grey scale, moves in small steps from black through dark greys, middle greys, light greys and finally to white. The colours in a value scale are all neutral greys, with no hue or chroma. The scale offered here shows seventeen evenly spaced shades of grey, allowing for fine distinctions. The greys have been measured with a spectrophotometer, to insure that they agree with the Munsell system, and the Munsell values appear on the scale. To make side-by-side value comparisons, paint can be applied directly to the scale’s laminated surface, and then wiped off. One of the pictures shows three flecks of cadmium red oil paint, applied to Munsell values 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5. When the red paint vibrates visually against a grey square, a value match has occurred. In this case, vibration occurs on the middle square, so the cadmium red has value 4.0. After wiping the red off with a rag, values can be found for further colours. Values can also be found by placing the scale directly on a quilting fabric or painting, as shown in the images. Any painter, quilter, or designer will find this 5” by 7” (or sometimes 4.6″ by 6.5″) laminated scale to be a handy, portable aid for using lights and darks effective