Color Bracketing with Munsell

During a number of recent conversations regarding the manner in which contemporary painters organize and navigate color, the idea of “bracketing” has come up. Not to be confused with the concepts of “bracketing” in photography, the term is used here to describe a strategy for mixing color to more effectively and efficiently hit a target color.

I first heard of this technique from Graydon Parrish, whom I understand adapted it from Michael Aviano, and then later from Paul Foxton in regards to mixing strategies related the Munsell system. I personally have never used this strategy (I honestly don’t pre-mix very often), but nevertheless found it to be quite interesting. Attached here is a recent video in which artist/instructor Paul Foxton takes us through the process.

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