.Connecticut painter John Morfis has recently published a free online tool indexing oil paints according to Munsell notation. By using brand-specified notations as well as his own Munsell determinations w/spectrophotometer readings, John allows visitors to browse through the specs of paint brands like Schmincke Norma, Williamsburg, Winsor & Newton, Grumbacher and Gamblin oil paint. Click on the “Munsell Explorer” tab on his site colorwell.org and select a hue page to see which notations correspond to one or more paint readings. The “Paint Finder” tab helps you to find paints in various brands with the same pigment code.
“The Munsell Explorer. Learn how you can research paints using the Munsell Explorer at ColorWell.org. The Munsell Explorer lets you navigate the Munsell color spaced and find oil paints based on their hue, value, and chroma. This painter’s tool easily allows you to compare the colors of oil paints regardless of which manufacturer made the oil paint.”
“The Paint Finder. Learn how to use the Paint Finder at ColorWell.org to research oil paints. The tool finds all major manufacturer’s tubes of oil paint based on their pigments. This oil painting tool is very useful for finding leads on other tubes of paint that might be comparable to your existing oil paints or the supplies given from a painting class. Enjoy researching oil paints based on their color index rather than their brand names!”
I’ve actually measured a number of paints and thought long-term about publishing them somewhere. Since I’ll probably never actually have time for that, really glad to see this.
But—I can’t seem to just look up a given paint’s Munsell notation. The only way I see to find it is to poke around in the explorer. Am I missing something?
I don’t think that you are missing anything Tim. The only way I can see a given paint’s Munsell Notation is to click on the different tiles in the Munsell Finder. You would think that the Munsell notations would be included in the Paint Finder but as far as I can tell they are not (just the pigment codes (e.g., pigment PR83.))
I added Munsell Notations to the paint finder. If they are available for the choosen brand you’ll be able to toggle them on/off to see the notations. Just look for the box that looks like the image below.
Well @timdose, I think John made us look like a couple of crybabies as he was quick to implement exactly what was asked for. LOL!!! Bravo Mr. Morfis and thank you so much for the time and expertise you generously invested toward creating such an incredibly useful resource.
