Maitland Graves questions...

[KT]

Hello everyone. I have been reading Graves' book for a week or so, got it from the library, and I've gotten to the first exercises but I wanted to clarify some things. In the first part of the book when he explains the elements of design he says there are "seven elements, factors, or dimensions." But later on when describing repetition he says there are six dimensions? Or does he mean there are six dimensions in use in repetition? Also this is my first real experience with color and I don't think I fully understand the concept of chroma, is it like the intensity of the color itself, like a very bright red or is there more to it then that? I apologize if these questions sound stupid as I've never really studied design before.

[dpaint]

I believe Maitland is a woman? She ripped off the Frank reilly lectures and made a book without his permission? This might explain her lack of understanding about what she is repeating.

Chroma -The aspect of color in the Munsell color system by which a sample appears to differ from a gray of the same lightness or brightness and that corresponds to saturation of the perceived color.

[KT]

Thanks dpaint, I shouldn't of assumed that the author was a guy. I think I'm gonna look up some stuff on Munsell and read gurney's color and light because I don't think I really understand color at all. I was also wondering about the graves test and what it would mean if you got a low score, would it mean you were unable to appreciate fine design?

[dpaint]

I think Elwell has a link to a Reilly thread that explains the story of the book. One of Reilly's students filled in some information about it and said it has a lot of crap in it but the core idea of the color cabinet is sound, other stuff was made up by Maitland which might include the tests? I don't remember exactly but I wouldn't worry about it. Anything can be taught, if you don't have a natural aptitude for something you just have to work harder at it.

[Elwell]

Yes, the Graves book and it's relation to Frank Reilly was discussed here. I rather like the design test, but I wouldn't get overly hung-up on a low score. Take it again in six months or a year, once you've had time to work more (and forget the "right" answers), and you'll probably find your score improving dramatically.

Chroma is the "purity" of a color, the degree that it departs from neutrality. It starts at zero (absolutely neutral gray), and is an open-ended scale, although in practicality most hues top out in the low to mid teens. Also, it's a highly variable, irregular dimension, with different hues reaching different maximum chromas at different values. For instance, yellows are at their most chromatic at high values, purples and blues at low values. Reds and greens are both most chromatic at middle values, but reds are capable of reaching much higher chromas than greens.

[dpaint]

In that thread post #24 Candido refers to Maitland as a he
"His Charters 11 and 12 are particularly worthy of close study" So I guess I'm wrong about Maitland being a woman.

[Elwell]

According to the AskART database, she's a she.

[dpaint]

According to the AskART database, she's a she.

Oh good, I thought for a second that I might actually be wrong about something...

[kev ferrara]

The best stuff in the book is on abstract design.

The color scheme stuff is really bad, IMHO. The Famous Artists course is far better, I think.

[JeffX99]

Oh good, I thought for a second that I might actually be wrong about something...

What is that like anyway?

[KT]

Thanks for the info everyone. While this thread still active I wanted to know if there are more books on design? I know about a few other books on archive.org that talk about design. Also I was reading a few other threads and I think I might be confusing design and composition as similar. So at the very basic level design is a component of composition, or am I missing something?