Great Color-Theory Book

[evil tendencies]

I picked up this book at the local Borders recently, and I wanted to share it with you guys. I\'ve never seen such an easy way of understanding color (and how to mix them).

 

[DaN]

Hmm... Cheers
How much did you get it for?

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by evil tendencies
I\'ve never seen such an easy way of understanding color (and how to mix them).

Could you give a quick précis?

Much as I admire Betty Edwards for her drawing guides I think there are some fundamental flaws in this book. I\'ve never read it but I have read about it and this review on Amazon mentions one of the issues I\'d heard of previously:

Good in Theory
I was surprised to see in all the rave reviews this book has received that no one has mentioned the practical problems of actually finding acrylic paints in the colors she tells you to buy. I searched on three continents and was unable to find any supplier that carried all of them. The only manufacturer who actually makes a \"cobalt violet\" is Golden Acrylics - I ordered this paint with relief only to find out that it was completely different from the color swatch in her book and doesn\'t work at all in color mixing. Same for \"permanent green\" which is always light or dark - not specified by her - and which in the case of Golden Acrylics does not mix correctly. I assume she\'ll eventually come out with her own line of Acrylics for use with this book, but for now good luck. It\'s absolutely unworkable without the basic materials, and what are they?

Einion

 

[MPJ]

I\'m sure the theory is more important than the actual colors used. Well at least I hope it is. :drunk:

 

[evil tendencies]

Originally posted by MPJ
I\'m sure the theory is more important than the actual colors used. Well at least I hope it is. :drunk:

That\'s actually why I like it so much. I didn\'t really want to go buy the art supplies for easel painting when I already had so many Vallejo paints and good minis. With just a little bit of work, the exercises worked very well with my model paints and models.

The theory works, though. Her method of explaining hue, value and intensity is the first that has ever made sense to me, and her explanation of mixing colors to achieve these three things works very well for figure painting. In my opinion, the book would be worth it for just the first four chapters.

ALso, one of her later topics - color constancy - is very useful for figuring out object source lighting.

@DaN - I picked it up for $12.