Customer Reviews

Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Before reading this book, I already had a good basis in the basic color theory: the primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, and the ideas of complementary and analogous colors. I even knew that mixing complementaries would result in browns to blacks.

However, I hadn't learned how to apply that knowledge in the way this book presents it. As a result, sometimes I would mix colors that were muddy or shaded, and I didn't know why. This book explains it all so clearly and so simply that you are sure to retain and use the information with ease.

In summary, this book tells you how to mix any color you want, reliably and with confidence, just using six colors, two of each primary color. Everyone who understands color knows that yellows fall on a range from almost-orange to almost green, blues fall on a range from almost-green to almost-purple, and reds fall on a range from almost-purple to almost orange. The fact that these colors are in a range means that, when you mix them, you will get different results depending on where the colors fall in that range.

This book tells how to determine where a color falls in those ranges, and also gives you a clear and understandable way of knowing what to expect when mixing different primaries. The system works.

One nice thing is that, with the price of paints today, if you need to, you can only purchase six colors and you will pretty much be set. Accordingly, this book recommends that you purchase those six colors, two from each primary, with one color each that tends toward each end of each primary (a green-yellow and an orange-yellow, for example).

Of course, you can always buy a larger range of colors, but armed with the information in this book, when you do so, you can confidently purchase and mix those colors and have a good idea of what the results will be each time.

If you are impatient with theory, you can skip all the stuff about reflected light, additive versus subtractive color mixing, color perception in the brain, and so on; it may or may not all be true, and is anyway only Mr. Wilcox's theory about *why* his system works. Instead, if you are impatient, just read the juicy stuff about the colors themselves. It will definitely improve your ability to mix colors well. If I were making a list of "must have" books in an artist's reference library, this would be one of them.

This is a book that is good for several kinds of readers, in my opinion:

1) For readers who want to use it as color references, the book provides a considerable number of color charts. Readers can use them as a guide in the mixing of colors (oil, water colors, or others).

2) For readers who like "color formulas", color mixtures presented in the book are of big help and a good start.

3) For readers who like to get to the bottom of things, the author presents rather in-depth discussions on color theories. Briefly speaking, there is a major difference between the mixing of light of different colors (i.e. mixing of visible light of different wavelengths. Remember, visible light is simply a spectrum of electromagnetic signals, characteristic by their frequencies, hence, their wavelengths), and the mixing of color pigments. While the resultant color obtained as a result of the former obeys the "additive mixing rule", the resultant color obtained by mixing of the latter (color pigments) follows the "subtractive mixing rule". My rough analogy of these two rules is that "additive mixing rule" (the mixing of light) may be considered "What you see is what you get - a.k.a. WYSIWYG"; meanwhile, the "subtractive mixing rule" (the mixing of color pigments) may be considered "What you see is what you DON'T get" - a.k.a WYSIWYDG".

Commonly, scientists such as physicists and chemists are more familiar with the additive mixing rule, since this is of common use in measurement techniques such as colorimetry or photometry. On the other hand, artists and painters who understand pigments and color mixing are usually more familiar with the "subtractive mixing rule".

It is also worth mentioning that the "subtractive mixing rule" is sometimes referred to as the "subtractive system" of color mixing. This system is NOT at all new, nor is it presented solely in this book. Instead, readers may find it discussed in other color theory books as well.

To sum it up, this is a good reference book for artists at any level; and speaking with a scientist within, I believe there are nothing wrong, nor are there any lies presented in this book, regarding the theory presented in it. In my opinion, it is a decent book in the mixing of color pigments. Therefore, it deserves an accurate review from both viewpoints, those of a scientist and an artist.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

Don't let the title fool you, sometimes Yellow and Blue DO make Green (just like on Sesame Street and in that commercial for zip-locking plastic bags.) But depending on what paint pigment you use, yellow and blue can give you gray or some other shade. It's all to do with how the pigments are balanced (greenish, reddish, bluish) and how they reflect light in a mixture.

The book has you do a number of swatch painting exercises (for watercolor) and these are fun to do. The first involves using cerulean blue (a greenish blue) and cadmium red, a yellowish-red. You get shades of gray. Nice ones, mind you, but if you thought you'd get PURPLE from this mix, well, no way, Jose.

I did about 20 of the exercises and found it quite useful when I subsequently did a painting involving a lot of masonry in the picture. I used a limited paletted of cerulean, cadmium red and a brownish yellow and found I got a nice gray for the masonry, but the yellow (Nickel Azo Yellow) did NOT work well.

In summary, if you paint watercolor, this is an essential text to keep you learning about color mixing and what works, what doesn't. I highly recommend this to amateurs and experts alike.

First off, read the book, buy the paint colors suggested, then start mixing and make your own color chart. Then decide if the book is worth it or not. If mixing colors has been a chore instead of a joy buy this book.

Like other reviewers, I saved lots of money and headaches using the principles in this book. No, it does not have pictures of pretty artwork. You provide the artwork. I thought I knew how to mix colors. I used acrylic paints and guessed at what I wanted. Now I know how to get what I want out of any paint media. It is the only book about mixing color you will need. Read on for more about the book.

Let me tell you as a beginner oil painter it was maddening to try and figure out what color paints to buy. I have checked out, borrowed and brought several books on oil painting and color over the last few months. It was very confusing on what type and color of oil paints to buy. Each painter in each book had their own colors and brands they used. When I finally got the money together to order my paints I spent all day trying to wade through the color chips on the Internet and the books that I had. Of course unless you have the paint color in front of you on a canvass, you can in no way or how figure out the true color of the paint your buying.

I was lucky to have come across the Colour Bias System (called the six color system which is confusing because I thought that was the old color wheel system) on another artist's website who was nice enough to provide a short explanation and tell what colors she used. Unfortunately the colors she suggested did not match up with the names of the water-soluble oil brands I was interested in using. I was very excited to learn how to get a pink instead of a coral, and how to get a true green and not a sap green or get a sap green if I wanted it. Still I had the problem of which colors to order.

After much digging around on the Internet I found Talen's website. They make H2o water soluble oils. It has listed the names of their primary and secondary paint colors for the Colour Bias System. The primary colors are equal to the colors in ink for a printer - cyan, magenta, and yellow. The term secondary is not used in the traditional sense of green, orange and purple but, the other yellow, red and blue to use with the Colour Bias System. I jumped on that information and ordered my paints from them just because now I knew what to order.

It was a leap of faith because the colors were not what other artist where saying to use. I did not order any greens, trusting to what I had read about the Colour Bias System. I ordered the two yellows, the two reds, and the two blues, plus white, and burnt umber.

I just finished my first oil painting and I am please to tell you the Colour Bias System works. I made my own greens and was more than please with how they turned out.

Now comes in the book Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green. For some reason Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green was always checked out of my local library and I just came a crossed it.

If I had read it from the first I would not have been so scared when I got my paints and saw the colors. I just about fainted. I thought I had made a big mistake until I started mixing paint for my own color chart. Now I could see how it all worked. Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green would have made it easier to figure out how all the colors interact. It is not a matter of warm or cool it is a matter of orange-red verses a violet-red and so forth.

The pages describing paint colors to use, their pigments, and how and why to keep you pigments as pure as you can keep them is priceless. The Colour Bias System color wheel in the book makes it easy at a glance to remember which colors have what underlying tint and what colors work with and against each other. I like the addition of the other color charts. It does not bother me that the color charts lean to watercolors. You should have seen the color book I checked out for oil paints. Ugly! I am mixing my oils described the way in the book with beautiful results. I love clear clean colors and am getting them with the lest expensive oils. No book that I have gotten has or can produce true color charts that match perfectly with original paints. The printing process just does not allow it.

I was just at the art department of one of the biggest universities in the nation. One class was on color and the students were making a color chart with oils. I did not see one example of a student's work that was not all muddied. Thousands of dollars for an education and I have learned more about color from this book than those students will in that class.

The reason I gave the book four instead of five stars is that it gets too technical with color absorption and reflection. It could have been explained in a simpler manner and the principle was over worked.

Like many people I imagine, I left art school not knowing much more about colour than when I went in, my teachers' ignorance of many colour issues as profound as mine. Eventually I was lucky enough to come across this book and it helped me gain a much better understanding of the reasons for varied mixing outcomes. The inaccurate methods propagated by traditional colour-mixing theories have been with us for quite a while and this book is a very good beginning to overcoming many of them.

In an orderly, logical manner the author takes the reader through many mistakes and points you down the path to more reliability in mixing a desired colour - no more will you have to "make do" - instead, by understanding the bias of pigments, the outcome is no longer a matter of intuition, or worse, guesswork. These techniques should be taught in every art class in every school, and it really is simple enough for this to be practical. Another beauty is that it works with any medium.

This book is highly recommended for learners looking for better insight into practical colour mixing.

Note: the technical explanations underlying the ideas in the book are simplistic and not scientifically accurate, so should be taken as a rough guide only.

This book does not cover Color Theory, which is a specialized branch of color use. Instead, Blue & Yellow Don't Make Green addresses some of the basic issues of color mixing, in terms of both light and paint. It clearly explains the physical properties of each and how this knowledge can be used to best effect.

Yet, the text is never dry or overly-scientific. It cuts right to the chase, giving the reader plenty of information about color mixing, along with many beautiful color illustrations.

As an artist and teacher, I use Blue and Yellow both in the studio and in the classroom all the time. My hat is off to Michael Wilcox!

Like many people I imagine, I left art school not knowing much more about colour than when I went in. But eventually I was lucky enough to come across this book and my eyes were finally opened. The mistaken theories propagated by traditional colour-mixing theories have been with us for quite but this book dispels them all, at last.

In an orderly, logical manner Michael Wilcox takes us through these mistakes and points us down the path to correctly mixing a desired colour - no more will you have to "make do" - instead, by understanding the "bias" of pigments, the outcome of mixing is no longer a matter of intuition or guesswork. These techniques should be taught in every art class in every school, and it really is simple enough for this to be practical. Another beauty is that it works with any medium to accurately predict the results of a mix of any colours whose bias is known.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for painters in any media who want to understand the mechanics of colour mixing and I thank Michael Wilcox for this cornerstone work.

Artist have struggled with understanding color mixing since the 16th century as evidenced by the differing theories and opinions. The struggle to mix the color you want every time has continued in this century mostly because the traditional three primary color wheel, which is deeply embedded in our schools and other art classes, is incomplete and therefore limited in its use. As evidenced by countless and expensive piles of mud and just settling with "This will have to do" that frustrates many artist. With Michael Wilcoxs' sound scientific background this is not a theory that can be argued. It is a fact and he explains how to use these facts in a logical method to base your decisions about mixing colors. You cannot go wrong by studying this book. However, if you already know the three primary color wheel, you will have to study and practice harder to unlearn the three primary and relearn the proper and more dependable way to mix color. If you do the work it will change your life. You will never have to struggle with guesswork and unknowns to get the color you want every time. Like I said, remember as you're reading this book that you are a part of history bing made.

I have taught Color & Color Theory for 20 years and this book is great. It changed my approach to teaching color mixing. My students leave my class well-prepared to mix any color they desire.

I'm a cheap and easy person. Instead of laboring over the mixing of hundreds of oils and scaring myself to death with the vast scenery of watercolor, I stick to pastels. The colors are reflected, right in front of me. Each stick tells me the what it is by looking at it, and I apply accordingly.

If I had realized early the mysterious properties revolving around the names of paints, my fears and my pocketbook would have seen much relief. Basically, Wilcox explains the "subtractive" method of applying color - when mixing the primary colors of red, yellow and blue with paint and ink we get black or dark brown. In the "additive method" (which applies to photographers and theatre lighting), one mixes red, yellow and blue and gets white - which is absolutely normal, since color IS light, and white is the presence of all color. The color wheel was based on a prism. Paints are NOT light; they are objects that reflect the light.

What is invaluable about this book is that Wilcox gives new meaning to the color wheel by defining the colors with paint names, taking away the doubt and fear of color mixing. If you're a painter, just get the book. You'll see what I mean. And you'll save money in your choices of paints. Much more than you'll spend on this book.