Customer Reviews

Color Exercises for the Painter

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Unlike many books for artists learning color theory, this book is a hands-on approach. There are good explanations of color theory and each exercised is a concrete color problem. It's a great book for students and teachers, or anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of painting, by PAINTING! There are 92 exercises/studio projects in all and chapters on: Color temperature, Complementaries, Color Values, Color Perspective, Composing with Color, Painting Techniques and Color, and The Feeling of Color.

This book came into my possession through unhappy circumstances: a person abandoned their dreams and moved away, leaving this and many other wonderful books heaped among the forgotten treasures in a house that was in foreclosure.

Being a book person "forever", I've been sifting through the wreckage and find the occasional treasure: this book, if you're willing to work with it, doesn't hand you a fish: it *teaches* you to fish. To be more direct, you are given assignments and a materials list. You are asked to mix and blend and think of the results you've achieved. You will develop technique, because you are asked to reproduce some works of art that are complex. And from this book, most astonishingly of all, you may find your own unique "voice".

This book takes neither a condescending "For Dummies" and "hand-holding approach", nor does it preach learning from the lofty, intellectual "shower in a raincoat" perspective. It is amazing that I'd never heard of 'Color Exercises for the Painter' and quite likely never would have known of its existence had this person not run in the wrong direction, abandoned their achievable dreams and gone off to tilt at windmills. You can learn quite a lot about a person by the things they choose to leave behind -- and you can learn quite a lot from this book, if you're willing to jump in and believe anything is possible (especially the belief in yourself).

I'm a pastelist, not an oil or acrylic artist, but I've still found this book useful. The color theory is the same, regardless of the medium.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in either reviewing what they know about color or learning more about color theory.