Customer Reviews

Color Harmony in Your Paintings

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is a printing error on page 17. The colored circles should be labeled:
COOL: Cad. Yel. Deep, Quinacridone Red, Ultra. Blue, T-Z White.
WARM: Cad. Yel. Med., Grumbacher Red, Phthalo Blue, T-Z White with a touch of Lemon Yellow.
Please spread the word and keep those brushes wet.
Margaret Kessler

I found this book to be well written and the most useful book on color to date. Chapter 2: Choosing a Color Scheme, is not something I've seen in other books on color. The color schemes shown are broken down and explained in text and with illustration using both artwork samples and the color wheel. It makes it easy to see how to choose and use a particular scheme. Chapter 3: The Munsell Color Wheel is also something I've not seen before. Munsell's approach makes more sense to me and will most likely be the color wheel I will use most in the future. I highly recommend this book to all artists.

Color and composition are the most important tools an artist can use to elicit a response from a viewer. But it is color we see first. Color either grabs the viewer with its expression of a mood or emotion or it does not. In "Color Harmony," artist and teacher, Margaret Kessler has given a great gift to those of us seeking help with this important subject.

Kessler's well illustrated book shows how to use color to establish depth and form, create eye-pleasing contrasts, convey different times of the day and specific atmospheric conditions, and heighten the expressiveness and impact of a painting. She also emphasizes the importance of using the color wheel as we paint. It surprises her that many artists do not have the color wheel close at hand while painting. Color is just that important!

"Color Harmony" is organized into six sections:

1. The Basics of Color (properties, mixing, matching)
2. Choosing a Color Scheme
3. Discovering the Munsell Color Wheel
4. Mastering the Contrasts of Color (varying value, temperature, and intensity)
5. How Light and Atmosphere Affect Color (depth; variations with time of day and weather)
6. Designing With Color (a full demonstration that ties all the principles together)

This book can serve as a good guide for the new artist... and a refresher guide for those who are not so new.

One of the first painting related books I bought was Kessler's Painting Better Landscapes: Specific Ways to Improve Your Oils. I found that book extraordinarily helpful in my earliest studies. This book is full of helpful information as well. Although I work in acrylics, I find her guidance easy to follow, her demonstrations specific enough to learn from, and her overall coverage of how best to improve my paintings straightforward and clear. I highly recommend the work to anyone working in landscapes in particular.

I always have this book open on my painting table, it's one of those books that I wish I'd read when I started painting.
It has really helped me to understand color. I've been painting as a hobby for years now and, as it turns out, I was pretty clueless about color so this book was an eye-opener for me.
This book taught me how to capture moods, weather, and times of day and I've greatly improved my painting.
It also stresses the importance of careful planning, something I never did before but now I do.
I'm very grateful for this book and I would recommend it to anyone but my competitors. ;-)

I would enjoy meeting Margaret Kessler and taking a workshop from her -- she seems very approachable in her book, "Color Harmony in Your Paintings," which very effectively explains how powerful a tool color can be. Kessler demystifies the color wheel and shows through many examples of her work -- a number of them done in demo fashion-- how to effectively apply color principles to increase the impact your paintings. An excellent book!

I am finding this book to be an excellent review, including insightful comments that simplify painting concepts in a way that supports confidence and experimentation. I am someone who feels much more confident after grounding myself in a certain level of knowledge about the media I choose.
After mastering watercolor, I want to move to oils; this book's review of color harmony and mixing hints and techniques is exhilarating: I feel I can avoid some common pitfalls, and adapt more quickly to oils as a media.
I first read Margaret Kessler's writing exerpts in "everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Oil Painting'... I find her instruction uniquely clear, to the point and immediately helpful. I highly recommend this book to others who love to learn or relearn the color theory and techniques underlying successful outcomes.

A well written book, not only for beginners, but for the long time painters also. Margaret Kessler knows the ways to bring the most out of a painting and she knows how to get her ideas across to the reader.

This book is an excellent intro to creating harmonious paintings. She explains some of the very difficult concepts of color harmony in a way that's very easy to understand. I've been a pro painter for almost 20 years now and I found this book to be very, very helpful. She has a great explanation of the Munsell Color Wheel that alone is worth the price of the book!

I had checked a number of painting books out of the library and was so impressed with this one that I purchased it. I didn't rate it 5 stars because I could imagine there being a more complete and sophisticated book. However, she appears to be a solid painter and she deals with more than just a couple of color wheels. She also offers up her manner of mixing colors. It's always nice to know how someone else approaches these matters.