Customer Reviews

The Colored Pencil: Key Concepts for Handling the Medium, Revised Edition (Practical Art Books)

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Borgeson's book, "The Colored Pencil" is a comprehensive step-by-step guide to this medium. The acceptance of colored pencil work is fairly new and just starting to boom in the greeting card market as well as in other venues. Although the use of this medium may seem fairly straightforward, Borgeson gives tips on how to master the techniques for the traditional market.

Tools and surfaces are covered, and a color wheel and a touch of color theory is included. Borgeson is fairly crisp with her reviews of these basics for the beginner, and these tools are also invaluable as a refresher for the pro. The book is clearly focused on illustration and commercial uses for colored pencil rather than fine art aspects.

As an artist who works in colored pencil as one of preferred medium, I am not ashamed to state that I basically learnt my technique from this book (and lots of exercise, of course.) Ms. Borgeson provides in this book both primary techniques of color application, which instantly put colored pencil in the "painting" category with their rich color and texture possibilities - and "tricks" for getting various effects. Focused on painterly texture and color, but not shunning experimental things, this book is one of the best to get started in color pencils - and return to it over and over again for refreshment. You won't find step-by-step instructions of "how to draw a blue horse" in his book, but rather a variety of examples and principles on which to build a color pencil drawing.

The Colored Pencil is clearly the most organized and comprehensive summary of the medium's techniques and methods. It offers all that is necessary to know in approaching its use. My only dissapointment is the lack of a broader range of example images. The drawings shown have a tendency to lean toward the contrived and sentimental which would be fine if the author also included some drawings that were more experimental and intellectual. The spectacular work of artist Ann McCoy (New York) comes immdiately to mind in this regard.

The original was good, the revised edition better. But don't turn down the first if you see it in the second-hand store! This book transformed my painting. Though I used pastels or acrylics for twenty-five years, I have not touched them since. It is the perfect media for a small apartment (zero mess) and an irregular schedule (the media doesn't dry out before you can get back to work, and the colors stay the same). Especially valuable because the artist shows how the paintings develop in layers, and how she judges and corrects them to fit her evolving ideas.

I am very new to art on paper and am exploring all the different media available to me. I borrowed this book from the library to see if it was something I needed on my shelves and my considered opinion after reading it is I MUST HAVE A COPY OF MY OWN! The exercises are clear, instructions basic, explanations are concise and make sense and the book flows from one chapter to another. This is an excellent book for the person seeking to get an overall exposure to this medium.

I'd been a sketcher all my life, but had been afraid to add color to my projects. What little experimenting I did do with colored pencils made me feel very awkward, and anxious. I felt I would mess my work up trying to master colored pencils. I didn't know all the techniques that existed in their use, or what one could accomplish with them.

Just recently, I found this book in our local library, and started reading it. I'm only half way through it at this moment, but it has already given me the courage to begin learning the basic techniques of working with colored pencils. I think it's an excellent book for beginners.

Although this book doesn't have alot of suggested exercises in each chapter, it doesn't take much imagination to know that one should try out the different techniques Borgeson writes about. In fact, her clear writing of the subject matter makes one WANT to try the techniques presented to them. She starts out with the basic materials, explaining what you will need to draw, and then she goes into different drawing techniques. Each chapter easily builds onto the last one giving a newbie a good foundation to start with, and then to expand.
My colored drawings, and confidence in using this medium have already gotten much better, and I'm having fun doing it!

I've already ordered my own copy of this book from the bookstore, and I've bought another one of her books that concentrates just on techniques. I'm looking forward to reading, and working with it as well.

Some things to remember....no drawing book is going to do the work for you. You must practice the techniques within them on your own whether the writer tells you to, or not. Practice and experimentation are the only ways to learn. This book, and working with colored pencils has certainly taught me this.

Thanks for reading!

I bought this book and 'Colored Pencil For The Serious Beginner' and I just didn't find them very helpful, though others certainly have. What I need is step-by-step exercises as I build my technique rather than examples and explainations and this book just didn't provide as many and at the depth I found elsewhere. The explainations were great, to be sure, but I have since found that things are explained much better (for me) in other publications. She has a particular style of work that is not so much photo-realistic as impressionist and maybe that is the reason it didn't suit me. I'm sure others will find it perfect for their style of learning.

THE BOOK IS FANTASTIC! I CAN NOT BE MORE PLEASED FOR MAKING THIS PURCHASE. THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT SERVICE.

This book is very well written with clear explanations and great information. Its my favorite.

This book covers all the aspects of Colored Pencil. She is an experienced painter that you will find is a great help to your paintings. This is a revised edition so it is up to date on the new techniques and Pencils you will use.