Creative Color [Paperback]

Faber Birren (Author), Birren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2007

The author demonstrates in Creative Color his exciting thesis: A knowledge of perception is the springboard to a far more inventive use of color in art today. By following Creative Color and performing the interesting experiments at the end of every chapter, you learn how to produce--consistently--effects that artists have rarely achieved, and then only by intuition, accident or painful trial-and-error. The illustrations are not meant to be art. They are experiments in producing color effects according to known principles of perception. If such striking effects can be achieved without the slightest attempt of art, think how much more the artist can do with the same knowledge! The author has usefully included a list of Numsell-coded palettes by which his extraordinary color effects may be precisely duplicated.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Faber Birren has become the best known and most widely read color authority of our time. He has written over one dozen books and several hundred articles for general, professional, and scientific publications. He now lives in Stamford, Connecticut.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Schiffer Publishing (July 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887400965
• ISBN-13: 978-0887400964
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A More Positive Opinion, February 3, 2005

By 

D. Vranicar (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Color (Paperback)

Kim Vlaun has written a good review, and I don't disagree with anything she has said. I have not seen the current edition she's talking about, so I can't judge how bad the reproduction quality is. I just want to add a more emphatically positive opinion about the value of the book.

It makes a unique contribution. In addition to covering the conventional fare of color theory and color harmony (which you can find in many other sources), Creative Color also addresses topics I have not seen treated anywhere else. In particular, chapters 14 through 24 address a topic Birren calls Perceptionism, or the study of how humans perceive color under various environmental conditions. In these chapters he provides truly valuable insights into the perception of luster; iridescence; luminosity; chromatic light; chromatic mist; luminosity in mist; transparency, texture and solidity; and highlights and shadows. Although the topics sound a little academic and sometimes are, the chapters are loaded with practical advice on how a painter can represent such effects in pigment. Each chapter is followed by a series of recommended experiments.

Birren states no personal preference for representational or nonrepresentational art. Serious painters or designers of either should be able to benefit from understanding these ideas.

As a painter interested in representation of natural effects, I find Birren's discussions to be of indispensable practical value. I think they are likely to be of equal value to anyone who works in oils, acrylics, pastel, gouache or other opaque media.

I have two complaints:

1. The diagrams are sometimes hard to follow. Diagrams and the references to them in text sometimes do not match. This causes confusion, but with patience you can extract the value of the message.

2. The color plates Birren uses to demonstrate the application of his concepts are pretty barfy, even in the 1961 edition I own. It's not a question of quality of reproduction. It's a matter of some bad-looking illustrations Birren himself appears to have designed. I think his aim may have been to prevent the quality of his illustrations from distracting the reader from the content of the point he's trying to make. But for me he sometimes fails in the oppposite direction. The poor artistic quality of his illustrations can make it hard to get past thinking that the effect he's trying to demonstrate just looks bad esthetically. Maybe some painters will be spurred to show how much more tastefully they can apply the concepts Birren illustrates.

In summary, for serious students of color theory--especially ones interested in understanding and applying color in unusual or challenging lighting conditions--I know of no better or more practical source.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of a 1980s (I think) edition, September 15, 2005

By 

glamaFez (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Color (Paperback)

There is an overall sort of 1961 beatnik look about this book that reminds me of a style that has been showing up in animated cartoons for the past 15 years. The text is very densely packed with information, and there is more text than illustration.

Some of the presented effects are ordinary, and there are others that are like nothing I've ever seen.

Concerning the exercises: If you actually do what he tells you to do (a daunting task), your art will probably be drastically affected for the better. If nothing else, you will be a whiz at mixing color, for you will be doing a LOT of that. It's like a color boot camp. This is not a book to be skimmed through for pretty pictures. It's about work.

One other unusual and appealing thing: The book is sprinkled with humble disclaimers in which the author says that he realizes how academic the ideas are, and emphasizes that art is about much more than color charts. If you look hard you might see some dry humor in these disclaimers.

I can't comment on the color reproduction in current editions. My copy is from the 1980s, I think.

I love it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars creative, practical and different, January 8, 2010

By 

K. Platt "blackplantlady" (Sheffield, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Color (Paperback)

This work has become a standard classic for any student of colour, and has relevance beyond that for the art student alone, being useful for other artistic and creative disciplines. Birren looks at colour theory and argues that in most cases, little consideration has been given to personal preferences and how they affect the use of colour. This 128 page book clarifies the theories and use of colour like no other book I know. Apart from reading it, the reader is encouraged to practice, in this way, you learn about colour and your preferences. I found this book very interesting, if at times I had to read things twice. What lets it down are the illustrations - they are simply not very professionally conceived and executed.