Customer Reviews

Light for the Artist

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I have heard much about Ted Seth Jacobs and his approach to seeing color, and certainly his technical ability is what they say it is. However, I am afraid that I cannot give this book more than three stars. It is not about the content of what he says - what he has in there is accurate, and he has good basic illustrations to prove his points. In fact, I bought this book sight unseen essentially for the information the book contained. So while the content itself is not an issue, I do have some issues with the way it is presented.

The two main problems I have with the book are the format and the color reproduction. The format makes the book nigh unreadable; and basically all the color reproductions of the paintings in it make me wonder if Mr. Jacobs really painted in those colors, or if it is some regrettable problem with the color reproduction during printing. The book is absolutely cram-packed with information-dense text in a two-column layout. This works for magazines, where the articles are shorter, but makes for extremely tiresome reading in a large book. As I said, the information is accurate, and Mr. Jacob's illustrations to prove those points are simple and easy to understand. But the text is very dense, and very dry, and it makes it hard to get through without getting tired. Another part of the problem is the lack of chapter breaks. There are a couple in the beginning, but the last half of the book is essentially one long unbroken column of text (which runs the outside length, and the wonky-colored pictures on the inside).

The other problem is the color reproduction. The paper in my book is still pristine white, so it's not yellowing of the paper itself. It's also not a problem that the paintings themselves are most definitely dated to the 70s and 80s, with some pretty groovy fashions, starred tapestries, pyramid power and feathered hair - and I will admit they're not to my taste at all, but I bought the book for the information. What really threw me off was that the main paintings have either: A bright yellow color that looks as if the picture was taken through a yellow filter; a very odd and jarring lavender-blue shade; or in a couple of instances, an alarming pinkish-red. In fact, Mr. Jacob's own paintings appear garish in many instances, with the strange shades of bright yellow, or orangeish, or ochre-colored tone really throwing me off. But other paintings, as I have mentioned, have this very weird, unnatural blue tinge that very often turns purple. It's not pleasant to see a painting of a composition made with fresh-baked bread, and the loaves are this bizarre, grey-purple color. It's rather unappetizing. And there's at least one picture, a still life of eggs and a whisk, that has an obvious reddish-pink tone, and so it's not pleasant to look at.

In short, if this book were still around the 40 to 50 dollar range, I think I could recommend it, if only for the information contained within (assuming you could get past the unfriendly text format and awful color on many of the paintings within). But for the current price I see (around 200 U.S. dollars at the time of this writing), I'm afraid I can't recommend it, because no matter the information within the book, the format and the color reproduction make for a disappointing purchase.

Anyone who is drawing or painting would benefit from reading this book. It sets out what light does and how we observe it in an understandable and logical manner. It is what you are NOT taught in art school, but these processes are fundamental, the core to all observational art . . . a gem.

This is such a crappy book I can't believe I waisted so much money on it. First, it's old and the quality of illustrations is real bad. Second, the paintings themself show nudes that are often far from perfect drawing and painting (anatomical problems). today's artists create such beautiful paintings of the nudes that these ones seem to be of a student, not a teacher.
The info on quality of the light is useful for beginners although this info can be found in other contemp.books. dissapointed...