Masterful Color: Vibrant Colored Pencil Paintings Layer by Layer [Hardcover]

Arlene Steinberg (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Colored pencil artists are gaining respect in the art world. This book approaches colored pencil work in the same manner as oil/acrylic painters work; offering instruction on how to plan and work on the entire painting at once. The result is a more cohesive, finished painting.

Rich colors are a desirable result for most artists. The techniques of creating a tonal underpainting and layering colors have been used by master artists for centuries. This book, which uses complementary colors for the underpainting, allows the contemporary colored pencil artist to tap into that tradition used by the Masters.

There is no other book that approaches color in this manner for today's artist.

Opposite or complementary colors create contrast and vibrancy. Masterful Color is loaded with instruction on how to layer colored pencil effectively to create deep, vibrant colors that exude richness. Readers will learn how to layer these complements over one another, creating rich shadows and adding depth and dimension to their paintings. With extensive coverage of basic techniques, detailed information on composition, color theory, textures and more, colored pencil artists will learn everything they need to achieve rich, vibrant colors by layering complementary colors. 17 demonstrations show readers the various techniques needed to use this approach and an extended final demonstration leads them through the entire painting process, step by step.

About the Author

Arlene Steinberg is a Signature Member of the Colored Pencil Society of America and her art was juried into the 2002-2005 International shows. Her paintings have also been selected for prestigious fine art shows and exhibitions in New York City where she has won several awards. She uses the complementary value underpainting method, similar to the traditional grisaille method of painting, for which she is well-known as an instructor.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (February 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581809573
• ISBN-13: 978-1581809572
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #41,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #2 in

  Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Colored Pencil

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ultra-realism techniques and Old-Masters ideas in this book, April 4, 2008

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Masterful Color: Vibrant Colored Pencil Paintings Layer by Layer (Hardcover)

If you love colored pencils, a relatively new art medium, and you like realism, especially still lifes in the style of the Old Masters, this book is definitely for you. Yes, that is a painting on the cover of the book, not a photo! Incredible, isn't it?

Ms. Steinberg's technique is stunning. She layers and burnishes the pigments of these waxy pencils until the result is a deep, dark, brilliant work with incredible depth and sparkle. Many times during the pages of demonstrations, I was thinking "I'd have stopped THERE" when the painting (drawing) was half-done, and the result would have been just fine, but Steinberg continues adding layers until the painting glows in great contrast. She shares these techniques with many photos of work in progress. There are also pages of color swatches of pencils, with the color listing for the most popular American brand used.

Among the many resources in the book are line drawings of the demonstration paintings, so the student can practice the color layering technique without first worrying about draughtsmanship. In addition, the drawings show the method Steinberg uses to achieve ultra-realism (you can see in the line drawing of the marbles featured on the cover, for example, that each reflection and shadow inside the marble is delineated carefully.)

Steinberg counsels the artist to continue and not worry about the intermediate steps of the painting because the burnishing step alters the final result. Burnishing is done with a colorless pencil, which has a waxy component that blends and melts the layers to achieve a smoother, darker result and blended highlights. She also gives advice on handling the boring task of filling in a dark background (go sector by sector and just concentrate on the bit at hand, don't look at the whole expanse and get discouraged.)

If you buy just one colored pencil tutorial book, this could be the one. My only complaint is that there are so many photos (ordinarily a good thing) that some of them are rather small so they can be fit into the available space. These photos really need to be larger to see the detail and technique. I would have included larger photos, more pages and just charged more for the book, because it really is a masterpiece.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Colored Pencil Books I've seen, if not THE BEST!, April 8, 2008

By	Matt Chapman (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masterful Color: Vibrant Colored Pencil Paintings Layer by Layer (Hardcover)

I'm sure there are one or two books on Colored Pencils that have been published in the last 15 years that I don't own. However, I have only been Colored Pencil painting for about 3 years. It's difficult for me to push aside all of those books and to say this is the best I've seen, but I have! There are a few that have been in my Top 5 for awhile. Ann Kullberg's Colored Pencil Portraits Step by Step and Capturing Soft Realism in Colored Pencil are the #1 reason why I picked up a colored pencil. Cecile Baird Painting Light With Colored Pencil has been at the #1 spot for me because of her use of burnishing to make a colored pencil painting look super-realistic. Masterful Color bumped itself into the #1 spot within a few days. Ms. Steinberg's explanation of color theory and in particular the Grisaille (pronounced: greez-eye) Method was in depth but easy to understand. Her "Photography 101" section was written in a way so I finally understand aperture and exposure speed, and it took 5 sentences, which was worth the price of the book right there.

I pre-ordered this book on August 3, 2007, and I finally got it about 2 weeks ago. The book now looks more used than many of the books that take up so much room in my den.

I have read just through to the beginning of Chapter 4, but looking through the rest of the book has given me the impetuous to go forth and hope that I can become a fraction of the artist that Arlene Steinberg is. I waited 7 months for this book, and it was worth every minute that I waited.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful Color Says It All, May 18, 2008

By	Jan Letoha "Delve into 3D! It's a whole new ... (Baxley, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masterful Color: Vibrant Colored Pencil Paintings Layer by Layer (Hardcover)

Other reviewers have thoroughly covered the author's inclusion of every aspect of colored pencil in this book. They are right on the money. The reason I bought this book, however, and the reason I like it, is stated in the title. 'Masterful Color.' That truly says it all.

This book is filled with color, glorious color! Color and value, the color wheel, training your eyes to see color, and even some history behind the use of color. The demos sparkle with tints and shades, and the references to the Old Masters, and their use of color and technique, are particularly interesting and useful, especially if one wants to paint like an Old Master someday. And that antique look appears to be coming back into fashion.

The usage and properties of color build, in this book, from the ground up. I love to underpaint, but I am never sure which color to use under what hue. On page 47, there is an extremely handy tool...a chart illustrating color combinations that will make your paintings shine! This color chart must have taken days of work and years of experience to develop. Possession of this chart alone is worth the price of the book.

I buy many colored pencil books, but today's market is becoming so saturated, it is difficult to find something new in every book that comes out. This book contains new and different material, and it is a must for the colored pencil lover's library.