Perfect Color Choices for the Artist [Paperback]

Michael Wilcox (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: School of Color Publications (November 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931780196
• ISBN-13: 978-1931780193
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Good As It Gets In Terms Of Useful Information For Artist, February 24, 2004

By 

Nigel "Nigel" (Austin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perfect Color Choices for the Artist (Paperback)

If you have read "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green" also by Wilcox, this is the de facto companion volume. In this he lays out systematically the various color schemes available to the artist and uses examples of great art to teach each scheme. Furthermore he analyzes each scheme in relation to the palette he teaches in "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green." If, like me, you are a convert and use this particular palette, the analyses of the color scheme choices is so helpful that it literally revolutionizes the way you will be able to simplify your color choices. The main thing is that one should first get a copy of "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green.' If you are detrermined to go straight for this book, the color swatches from "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green" are reproduced in the back of the book. If you are a working artist, make sure you have the following palette on hand: Cadmium Yellow (light or Pale), Lemon or Hansa Yellow Light, Cadmium Scarlet or Cadmium Red Light, Permanent Rose or Quinacridone Rose, French Ultramarine or UltraMarine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Winsor Blue red shade or Pthalocyanine Blue (or Prussian Blue), Pthalocyanine or Winsor Green blue shade, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna (white--except if using watercolor). He has a website www.schoolofcolor.com in which paints and a special organizing palette can be ordered if one so desires. These books are as good as it gets in terms of useful knowledge for the artist.

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good content, but very poorly edited, May 28, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Perfect Color Choices for the Artist (Paperback)

This book has beautiful color plates of the work of other artists. It provides useful analysis of how and why their color schemes work. Wilcox gives practical advice you can put to work immediately.

My big complaint is that the editing of the text is simply awful. As with Wilcox's other book, Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green, it appears that he is self-published and probably self-edited. This is a pity. He often splices fragments into a sentence that doesn't work. This and other grammatical errors abound: unclear pronoun references, excessive use of passive voice, etc. Often a key point Wilcox is trying to make is obscured because it is so ambiguously worded as to require re-reading several times. You may never be sure if you've correctly understood his intended meaning. His book contains many redundancies. It lurches inconsistently in tone, sometimes formal and impersonal, sometimes chatty and conversational. In addition, the flow of ideas from one topic to the next within a chapter and from chapter to chapter seems a little illogical and confusing. It's a pity Wilcox doesn't submit his work to a professional editor.

Wilcox illustrates variations on some of his suggested color harmonies by indexing a series of colored thumbnail compositions to color swatches at the back of the book. The swatches may be valuable in themselves as mixing guides. But I found Wilcox's indexing notation both cumbersome and confusing. More to the point, I would figure out the notation if the thumbnails were more appealing. They have been of little help in suggesting useful color combinations because most of them are ugly to me. Many are downright garish. This is not a complaint I would have expected for a book entitled "Perfect Color Choices for the Artist."

Even with all these faults, Wilcox makes valuable and useful points. The reproductions can be a pleasure to browse, provided you can stay out of the brambles of Wilcox's often tortured text.

I learned from this and Wilcox's other book. I would buy it again--as disappointed as I am that it falls so far short of its potential.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Repeat of Existing Knowledge, September 29, 2005

By 

Remi Engels (Tullahoma, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perfect Color Choices for the Artist (Paperback)

This book does not contain anything new. All content has been published in hundreds if not thousands of other publications. A quick internet search will convince you of this. Also, the book is badly edited. Hundreds of repetitions of the same argument can be found. Also, the same exposition is repeated for every color. Unless you are writing for 5th graders such duplication is just a waste of paper. The whole thing is poorly executed. It was a waste of money.