The Watercolorist's Complete Guide to Color [Paperback]

Tom Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1998

Starting with the principles of colour theory, Hill presents an analysis of 40 popular pigments with important descriptions of colour temperature, transparency or opacity and degree of stain.'

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891348549
• ISBN-13: 978-0891348542
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You can't understand the color in watercolor without this., August 6, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Watercolorist's Complete Guide to Color (Hardcover)

Hill's painting style is loose, and ideal for the usually spontaneous nature of watercolor. This is a fine and needed book on color. The technique of painting receives a concise two chapters, yielding space to the problem of making watercolor paints behave. Hill's study of color is based in physics and reality, not taste. I much prefer it this way. Full and detailed descriptions of "all the paints you will probably ever use" tell how they perform, how to test your paints, and what to expect when you mix them. If blue and yellow do not make green for you, but brown or gray, this book gives insight into why this happens. To show what effect color selections have in a painting, one scene is painted with seven palettes, from minimal (monochromatic) to full colors. Chapter Seven, "Color in light & shadow", shows photographically how light and shadow effect color and how to duplicate the effects. I have not seen this covered in other books. Through ten demonstrations you will learn how to render colors in shadows, in colorful subjects, and in not-so-colorful subjects by making colorful grays. You will learn to use color to paint "white" subjects, the greens in nature, clouds and skies, and even colors that are not in a scene, but should be. This is a valuable an informative book. I have given away some twenty or so books to my artist club library, but not this one. It is worth the price, to me, for Chapter 7 alone. I would have rated it a 10, if it were on color only, minus the first two chapters, but these are helpful to beginners.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless Tomb on Watercolor & Use of Color, June 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Watercolorist's Complete Guide to Color (Hardcover)

An excellent volume and companion to use in conjunction with Jeanne Dobie's book Making Colors Sing. While Dobie's book is outdated with all the advances in watercolor pigments and newer more permanent lightfast color, Hill's book not only picks up with the use of newer pigments, but his suggestions are excellent. This book is a wonderful addition to any library. I kept it nearby as I do Dobie's book. A must have book with excellent demonstrations and illustrations. Also the artist's style and work is wonderful too. A must have for anyone serious about watercolor, beginner or advanced.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watercolor enthusiast's paradise ..., December 2, 1999

By 

Prafulla Shukla (2510, E. Washington, #3, Bloomington, IL 61704.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Watercolorist's Complete Guide to Color (Paperback)

This book gives an excellent idea and keeps an idol in front of the reader as how a watercolor painting should be. Nice simple language and examples chosen are truly magnificent. Tom's style of painting is simply out of the world.