This richly illustrated book contains all you need to know about mixing colours.
You can see at a glance how to achieve the colour mix you want. There are pages of easy-to-follow colour mixing charts, help on how to achieve glowing colours and transparent overlay effects, information on how to mix greens and flesh tones - and practical advice on pigments.
This is a classic book, which was originally published in spiral bound hardback in 1993.
Feb 08
Although this is not a new book (it first appeared in 1993), the fact that it is still in print and, even more, that Search Press, (who were not the original publisher) have reissued it in its correct spiral binding, testifies to its longevity and its value. Search Press first took this series over in 2000 and put them out in paperback, which is not their natural habitat. The Pocket Palette series really only works if you can lay the books out flat and refer to them while both your hands are tied up mixing colours. There's a mixed metaphor in there somewhere and you know what I mean, so don't be pedantic and ask me to unravel it.
The arrangement of the book starts with colour types and then provides examples of specific colour mixes in a range of three tints. There is also a short piece on using each colour type and a very useful section on skin tones which would, itself, justify the purchase price.
There have been other, more comprehensive, encyclopaedias of colour mixing since this series appeared, but one of its great merits is its selective nature; these are compact little books you can carry about with you and they don't overburden you with more than you need.
Any serious artist will tell you that colour mixing and selection are so much the artist's stock in trade that they should be second-nature. This is true, but beginners have to start somewhere and, as an aid to confidence, the series is invaluable. If you won't put brush to palette without detailed consultation, you have a lot to learn, but then again, this is as good a place to learn as any.
* Artbookreview.net *July 08
It is not easy mixing the right color for your painting - it is certainly something that I have never been any good at! Being told that professional artists mix most of the shades they need has me hiding my premixed tubes in embarrassment... if this is you, then you need this book.
I like the way it starts with a section on how to use it; far from being complex, it is actually beautifully simple. The colors used are all shown on two pages, and then by mixing each one with all the others you can see what the results are. Other pages show you the effects when painting thinly or thickly, using thinning media and with white added in different percentages. There are also sections on working with different colors, and finished paintings shown using a limited palette of those colors to create effects. You can also find out how to mix a particular range of each shade, and there is even a small section showing how pointillism works. This is only a small book but nicely crammed with useful facts which are shown rather than told, and a fine addition to Search Press' growing range of books for all levels of artists.
* Myshelf.com ** Part of the Pocket Palette series - with The Watercolour Flower Painter's Pocket Palette Vols 1 & 2, The Watercolour Painter's Pocket Palette, The Pastel Painter's Pocket Palette
* An essential handy-sized book for the oil painter
* A quick at-a-glance guide to over 600 mixes