Color Right from the Start: Progressive Lessons in Seeing and Understanding Color

by Hilary Page

Book Overview

In a series of progressive step-by-step lessons, the author of this volumehows the reader how to make the colours of nature come alive on canvas.;Eachhapter focuses on a dominant colour grouping,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0823007510
• ISBN13: 9780823007516
• Release Date: April 1994
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 1.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.6" x 11.3"
• Grade Range: Grades 10 to 12

Customer Reviews

Excellent reference book.

As a professional watercolourist with over twenty five years of experience and an advanced understanding of colour I can tell you that this is an excellent reference book. Definitely a great tool for art instructors. Even though the writer sees it as a book for beginners I feel that the complexity of the subject will probably be overwhelming for beginners.

Hilary Page is a "teacher's teacher'.

I just finished reading this well-thought-out and completely researched watercolor book. I am still new to water colors and am challenged and frustrated by this medium. Page's chapter on the history,nomenclature, and categories of pigments was incredibly interesting and will become a permanent edition to my water color reference library. I have seen many variations of color wheels in my 35 years of teaching---her watercolor pigment wheel is based on her own palette, and includes placement of saturated, unsaturated, and neutral pigments. I slso found the chapter on optical color effects fascinating.

Possibly the most valuable practical guide on color

After reading Hilary Page's book, it occurred to me how painting classes should maybe start with lessons on color rather than charcoal drawing. Her detailed explanation of color is grouped in three main aspects: objective color (measured by instruments), optical color (perceived by eye) and practical color (working with pigments). The theoretical aspects are then proven in practical examples which are also used for demonstrating her watercolor techniques, producing some very pleasing artwork. Details on pigments are particularly valuable. Pigment properties like clarity, tinting strength, purity, value range, degree of opacity, consistency related to the degree of sediment, wet-on-wet behavior, staining when rewetted etc. will be new to many. Knowing such details will help you prevent some strange "accidents" that can spoil your work. Rare books on color point out the difference between the pigment-color contrasts and the light-color contrast. Hilary Page is very specific regarding these contrasts: she shows two types of color wheels and two sets of primary and complementary colors. She also explains "spectral reflectance curves" that give us an insight to understanding why printers use "balanced" primary colors. A book on color naturally requires high quality print without any color distortion and this one doesn't fail here either.

Indispensable!

I'm new to watercolor painting and suffering from the beginner's consequence of too many books and too many paints. I wish I would have bought this book first, much time and $$ would have been saved. Her suggestions for testing each tube of paint to learn unique pigment qualites, pigment colors, color theory, color schemes, primary colors, complements, and optical mixtures have proven invaluable. The excercises included are easy to follow and serve to instill her unsaid mantra. Learn your paints learn your paints learn your paints! I've had this book for several months - still working through some of her excercises and foresee that I will continue to refer to this book many times in the future.

A very good book for basics in watercolor for beginners

I have had this book in my library for many years and recommend it to all of my beginning students. Good demonstrations to follow along and to learn how to apply underpainting and mix colors.