by Betty Edwards
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Product Description
Millions of people have learned to draw using the methods of Dr. Betty Edwards's bestseller The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Now, much as artists progress from drawing to painting, Edwards moves from black-and-white into color. This new guide distills the enormous existing knowledge about color theory into a practical method of working with color to produce harmonious combinations.
Using techniques tested and honed in her five-day intensive color workshops, Edwards provides a basic understanding of how to see color, how to use it, and-for those involved in art, painting, or design-how to mix and combine hues. Including more than 125 color images and exercises that move from simple to challenging, this volume explains how to:
- see what is really there rather than what you "know" in your mind about colored objects
- perceive how light affects color, and how colors affect one another
- manipulate hue, value, and intensity of color and transform colors into their opposites
- balance color in still-life, landscape, figure, and portrait painting
- understand the psychology of color
- harmonize color in your surroundings
While we recognize and treasure the beautiful use of color, reproducing what we see can be a challenge. Accessibly unweaving color's complexity, this must-have primer is destined to be an instant classic.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 basic, easy to understand, beginning artists' instruction, 2008-11-28
I found Betty Edwards book on colors helpful and useful.
For me it it unraveled the essential codes of finding/establishing colors harmony in a painting. It represented a the next step after Johannes Ittens 'The elements of color'. I use Bettys methodology to teach color to children/teenagers and amateur students in painting. The exercizes are a good way to explore how colors change when mixing with each other.
The chapter on color symbols was too brief for me.
The 3 to 4 steps in a painting from painting local color to harmonzing colors in a composition was easy to understand and represents important basic knowledge in painting process.
when doing the exercizes it is not essential to have the exact colors that she recommends. it still works.
Recommended, beginners level.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 great information for all painters, 2008-11-23
I used some of the exercises for my students and had great results, learning the language of paint and getting to the results we wanted quicker.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
colour mixing, 2008-09-28
Color by Betty Edwards: A Course in Mastering the Art of Mixing Colors
Very good book for a beginner and quite useful to the more serious.
Arrived within 8 days of placing my order and i used standard delivery. Superb.
This book is a natural progression from Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain by the same author.
It's a shame that it's only available in the USA.
Lived up to my expectations.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 wallpaper paintings and recycled color theory, 2008-09-27
this is a disappointing book, for three reasons. first, edwards simply recycles the mummified "color theory" dogma inherited from the 19th century (primary colors, complementary color contrast, and the "mud" definition of subdued tones); worse, she merely parrots it secondhand, in dribs and drabs and without no insight into what she is saying. second, the "scientific" statements about color are dilettantish, superficial and in many specifics factually wrong. finally, the practical guidance is devoid of any artistic spirit: the introductory color lesson asks the student to make little wheels of color and then, when the little wheels are completed, to copy wallpaper. no, that's not a metaphor: you choose a piece of wallpaper, paste it to a sheet of watercolor paper, then copy the design while inverting or shifting the color scheme.
the acme of edwards's color advice is her scheme for "color harmony" -- each painting must contain a balanced selection of the primary colors that are balanced within themselves on lightness and chroma (which edwards calls "value" and "intensity"). this is another empty cliche from 19th century color theory -- victorian art theorists speculated that a harmonious painting, spun on a turntable, would blur into a gray disc -- and the irony is that edwards introduces as a principle of harmony what she disparages as "mud" in color mixing. the worst point, however, is that she does what "color theorists" always do -- lay down simple rules as dogma -- in this case the assertion that painting harmony is simply the manipulation of color patterns.
of course, since we are in the realm of mummified "color theory", those patterns are the 18th century complementary color contrasts (yellow+purple, orange+blue, red+green) that have turned amateur painting into an anthill of identical cliches. this simplistic rule has been repeated for generations, not because it is accurate or useful (colors that are "off complementary" are actually more harmonious together), but simply because it is dogma -- something you can teach that has been taught before. significantly, these teachers (edwards included) are never fine artists themselves.
indeed, the whole book has a discouraging, reductive approach that resembles teaching the blind to paint. paint something simple, like a vase with flowers. hold up you metric wheels to judge colors. adjust colors using your wallpaper painting methods. make paintings by blocking in colors, then adjusting colors. stand back, squint, and "change whatever color doesn't look right." add colors that are missing and vary colors that are too similar. avoid mud. use complementary colors. get a new sheet of paper, rinse and repeat.
the only thing soaring about this book is the flight it takes as you fling it out your window; the only inspiring moment is when it flops into your trash can. yes! three points!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
ALL ABOUT COLOUR, 2008-08-19
Hi,
This book explains everything about colour. Most important thing is it teaches you to identify and match colour with value.
Entire colour wheel is simplified so one can easily remember it.
This is best book of Colour I have ever read.
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