Perfect Color Choices for the Artist

Rating:
Summary: Good content, but very poorly edited
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: As Good As It Gets In Terms Of Useful Information For Artist
Review: If you have read "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green" also by Wilcox, this is the de factro 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.

Rating:
Summary: Good content, but very poorly edited
Review: This book has beautiful color plates of the work of other artists and useful analysis of how and why their color schemes work. The color-mixing charts are helpful. And the book gives good, practical advice you can put to work immediately. I like this and Wilcox's other books more than most other sources I've read on color theory. But 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. Sometimes 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. It's a pity Wilcox doesn't submit his work to a professional editor. Even so, I learned from this and his other book and would buy it again--as irritated as I am by his sloppy use of language.