Hilary Page's Guide to Watercolor Paints

Rating:
Summary: The Guide's a "MUST" for ALL ARTISTS!
Review: "Hilary Page's Guide to Watercolor Paints" isdesigned to help you select the exact the colors for your particularrequirements and so save you time and money. Based on the ten "Desirable Paint Qualites" that are listed, ratings are given for more than 1400 paints from 30 manufacturers including the new Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith lines.

I have personally tested and evaluated each paint for reliability, lightfastness, handling characteristics and mixing potential, and my painted samples show exactly how each paint handles when applied wet on wet, in a graded wash and whether it will lift or stain.

A comprehensive Master Triangle of colors specifies pigment numbers and serves as a key to the rest of the book. The triangle will lead to the colors you may require. You'll also find the "Convenience Lists" very handy when choosing your paints. The index of all manufacturers' paints enables you to quickly find information on a particular paint.

The historical and scientific descriptions of each paint and pigment used in artists paints, as well as reflectance curves, with a useful caption below each color, are included to help you make an informed selection.

I hope you enjoy browsing through the pages of entertaining information and colorful, historical illustrations many of which I reconstructed from old prints and paintings.

I never cease to be filled with happy anticipation as I enter an art supply store. "Hilary Page's Guide to Watercolor Paints" reveals the large number of paints available to you. I hope that your paint purchasing will be easier, better informed and more pleasurable with this guide as your reference- a "must" for all artists!

Rating:
Summary: very good for the artist to save money
Review: As I am interested in the scientific end of things when studying color, I bought this book with a view to study what the author had to say about it. Being the medium is watercolor, a paste ready for painting with a brush mixed with water, the colors are indeed going to be different from that of other mediums. The author has done a tremendous job by detailing the different brands and rating them in terms of their lightfastness, whether they "stain" (have staying power for color in a painting) or not. I would term this book the "Consumer's Report of Watercolor Colors". So often, most books on color theory concentrate on one aspect of color, such as graphics on film or web graphics, and forget that different mediums mix color differently. For instance, someone involved with oil painting would need a different book on mixing color, as that is a different medium altogether. Also, there is no standardization of color among the various manufacturers of paints, and it makes it very difficult for the artist to know just what to buy. "Amber green" from one manufacturer could be very different from an "amber green" from another manufacturer, and vice versa, the same color could have different names from different manufacturers. The reason I am not giving it five stars, is that this point about color standardization is driven home better by an John Wilcox, another author on color and watercolor. Otherwise, this is a very good book for the discerning watercolorist.

Rating:
Summary: This is an excellent reference book.
Review: Having borrowed this reference book from the library three times, I now am happy to make it a permanent part of my own collection. This book is a comparative analysis of various manufacturers' paints, listed by color. Not only does Ms. Page provide an independent evaluation of color, texture, and lightfastness, but also highlights that, "You don't always get what you paid for," by noting that in some cases the student quality paints are as good if not better than the professional quality line. This is an exceptional reference book which would enhance any watercolorist's library.

Rating:
Summary: Compares with M Wilcox book
Review: Helpful, providing definitive information on the behavior of the paint, accurate color photos, and information in disagreement with Wilcox's book--i.e. the color Opera by Holbien as a "permanent" color. (Color rec. by E. John Robinson). Useful when picking between different manufacturers, especially with online shopping.

Rating:
Summary: Compares with M Wilcox book
Review: Helpful, providing definitive information on the behavior of the paint, accurate color photos, and information in disagreement with Wilcox's book--i.e. the color Opera by Holbien as a "permanent" color. (Color rec. by E. John Robinson). Useful when picking between different manufacturers, especially with online shopping.

Rating:
Summary: this book is invaluable
Review: I just used this book to make my first choices of watercolors. (I am an experienced artist, just not in this media). I am very concerned with lightfastness and many brands do not list this sort of information on their tubes at all. I was able to buy my paint for the first time with full knowledge and trust that my paintings will still be around even when I'm gone.

Rating:
Summary: If you paint watercolors, you need this book...
Review: It will save you mucho money. A complete, comprehensive test of colors from a wide range of major manufacturers of watercolor, this book lists the lightfastness and handling characteristics of each color. But that's not all. You get reflectance curves, mixing potential, transparency, lifting, staining, granularity and other properties of pigments. (But it is fun to read, as the information is presented in a very accessible form)

Never buy a horrid tube of chalky, weak, miscolored, fugitive paint again. Plenty more in this book, including history and even chemistry. Hilary Page is a fantastic author, teacher and painter. Get this book!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent investment for watercolorists
Review: This book is great! It explains everything you want to know about the nature and behavior of pigments. Hilary does a superb job of rating the quality of each paint manufacturer's products. Her information is accurate and very useful. I now understand a great deal more about the paints I'm using. After buying this book I changed my pallet to single pigment paints and no longer mix mud. I no longer waste money on dissapointing tubes of color.
Of all the books on watercolor I've read and own, this one has become my bible!

Rating:
Summary: atlas of color
Review: this book represents a stupefying amount of research on nearly all commercially available watercolor pigments. the text begins with an overview of the color wheel (reduced to a color "triangle" anchored on the subtractive color primaries RYB), then marches through the colors in sectional sequence. each section opens with a survey of pigment development and a separate discussion of specific pigments. every pigment from each manufacturer is represented by an identical color swatch footprint, showing a graded wash and a wet-on-wet blossom, keyed to lightfastness tests and the actual pigment ingredients of the paint. the swatch commentaries reveal some clear biases (the same pigment is described as "toxic" or "not lightfast" under one manufacturer but as "a beautiful color" under another), but for a work of this scope the level of accuracy is stunning. it's revealing to finally comprehend how variable a "type of paint" such as hooker's green actually is, the diversity of names for the same pigment (such as phthalo blue), and the sheer abundance of unique pigments available in the blues, yellows and reds. overall a work of tremendous craftsmanship, perseverence and care. essential for any serious watercolor painter.

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Summary: Hilary's Guide to WC Paints has saved me hundreds of dollars
Review: This book was the best money I have ever spent on art related books and supplies combined. It pays for itself many many times over in the savings you will reap from learning the good paints from the trash paints. I wouldn't think of buying a tube of paint without first referencing this book. I think of it as an artists' "bible" because of all the frustration, dissapointment, and heartache it has saved me as well! It's a must for the beginner and professional alike.