Creative Color

Rating:
Summary: A More Positive Opinion
Review: Kim Vlaun has written a good review, and I don't disagree with anything she has said. I have not seen the current edition she's talking about, so I can't judge how bad the reproduction quality is. I just want to add a more emphatically positive opinion about the value of the book.

It makes a unique contribution. In addition to covering the conventional fare of color theory and color harmony (which you can find in many other sources), Creative Color also addresses topics I have not seen treated anywhere else. In particular, chapters 14 through 24 address a topic Birren calls Perceptionism, or the study of how humans perceive color under various environmental conditions. In these chapters he provides truly valuable insights into the perception of luster; iridescence; luminosity; chromatic light; chromatic mist; luminosity in mist; transparency, texture and solidity; and highlights and shadows. Although the topics sound a little academic and sometimes are, the chapters are loaded with practical advice on how a painter can represent such effects in pigment. Each chapter is followed by a series of recommended experiments.

Birren states no personal preference for representational or nonrepresentational art. Serious painters or designers of either should be able to benefit from understanding these ideas.

As a painter interested in representation of natural effects, I find Birren's discussions to be of indispensable practical value. I think they are likely to be of equal value to anyone who works in oils, acrylics, pastel, gouache or other opaque media.

I have two complaints:

1. The diagrams are sometimes hard to follow. Diagrams and the references to them in text sometimes do not match. This causes confusion, but with patience you can extract the value of the message.

2. The color plates Birren uses to demonstrate the application of his concepts are pretty barfy, even in the 1961 edition I own. It's not a question of quality of reproduction. It's a matter of some bad-looking illustrations Birren himself appears to have designed. I think his aim may have been to prevent the quality of his illustrations from distracting the reader from the content of the point he's trying to make. But for me he sometimes fails in the oppposite direction. The poor artistic quality of his illustrations can make it hard to get past thinking that the effect he's trying to demonstrate just looks bad esthetically. Maybe some painters will be spurred to show how much more tastefully they can apply the concepts Birren illustrates.

In summary, for serious students of color theory--especially ones interested in understanding and applying color in unusual or challenging lighting conditions--I know of no better or more practical source.

Rating:
Summary: Poor Reprint
Review: This is a "reprint" of the original 1961 (and reprints) Van Nostrand Reinhold printing with ISBN # 0-442-20786-7. Schiffer Publishing LTD produced their edition by photographing a copy of the original book from Nostrand and has done a horrible job of it. The original artwork and illustrations where obviously not at Schiffer's disposal. The color reproduction quality is very, VERY poor and does no justice to the text portion. However, if the original book is out of print and there is nothing else available, then you would have to go by life's principle "something is better than nothing." The original book would have gotten a 4-star rating. As a painter who paints realistically convincing artwork from the imagination and memory, this book was the best book at the time (got it in 1982) while a young painter searching for answers about color. If I could find one piece of information that helped me improve my painting then the book was worth it. This book (the original one) had many such pieces of vital information leading to actual improvement, not useless "inspiration" or "eye candy" or "fine prose" (one person I knew rejected this book solely on the "simplistic, child-like" way it was written). It all depends on what you want to do and accomplish with your painting or color work. For this purpose any textbook on any subject could be rated based on the question "did it help improve your understanding and skills?" Now that I have surpassed many color books (I have hundreds of books on color) in knowledge and insight, I have come to realize some important points regarding textbooks in relation to the subject presented: (1) A text book could contain false information - not a good thing. (2) A text book could contain irrelevant information - even if "correct" does more harm than good. (3) A textbook could be missing vital information on the subject presented - extremely lethal! (4) The correct, relevant information may be out of sequence and/or over or under stressed in importance relative to one another - some concepts/techniques are more advanced than others and require more fundamental knowledge/skills as prerequisites for their understanding and mastery. (5) Beginners, and even teachers, may not be aware of (1) to (4) above. (6) Individuals attempting to learn or teach with textbooks with a preponderance of flaws (1) to (4) will not learn, improve or better their art and may even give up. In other words, (1) to (4) above are potential student killers! Creative Color has all four flaws, but not too severe. In comparison, the Itten book The Art of Color is loaded with false information and missing lots of vital information. Itten came across at first as very inspiring, but for what I wanted turned out to be useless. Joseph Albers is another case. Some day I'll do peace-meal reviews on these and other "best seller."