Line and Color Magic for Glass Design

Rating:
Summary: Line and color magic fell short of expectations
Review: Stained glass is a very visual art and there were not enough examples. The few shown were sometimes of poor quality. There are only 2 color pages the entire book. One showed stained glass pieces the other paper cut outs poorly reproduced. She talks about the magenta square on the yellow paper that everyone thought was green. I don't know if that was suppose to be the affect, it was an error, or a poor reproduction. The photography was poor because of lots of shadows. Many of the color points were done is black and white which is good when she is talking about value. It is also helpful when narrowing on 1 part of the design. She continually talks about a good design includes all elements: line, color, texture and composition but there is only the one page with its 4 color examples and not much diversity 3 of the 4 pieces shown. If you really want to learn about color I recommend "Color Play: Easy Steps to Imaginative Color Quilts". It is filled with wonderful examples and explanations. It shows the same quilts done with different variations on a color theme to show how it changes the overall look and movement the quilt. The theory is the same. Quilt books also show you how to mixture different textures, about scale which was completely left out of Line and Color magic.

I don't care much for the artist style and most of the book focuses on her art. She talks about making design individual so it would have been extremely helpful to see her points made with other styles and subjects. She likes focus on people as a subject.

"The Art of Illusion A Tromple L'oeil Painting Course" by Janet Shearer does a FAR better job about explaining perspective and good details and exercises on how to do this. Line and color magic made some very good points this area and had some good examples, I just didn't think it when far enough.

What I was hoping to find was information on converting a photo or greeting card into stained glass. An example was given with a ad but it was an indoor scene without much detail. I wanted to know how to take a more complicated image and simplify it and how to place the cut lines the free/negative space. One design book mentioned shapes to avoid. I was hoping this would address difficult shapes too. It had nothing on watching out for difficult or impossible cuts. I wanted to learn about reinforcements the when and how. It was mentioned but no details were given so I still don't know anything about it.

The book claimed it talked about displaying your glass. It mentioned lighting conditions, different exposures and how they had an affect but that was all. One chapter she mentioned how a border could hold your attention in a piece, but she didn't go into border design at all. She never mentioned framing other to say it could help provide strength. There was no mention of direction of glass patterns and how to take advantage of that. Lighting is different for cabinets but she never mentioned that. She did mention that the pattern should flow between between panels as if the frame wasn't there.

Rating:
Summary: A completely new way of approach glass working
Review: Tap into your own creative resources and "draw out the artist from within." Stimulating your inventiveness and sparking the imagination can expand your creative potential. This book focuses on the total designing process from the imagination to the assembly stage. An informative design and color guide, it is an invaluable aid for the novice as well as the instructor or professional craftsperson, Learn how to: find new design ideas, draw your own patterns, create an exciting and balanced composition, enlarge patterns with various tools and equipment, select glass colors and textures to enhance your design, effectively display finished pieces. Included are a series of exercises and procedures designed to develop free-flowing ideas, creative intuition, self- confidence, and a better understanding of the interplay of color and line dynamics. Expand your knowledge about optical illusions, light exposure, negative/positive space, rhythm, variety, mood, perspective, depth, warm/cool colors, focal points, and the color wheel with fun experiments you can try.