Artist's Little Book of Color

by Simon Jennings

Overview

Fascinating facts and useful information on all aspects of color.

The most popular colors available to the artist are also the colors that are part of the everyday world. Simon Jennings deals with color history, mythology, science, chemistry and botany, and he tells engaging stories about the great artists and how they used color.

Chapters on each of the primary, secondary and tertiary colors explore their history, composition and attributes. For example, the chapter on blue covers the variety of blues from natural to chemical — including the Ancient Egyptians' copper-derived frit blue, and the accidental discovery of Prussian blue. Information on pigment standards and the mixing of colors, an extensive 450-color index and a guide to suppliers are useful for anyone working with color.

Artist's Little Book of Color is a handy and attractive guide to the fascinating world of color and an essential sourcebook for artists, designers, art students and teachers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554073993
Publisher:	Firefly Books, Limited
Publication date:	08/15/2008
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.32(w) x 7.86(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Simon Jennings trained at the Royal College of Art in London, and has been a visiting lecturer at a number of leading art schools. He conceived and designed many books on art and design, including The Ways of Drawing series, Vincent van Gogh — The Complete Self Portraits and the Collins Artist's Manual.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

The subject of color is so vast and the ranges of pigments and materials available to the artist so wide, variable and subtle, it is inevitable that the best means of finding out how particular colors really look and handle is by actually using them.

In this book there is a great deal of information about color and its value to the artist. Hundreds of colors are mentioned and shown in the various media in numerous combinations, mixtures and applications. Most artists will admit that the only effective way to knowledge and confidence is to experiment with the actual colors and different media yourself. It is hoped that this book can provide a springboard into the world of color for the artist.

Unfortunately, there is one obvious drawback to it. This is that when it comes to the subtlety of reproducing color all of the colors shown here are printed, not painted. They are not the actual colors at all, but are reproduced by the four color printing process using only four ink colors. Modern printing technology and the skills of graphic reproduction have brought us very close to the reality of seeing real, pure pigment color on the printed page.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction
Artists' pigments
Color by color
Blue
Turquoise
Violet
Red
Orange
Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Green
Green Earth
Brown
Black
Grey
White
Color Index
Guide to suppliers
Pigment standards
Color terminology
Index
Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

The subject of color is so vast and the ranges of pigments and materials available to the artist so wide, variable and subtle, it is inevitable that the best means of finding out how particular colors really look and handle is by actually using them.

In this book there is a great deal of information about color and its value to the artist. Hundreds of colors are mentioned and shown in the various media in numerous combinations, mixtures and applications. Most artists will admit that the only effective way to knowledge and confidence is to experiment with the actual colors and different media yourself. It is hoped that this book can provide a springboard into the world of color for the artist.

Unfortunately, there is one obvious drawback to it. This is that when it comes to the subtlety of reproducing color all of the colors shown here are printed, not painted. They are not the actual colors at all, but are reproduced by the four color printing process using only four ink colors. Modern printing technology and the skills of graphic reproduction have brought us very close to the reality of seeing real, pure pigment color on the printed page.

Editorial Reviews

(Review of UK edition) Bright in content as well as style.

Artist and Illustrator's Magazine