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Color: A Course in Mastering the Art of Mixing Colors - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Color: A Course in Mastering the Art of Mixing Colors

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Millions of people have learned to draw using the methods of Dr. Betty Edwards's bestseller The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Now, much as artists progress from drawing to painting, Edwards moves from black-and-white into color. This much-awaited new guide distills the enormous existing knowledge about color theory into a practical method of working with color to produce harmonious combinations.

Using techniques tested and honed in her five-day intensive color workshops, Edwards provides a basic understanding of how to see color, how to use it, and-for those involved in art, painting, or design-how to mix and combine hues. Including more than 125 color images and exercises that move from simple to challenging, this volume explains how to:
  • see what is really there rather than what you "know" in your mind about colored objects
  • perceive how light affects color, and how colors affect one another
  • manipulate hue, value, and intensity of color and transform colors into their opposites
  • balance color in still-life, landscape, figure, and portrait painting
  • understand the psychology of color
  • harmonize color in your surroundings

    While we recognize and treasure the beautiful use of color, reproducing what we see can be a challenge. Accessibly unweaving color's complexity, this must-have primer is destined to be an instant classic.
    •

    ISBN-13: 9781585422197

    Media Type: Paperback

    Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

    Publication Date: 09-23-2004

    Pages: 224

    Product Dimensions: 7.51(w) x 9.03(h) x 0.63(d)

    Age Range: 18 - 14 Years

    Betty Edwards is professor emeritus of art at California State University in Long Beach, California. She is the author of The New Drawing on the Right Side of the, the world's most widely used drawing instructional, which has been translated into thirteen foreign languages with U.S. sales of almost three million copies. She speaks regularly at universities, art schools, and companies, including the Walt Disney Corporation and the Apple Corporation.

    Table of Contents

    Acknowledgments xi
    Introduction: The Importance of Color xiii
    Part I
    Chapter 1
    Drawing, Color, Painting, and Brain Processes 2
    Seeing Colors as Values 3
    Why Values Are Important 4
    The Role of Language in Color and Painting 6
    The Constancies: Seeing and Believing 8
    Seeing How Light Changes Colors 10
    Seeing How Colors Affect Each Other 12
    Chapter 2
    Understanding and Applying Color Theory 14
    Theories about Color 15
    Applying Color Theory in Art 17
    Chapter 3
    Learning the Vocabulary of Color 20
    The Three Primary Colors 21
    The Three Secondary Colors 23
    The Six Tertiary Colors 23
    Analogous Colors 23
    Complementary Colors 25
    Naming Colors: The L-Mode Role in Mixing Colors 26
    The Three Attributes of Color: Hue, Value, and Intensity 28
    From Naming to Mixing 31
    Moving from Theory to Practice 33
    Part II
    Chapter 4
    Buying and Using Paints and Brushes 36
    Buying Supplies 37
    Beginning to Paint 41
    Mixing a Color 44
    Exercise 1 Subjective Color 45
    Cleaning Up 47
    Chapter 5
    Using the Color Wheel to Understand Hue 48
    Exercise 2 Making a Color Wheel Template 49
    Exercise 3 Painting the Color Wheel 51
    Exercise 4 Practice in Identifying Hues 56
    Mixing Colors 57
    Creating Colors: How Four Pigments Can Become Hundreds of Colors 57
    Chapter 6
    Using the Color Wheel to Understand Value 60
    Value 61
    Exercise 5 Shades of Gray-Constructing a Value Wheel/Hue Scanner 61
    How to Use Your Value Wheel/Hue Scanner 63
    How to Lighten and Darken Colors 64
    Exercise 6 Two Color Value Wheels-From White to a Pure Hue, From a Pure Hue to Black 65
    Other Ways of Lightening and Darkening Colors 68
    Another Way to Darken a Color 70
    Summing Up 70
    Chapter 7
    Using the Color Wheel to Understand Intensity 72
    Exercise 7 The Power of the Primaries to Cancel Color 73
    Exercise 8 Creating an Intensity Wheel-From a Pure Hue to No Color and Back Again 77
    Exercise 9 Practice in Naming Hue, Value, and Intensity 79
    Other Ways to Dull Colors 80
    Part III
    Chapter 8
    What Constitutes Harmony in Color? 84
    The Aesthetic Response to Harmonious Color 85
    The Phenomenon of After-images 86
    After-images and the Attributes of Color 90
    Albert Munsell's Theory of Harmony Based on Balancing Color 92
    A Definition of Balanced Color 93
    Chapter 9
    Creating Harmony in Color 96
    Exercise 10 Transforming Color Using Complements and the Three Attributes: Hue, Value, and Intensity 96
    Chapter 10
    Seeing the Effects of Light, Color Constancy, and Simultaneous Contrast 112
    The Next Step: Seeing How Light Affects the Colors of Three-Dimensional Shapes 113
    Why It Is Difficult to See the Effects of Light 115
    How to Accurately Perceive Colors Affected by Light 116
    Three Different Methods of Scanning a Hue 116
    The Next Step: Estimating the Intensity Level 118
    The Three-Part Process of Painting 119
    Exercise 11 Painting a Still Life 121
    Chapter 11
    Seeing the Beauty of Color in Nature 134
    Color Harmony in Flowers 135
    Floral Painting in Art 136
    Colors in Nature Differ from Colors of Human-Made Objects 139
    Exercise 12 Painting a Floral Still Life 140
    Nature as a Teacher of Color 155
    Chapter 12
    The Meaning and Symbolism of Colors 156
    Attaching Names to Colors 157
    Using Colors to Express Meaning 158
    Exercise 13 The Color of Human Emotions 161
    Your Preferred Colors and What They Mean 168
    Knowing Your Color Preferences and Your Color Expressions 171
    The Symbolic Meanings of Colors 172
    Practicing Your Understanding of the Meaning of Color 188
    Using Your Color Knowledge 190
    Glossary 193
    Bibliography 197
    Index 199