The purpose of this book is to train (or retrain) you to paint what your eye actually sees -- sometimes the hardest of all jobs.

Learn to see and mix any color with extraordinary precision! Many painters don't paint what they see, but what they expect to see, what they think they see, what they remember, or what they imagine things are supposed to look like. Since "the mind stands in the way of the eye," the purpose of this revolutionary book is to train you to paint what your eye actually sees. Arthur Stern claims that color is key to painting what you see. After working with three generations of students, he developed a program of 22 painting projects that teach the artist to observe, identify, mix, match, and paint the colors of the world with remarkable accuracy. Using a painting knife and oil paint, you learn to analyze every painting subject as a series of distinct color areas—called color spots—and place each spot on the canvas as a unique and vivid mixture. The fundamental lesson of the book is that if you put the right color spot in the right place, you create a realistic image of form, space, surface texture, atmosphere, light, and shade. As you follow the painting projects in this book, you'll make the dramatic discovery that everything in nature is filled with luminous color. You'll learn to see glowing color in the "blackest" shadow and the "whitest" linen. You'll learn when a green can appear red; how to use paint to replicate metal, glass, wood, paper, porcelain, and other opaque, transparent, or textured surfaces. Before long, you'll be seeing a multitude of colors in a slice of bread, apples and oranges, and a mass of green leaves. You'll learn how to paint quickly enough to capture a "live" still life—a flower that moves and slowly dies as you paint it. You'll even practice with a setup outdoors to see how sunlight and skylight affect color. How to See Color and Paint It is a must for beginners and a valuable asset for intermediate artists who want to develop a more subtle perception of color. A final section contains beautiful paintings of many subjects that have grown out of projects and ideas taught in this book. 130 color plates; 40 black & white illustrations

How to capture the emotions and effects of light, you see, in your paintings.

A new step-by-step system employs hundreds of how-to Dorling Kindersley graphics to teach all aspects and stages of working in watercolors or oils, moving from the basic sketch to the finished work

"Here is a new book jam-packed with information on color and pigments and painting by the author of Watercolor Right from the Start. Designed to overlap her earlier book as well as to advance into territory of great interest to artists - the subject of color - Color Right from the Start adopts the design, the how-to format, and the progression of lessons that have already proven popular with Page's readers. Thus it provides a familiar foundation for lessons on the color spectrum, why colors produce certain optical effects, what paints are made of, why they behave as they do when they're wet, when they're dry - and much more, all lavishly illustrated." "If you want to construct your own color charts - color wheels for light and for pigments, and color-mixing "maps" - Hilary Page shows you how. If you want to test your pigments for their special properties - how the pigment particles settle on paper, how well the paint serves as a glaze or in wet-on-wet application - she tells you exactly how to proceed." "In subsequent lessons, she focuses on each major hue, from gray to yellow and on through red and blue to green - primary colors, secondary colors, and neutrals. These lessons reinforce all the concepts the author has explained earlier, as she demonstrates the uses of color in specific paintings. Most of these demonstrations develop in a step-by-step, easy-to-follow manner. You will not only understand the evolution of a picture's color scheme, but also follow the mixing and application of the paints themselves. Watercolor techniques are demonstrated to show off the pigments and to achieve desired color effects. It's one thing to read what simultaneous contrast is, it's another to make it work for you in a watercolor that you paint with the pigments you actually own." "Color Right from the Start carefully explains some sophisticated concepts and is written to give artists just the depth of knowledge they need to be well-informed. Beginners will want this book so that they can attain a basic, hands-on knowledge of color. This makes the book useful also as a reference tool for the more advanced artist. Providing all the practice that a beginner needs to fully grasp the magic of color in his or her own work, Color Right from the Start also serves as a lively refresher-course as well."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved