The Acrylic Artist's Colour Mixing Bible

Feb 06

As the title suggests this is a bible for artists, a reference book that any artist should not be without! I always have trouble getting colours just right but this book has helped no end! This is a visual guide to more than 2500 mixes and glaze effects, which is neatly sub-divided into all the various colours.

The colour mixing directory is very easy to use as it is listed by colour sections for example you will have a whole section devoted to cadmium orange, you can then see the ratio of other colours you will need to add to get to a specific shade. Often when painting it is a question of chance whether I get a colour right as colours can behave so differently when interacting with other colours. The lovely thing about this book is it takes the guesswork out of mixing colours and puts an end to wasted paint.

With 52 readily available colours mixed with a basic palette of 12 colours in order to show the marriage of the colours, this is going to be a popular book in my bookshelf from now on! In fact I think I will be using it to make my latest fairy pictures as I always have trouble getting the colours just right with such mystical scenes. This will be a most treasured book from now on!

Mar 06

Acrylic paint is possibly the most versatile of all paints. Relatively modern, it comes a variety of different consistencies and can be mixed with water, or other media. Use it like a watercolor, or like an oil paint. I use it for decorating textiles, but this particular area is not covered in this book although much of the information in here is just as useful for the creator of wearable art than for the more traditional artist.

Although this is predominantly a book about mixing paint, there is a lot more in here than just that. Learn about mediums, varnishes and tools for applying the paint. Ways of applying it, using the different thicknesses and choosing palettes and surfaces to paint on. The color wheel is featured of course, along with five different versions of each primary color and you can find out about warm and cool primaries. With a palette of these 12 basic colors plus white, you can really get mixing. The colors are described as to their lightfastness, color index codes and whether transparent, translucent or opaque. Swatches are shown mixed with water, and used as a glaze as well as on their own. The tops of the pages are even color-coded for easy reference, although there is also an index and a useful glossary. Another useful primer from Search Press.