Color Theory: An essential guide to color-from basic principles to practical applications (Artist's Library) Paperback – January 1, 2013

This is a good book for beginning artists. Although I have many years of experience as an artist, I found this guide useful for putting my intuition and experience into words as I now work as an instructor. I wish I had disovered a book like this sooner in my career, it would have saved me some hard-learned lessons!It explains a lot about how color balance and contrast in artwork can affect the overall quality of one's art, (skill nonwithstanding: you can apply these principles as a very low-level beginner or as an advanced artist.) As with anything else, becoming a good artist requires a lot of practice as well as practical knowledge. This book does a good job of spelling out the things one might normally have to try for oneself and discover through trial and error. Rather than stumbling upon success, an artist should learn the basics of color theory and strategically apply those ideas while composing a piece.I have also suggested to my students to purchase this book because it's super-affordable and even if they don't plan to do art professionally, the book is simple enough and clear enough that they can apply their newfound knowledge right away. Although becoming truly good at art requires a big time commitment, even the casual artist will see a big improvement in their work with a minimal time investment: the time required to read and understand this book.It's especially helpful to have color illustrations for more "obscure" concepts that would puzzle a newbie (such as the idea of "red" blues and "cool" reds). It's also helpful for advanced artists to keep such things in mind while mixing new colors and developing palettes. Rather than purchasing supplies as-needed, one can use this guide to plan out which of the many pigments available will be most useful for the specific effects one is going for.

regardless of your medium... This book explains color principles and values and color schemes beautifully. Easy to follow ( and I'm a show me let me try that myself type of person...I can't read texts and understand concepts very well) however, that being said....I couldn't put the book down, and I carry it around the house with me everywhere since my studio is at home. It's just long enough to read without getting boring (i almost wish it was a little longer and/or came with a companion CD showing you exactly what to do in the visual sense) but three are plenty of beautiful illustrations of photos. It's up to date current information that is timeless. Being self taught, I naturally do most of the things Patti talks about but I didn't understand why. I also didn't understand the color wheel and how the colors worked to achieve certain aspects, naturally I did those things but I was shooting from the hip. Now I can actually I can plan a painting knowing how to achieve my goals from the beginning!!!

This book arrived quickly and in great condition.As for the book itself, I found it to be very comprehensive. I really could easily understand color theory now with the way it's presented in this book. I'm really happy I got this one because I've struggled with color theory before and always just went on instinct. Now I feel like I have extra skills I didn't have before so my creations should come out looking even better. I'm sure I'll be referencing this book for some time to come too. Really glad I got it.This book isn't for advanced art students but is perfect for serious beginners.

Was vague on many actual color theories.But nice color scheme charts - tons.Crisp and clean book format.

This book is ideal for summarising all the important art rules. It has great examples and illustrations that helped me to feel ready to get going again. This author is excellent. She knows her craft and how to teach.I wish that the author would also do a book on watercolor techniques and color charts. But the paints and brands are practically infinite. They so varied I can see why it would be hard to do.

The media could not be loaded. This is a small and short book BUT everything in it is useful. I bought it over a year ago and when I saw the size I didn’t think it’d be useful until I cracked it open a week ago. I’ve been struggling with color theory and this little book has made all the pieces click together that I’ve been trying to understand. It’s a great one for beginners like me and worth more than what you pay for and it’ll help you figure it all out.

Recently, I started to paint and creating artwork. "Color Theory," by Patti Mollica, was an excellent place to start. The amount of information I received did not overwhelm me. My goal in purchasing this book was to educate myself on color theories. It was well-written and easy to read.This book would be recommended for novice painters.

The book actually delivers on the title is short succinct comprehensive guide to color theory. It is broken down into compartments that are easy to understand and can be practiced. Essential reading for the beginning artist or even the season artist wants to have more mastery over color