Ｏｎｌｉｎｅ Ｐｒｅｍｉｕｍ VVIP+++ Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (James Gurney Art) by James Gurney

Andrews McMeel Publishing; 13642nd edition (November 30, 2010)

Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (James Gurney Art) by James Gurney

Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (James Gurney Art) by James Gurney is I just finished this book and am convinced that it is one that every serious artist needs is their library. It is outstanding! This is the book tha I needed to help me take my art to the "next level"!This is not a book on how to mix color, but rather is a book on how to properly use color and light in your paintings. All concepts are wonderfully illustrated by Gurney's own paintings, which include paintings from his Dinotopia books as well as his Fine Art paintings.His instruction on the use of gamut masks to select the range of colors to use in a painting is alone worth the price of the book to me. Also his method of mixing color strings of the colors to be used in a painting is going to be very useful to me. The assumption is that you will already know how to mix the colors, these recommendations tell you how to decide what colors need to be mixed.He goes over the effects of different lighting and helps the reader to understand how different sources will interact in not only the lighted areas but also in the shadows.There is much more in this book that is of great value to realist artists. Each concept is presented in a couple of pages and related concepts are grouped into chapters.An outstanding book! It is exactly what I needed.

Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (James Gurney Art) by James Gurney is I am so sorry that I waited to buy this book. I was turned off by the cover. "Why do I want to paint dinosaurs?" But this is one of the most helpful books I have found (and I have several) on the subject of color and light. James Gurney is truly a wonderful and enlightened teacher. His discussions of color mixing, lighting angles, triads, - just so many things that I have barely seen even mentioned in other art books. Even just applying a few of his recommendations has already given a new cohesiveness to my paintings. He also gives great explanations on why some things work well, often which I have discovered on my own by trial and error, now I know the reasoning behind them. For a $15 book, it will take a prominent place on my shelves. Well, actually, it won't be on my shelves, it will be opened in the studio.

Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (James Gurney Art) by James Gurney is This is an excellent book on color and light. It is more of a reference book than a "how-to," probably better for more experienced illustrators who just need some brushing up, or advanced amateurs who could benefit from some deeper thoughts about how lighting works. May be a little less useful to beginners who are not well-versed in art lingo, but maybe this would be a good way to learn it! I personally would have been fascinated by this when I was a child learning to make art. I find the use of the many, many, many dinosaur illustrations to be charming, and I appreciate that the author used a lot of his own (excellent) work in the book. Overall highly recommended.

Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (James Gurney Art) by James Gurney is Here I am an artist with three art degrees... and I never learned most of this information! My main degree was in painting and Illustration!!!! Honestly the most I learned was about cool and warm color and value - that's IT!This book is easy to grasp, pithy and organized in such a way that you can go right to the area you are interested in without having to scan the entire book. I learned more about how to use color and paint light in the hour I ravenously scanned through it than I did in all those years of college. If you wish to learn anything about painting you must have this book!It may seem such a simple subject, but how to set up a palette is one of the MOST confusing things an artist learns. Many times you just pick up a palette that someone else used and wing it until you get comfortable with it. Mr. Gurney actually takes so much of the mystery out of how to choose your palette of colors and how to work with what you have in that palette. This section ALONE is worth the price of the book!Also he explains how our vision works so we can be aware of it and make better choices in how we render color and light in our images - as well as how to pay attention to depth of field! I especially loved the comparison of a photograph and a painting from observation and how much you miss in the photo. Again, this information alone is worth the price of the book!If you are and artist looking to learn how to render an image realistically and believably, this book MUST be in your library. Mr. Gurney has taken information from many divers sources that would take another person years to gather if you could even find these out of print books and information, and he has put it all in a well-organized and easily read book that is so deeply appreciated for its clarity.Thank you, Mr. Gurney, for all your hard work. This book should become and textbook in any painting class!