Creative Color

by Faber Birren

The author demonstrates in Creative Color his exciting thesis: A knowledge of perception is the springboard to a far more inventive use of color in art today. By following Creative Color and performing the interesting experiments at the end of every chapter, you learn how to produce--consistently--effects that artists have rarely achieved, and then only by intuition, accident or painful trial-and-error. The illustrations are not meant to be art. They are experiments in producing color effects according to known principles of perception. If such striking effects can be achieved without the slightest attempt of art, think how much more the artist can do with the same knowledge! The author has usefully included a list of Numsell-coded palettes by which his extraordinary color effects may be precisely duplicated.

Genres: Art

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1977

About the author

Faber Birren makes his living by prescribing color. He is a consultant on the use of color in industrial and other applications and has advised governments, schools and the armed forces as well as industry and commerce.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book for understanding color theory and it gives exercises so that you can practice what you read.

[Erika Mulvenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably one of the better Faber Birren books I've read on the subject of color for artists. He presents his ideas about using color to create harmony in a clear way with basic examples to illustrate each point. Birren seems to strike a good balance between giving his own opinions about color while letting the artist use their best judgement and preferences.

My only serious criticism about this book is that the author creates his Birren Color Triangle (his own personal color system) by borrowing heavily from Ostwald. His system represents the same aspects of color as a slice of Ostwald's solid, only with some adjustments and simplifications to Ostwald's formulas and method of labeling colors. I would have liked instead to see Birren use Ostwald's famous system, even in a simplified way.

[Bhavisha Rana]

Good