Mastering Color: The Essentials of Color Illustrated with Oils

by Vicki Mcmurry

Move beyond the color wheel and pick your colors with passion! More than any other single tool at your artistic disposal, color has the potential to command the eye, quicken the pulse and elicit a response from your viewer. There are many books on the subject, but only Mastering Color takes you beyond the color wheel, teaching you to paint with passion, follow your intuition and color "outside the lines." You'll learn about mother colors, transition colors, the corner theory and additional color concepts that other books don't touch on. With this book, you

Genres: Art

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Sonya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-reading this book that's been in my personal library for years.

[Todd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay so i had to bail on this book after 65 pages....it was just too scary to continue.
Overall the theories are "okay" although mainly just echoed from other books the author has probably read...but for understanding color??? well she is way off.
I felt as though some of her theories might stick in my head so i was tempted to throw it in the street, but instead shelved it where hopefully one day i would forget where it was.
Her composition is very so so, her best paintings are in red(like the cover image)-in which many mistakes are evident(such as the reflection).--there are only a few of her paintings that have color depth in them....very few.--and i kind of think these are an accident for her, because there are other paintings in there where she talks about triad's and analogous color that totally miss the mark....i actually think she might be slightly color blind in the blue green area of her brain...oh well.
Look at it but don't touch it, there are many better books out there on color theory and application.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent resource on both color and composition for painting. I believe it could also apply to sketching, pastels, and more. My only complaint would be that her writing is not nearly as engaging as her paintings. As a result, my eye was often drawn away from the instruction ton look exclusively at her compositions. All in all, however, a very good resource.

[scherzo♫ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coming up the color wheel
Mother color
Dynamic symmetry = diagonal lines, right angle intersection from corners
Stationary and movement shapes
3:1 = entrance corner different in value and temperature

[Mary Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, I am learning more than expected about color combinations, warm and cool colors, and more.

[Rachel Woodward · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book on color.

(Kid-safe too by the way.)