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Color Workshop: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Artistic Effects
Put yourself in the hands of renowned artist Rachel Reinert—and take your coloring to the next level!
The basics of coloring seem choose colors and stay within the lines. But with Rachel Reinert’s techniques, anyone can go beyond to create vivid, awe-inspiring works of art. Her accessible tutorials teach readers everything they need to know about color theory, shading, burnishing, cross-hatching, and so much more. Coloring enthusiasts will appreciate her easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions as they apply her methods to creative projects.
Inspirational images of Rachel’s colored illustrations provide eye-opening examples of the beauty that can be achieved with the simplest of materials—and 24 pages of black-and-white line art allow artists to practice their newfound skills.
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The basics of coloring seem choose colors and stay within the lines. But with Rachel Reinert’s techniques, anyone can go beyond to create vivid, awe-inspiring works of art. Her accessible tutorials teach readers everything they need to know about color theory, shading, burnishing, cross-hatching, and so much more. Coloring enthusiasts will appreciate her easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions as they apply her methods to creative projects.
Inspirational images of Rachel’s colored illustrations provide eye-opening examples of the beauty that can be achieved with the simplest of materials—and 24 pages of black-and-white line art allow artists to practice their newfound skills.
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128 pages, Paperback
Published May 2, 2017
6 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Reinert
10 books1 followerRachel is an artist, author and educator based in San Diego, CA. Her extensive travels with her husband have shaped her style. She has always been transfixed by the natural world, at times loosely imitating its lines, shapes and colors through paintings and drawings. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, creating paintings for individuals, interior designers, businesses and public spaces. Her fabric design has been seen on the runway in Perth, Australia.
Her focus on biomorphic and botanical shapes has lead to her to create three coloring books that can be found in retailers around the country. From desert skulls and mystical women, to succulents and woodland scenes - she loves to create little worlds that people can get lost in and find their own joy in coloring.
Her focus on biomorphic and botanical shapes has lead to her to create three coloring books that can be found in retailers around the country. From desert skulls and mystical women, to succulents and woodland scenes - she loves to create little worlds that people can get lost in and find their own joy in coloring.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 7, 2017
Well designed book setting out steps with practice pages to help learn and improve different coloring techniquesThe full review is posted on Coloring Queen
November 13, 2017
This review is taken from my blog where I review adult colouring books from a mental health perspective, images from inside the book and the full review can be found here - https://colouringinthemidstofmadness....
This book is A4, paperback, with flexible card covers. The spine is glue and string-bound and very durable. The content is printed double-sided throughout. The paper consists of two different types, the tutorial section is printed on glossy white paper and the colouring practice pages are printed on bright white, matt paper that is medium thickness and lightly textured. The book is split into two sections, tutorials for the first two thirds of the book and illustrations to practice your colouring techniques on for the last third. The information and tutorials are very comprehensive and cover a wide range of topics from colour theory and detailed descriptions of different colouring mediums to basic colouring techniques, ways to choose colours and use mediums in new and different ways, and then moves onto how to create artistic effects like blending, highlights, adding backgrounds, water droplets, auras/glows, a basic tutorial for colouring skin and hair (better ones can be found but this is a good start), crystals and lots more. Rachel uses different mediums for each technique so you’re sure to find one that you already own the tools to create and she names each colour she uses so you can match it either identically or by finding close matches within the mediums you already have. You can learn to use a huge number of mediums from coloured pencils to watercolour pencils and paints, alcohol markers, gel pens, pastels and mixed media. The colouring pages exactly match each technique so you can directly copy the instructions without having to first work out how to apply them to a different image. The colouring pages are perforated and can therefore be removed before colouring so that you’re not constantly having to flick to the tutorial and then to the page to colour, it also means you can copy them (for personal use) to print onto the paper of your choice so you can practice multiple times to really perfect each technique or to try out different mediums. The images are all very natural and mostly include plants and flowers. The techniques are all written in clear, plain language with any specialised terms explained so that anyone of any level will understand them. They are all illustrated with full colour photographs and laid out neatly and numbered so they’re very easy to follow. There are helpful tips written in coloured circles throughout the book so they’re easy to find and the contents page clearly lists all of the techniques and page numbers.
In terms of mental health, this book is great but you will need to be aware of a few things. The premise is ideal for perfectionists, you can learn all sorts of techniques that you’ve wondered about for ages and practice them in a dedicated space and build up your confidence before being let loose on your actual colouring pages, following written instructions means that you don’t have to keep pausing or rewinding a video if it’s going too fast for you and you can read all of the instructions before starting if you’re worried about making mistakes or if you don’t quite understand a section. Each technique is broken down into small sections with each focusing on one or two colours so they’re manageable to work on over time if you don’t want to complete a whole technique all at once. All of these are great positives and particularly good for those of us who like things to be perfect, realistic, and who struggle to follow videos. However, you will need good concentration, I don’t know about you but now that I’m ill I really struggle to read and concentrate for any length of time and therefore following instructions is extremely difficult for me. I often get easily overwhelmed by the sight of lists of things to do and find it very challenging to follow them. However, I have found that if you can possibly not skip ahead and just focus on each instruction one by one then it’s much more manageable and able to be followed because you’re just using one colour in one or two places at once before then moving onto the next. I have also found it helpful to read the whole technique a few times and study the accompanying pictures before starting to follow it. Many of the techniques can be mixed and matched and also swapped across mediums too so they’re far more versatile than you might first assume. The illustrations used to practice on are varying sizes with some pages containing a few smaller drawings and others containing one centralised image. None are huge and none are tiny, they’re all quite a middling size and very manageable to colour in one sitting if you wish and can concentrate on the techniques and instructions for long enough. The line thickness is pretty consistent and remains thin with some medium thickness sections or outlines. The intricacy and detail levels vary and range from quite detailed to much less so, none of the images are hugely intricate because you have to be able to apply the techniques to each one and there’s not a lot you can do with very intricate images so these illustrations will suit most levels of vision and fine motor control apart from those who have particularly poor levels of either.
Overall, this is a great book that’s ideal for any level of colourist to learn something new from, the practice sheets are perforated which is ideal so you can see the instructions at the same time as colouring and also for making personal copies and the techniques are explained in clear, simple language with lots of colour photographs which add clarity. I’d highly recommend this book, it’s written in an interesting and accessible way and broken up into concise sections that are easy to navigate and roughly run in order of difficulty.
This book is A4, paperback, with flexible card covers. The spine is glue and string-bound and very durable. The content is printed double-sided throughout. The paper consists of two different types, the tutorial section is printed on glossy white paper and the colouring practice pages are printed on bright white, matt paper that is medium thickness and lightly textured. The book is split into two sections, tutorials for the first two thirds of the book and illustrations to practice your colouring techniques on for the last third. The information and tutorials are very comprehensive and cover a wide range of topics from colour theory and detailed descriptions of different colouring mediums to basic colouring techniques, ways to choose colours and use mediums in new and different ways, and then moves onto how to create artistic effects like blending, highlights, adding backgrounds, water droplets, auras/glows, a basic tutorial for colouring skin and hair (better ones can be found but this is a good start), crystals and lots more. Rachel uses different mediums for each technique so you’re sure to find one that you already own the tools to create and she names each colour she uses so you can match it either identically or by finding close matches within the mediums you already have. You can learn to use a huge number of mediums from coloured pencils to watercolour pencils and paints, alcohol markers, gel pens, pastels and mixed media. The colouring pages exactly match each technique so you can directly copy the instructions without having to first work out how to apply them to a different image. The colouring pages are perforated and can therefore be removed before colouring so that you’re not constantly having to flick to the tutorial and then to the page to colour, it also means you can copy them (for personal use) to print onto the paper of your choice so you can practice multiple times to really perfect each technique or to try out different mediums. The images are all very natural and mostly include plants and flowers. The techniques are all written in clear, plain language with any specialised terms explained so that anyone of any level will understand them. They are all illustrated with full colour photographs and laid out neatly and numbered so they’re very easy to follow. There are helpful tips written in coloured circles throughout the book so they’re easy to find and the contents page clearly lists all of the techniques and page numbers.
In terms of mental health, this book is great but you will need to be aware of a few things. The premise is ideal for perfectionists, you can learn all sorts of techniques that you’ve wondered about for ages and practice them in a dedicated space and build up your confidence before being let loose on your actual colouring pages, following written instructions means that you don’t have to keep pausing or rewinding a video if it’s going too fast for you and you can read all of the instructions before starting if you’re worried about making mistakes or if you don’t quite understand a section. Each technique is broken down into small sections with each focusing on one or two colours so they’re manageable to work on over time if you don’t want to complete a whole technique all at once. All of these are great positives and particularly good for those of us who like things to be perfect, realistic, and who struggle to follow videos. However, you will need good concentration, I don’t know about you but now that I’m ill I really struggle to read and concentrate for any length of time and therefore following instructions is extremely difficult for me. I often get easily overwhelmed by the sight of lists of things to do and find it very challenging to follow them. However, I have found that if you can possibly not skip ahead and just focus on each instruction one by one then it’s much more manageable and able to be followed because you’re just using one colour in one or two places at once before then moving onto the next. I have also found it helpful to read the whole technique a few times and study the accompanying pictures before starting to follow it. Many of the techniques can be mixed and matched and also swapped across mediums too so they’re far more versatile than you might first assume. The illustrations used to practice on are varying sizes with some pages containing a few smaller drawings and others containing one centralised image. None are huge and none are tiny, they’re all quite a middling size and very manageable to colour in one sitting if you wish and can concentrate on the techniques and instructions for long enough. The line thickness is pretty consistent and remains thin with some medium thickness sections or outlines. The intricacy and detail levels vary and range from quite detailed to much less so, none of the images are hugely intricate because you have to be able to apply the techniques to each one and there’s not a lot you can do with very intricate images so these illustrations will suit most levels of vision and fine motor control apart from those who have particularly poor levels of either.
Overall, this is a great book that’s ideal for any level of colourist to learn something new from, the practice sheets are perforated which is ideal so you can see the instructions at the same time as colouring and also for making personal copies and the techniques are explained in clear, simple language with lots of colour photographs which add clarity. I’d highly recommend this book, it’s written in an interesting and accessible way and broken up into concise sections that are easy to navigate and roughly run in order of difficulty.
June 20, 2019
Un libro fantástico, explica técnicas de pintar con lápices de colores, rotuladores en gel y rotuladores de alcohol, explicando cómo es cada medio y trucos para obtener mejores resultados.
A partir de la mitad en adelante, cuenta paso a paso como pintar un montón de láminas, que están al final del libro y que pueden separarse para poder seguir las explicaciones cómodamente.
A partir de la mitad en adelante, cuenta paso a paso como pintar un montón de láminas, que están al final del libro y que pueden separarse para poder seguir las explicaciones cómodamente.
May 14, 2020
This a fabulous book for beginners to intermediates who are interesting in the art of colour pencil. Other media such as gel pens, pastels, watercolour pencils etc, are included, but mostly in relation to colour pencils. This is a project book, that mostly uses Prismacolor pencils but similar colours from other sets can be substituted. A project hands on book the has paper suitable enough to do the exercises available for the owner to attempt. Another suitable book 'Love Color Pencils,' uses Faber-Castell and truly concentrates on colour pencils. I realise now I got both books at a bargain price. They have each risen but at least ten dollars or more. However this book has a new publisher, a new cover and is being sold at the current time at a lower price at the book depository UK. So no tax and free shipping anywhere in the world! I ordered three to donate.
January 19, 2019
I am enjoying the practising pages quite a lot, the papers are more than decent (better than some of my colouring books). Although I don't have full sets of the Polychromos and Prismacolor Premier pencils, I still have hundreds of pencils to pick the closest if not the same colour.
The techniques shown are detailed and easy to follow, and I am sure to try those that appeal to me. Just a touch disappointed that no food items (fruits, pastries, breads, etc.) are included in the tutorials.
4.5☆
The techniques shown are detailed and easy to follow, and I am sure to try those that appeal to me. Just a touch disappointed that no food items (fruits, pastries, breads, etc.) are included in the tutorials.
4.5☆
March 24, 2020
If You Wish to Vastly Improve your Artistic Ability AND your Output Get This Book!
I LOVE this book! I've been an artist for close to 6 decades, taken numerous art classes and one full art course and even learned quite a bit on my own. But much of the. Information in this book was not only new to me, it was nvaluable! Ms. Reinert is extremely talented and, in my opinion, a genius. Kudos!
I LOVE this book! I've been an artist for close to 6 decades, taken numerous art classes and one full art course and even learned quite a bit on my own. But much of the. Information in this book was not only new to me, it was nvaluable! Ms. Reinert is extremely talented and, in my opinion, a genius. Kudos!
August 26, 2020
This book has helped me to become a better colorist. It's the closest I can get to being the artist I wish I was.
May 14, 2021
Book very well done. With great step by step explanations and illustrations
July 28, 2022
I would have liked more colored pencil tips.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews