Confident Color: An Artist's Guide To Harmony, Contrast And Unity

by Nita Leland

Learn how to use color in your own unique and expressive way!

Color is what you make sensitive, explosive, dreamlike, atmospheric, somber, cheerful. Nita Leland brings logic and intuition together to create a foundation for color selections that allow you to be more inventive, break out of old habits and experiment with new colors. Her approach eliminates time-wasting trial and error while giving you the freedom to use color in personal, meaningful and exciting ways.



   • Artwork from more than 50 contributing artists that illustrates many personal approaches to color
   • 85 "Try It" activities that will help to develop your awareness of the colors and combinations that resonate with you
   • Step-by-step demonstrations that show how 7 different artists choose palettes and make color decisions as they paint a range of subjects


Learn to use harmonious color schemes, dynamic contrasts and compatible colors to say what you want in your art. With engaging instruction, as well as art and lessons and applicable to any medium, this book will show you how to take your work to the next level.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

160 pages, Spiral-bound

First published October 17, 2008

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent explanation of colour theory with lots of examples of using colour. Something in here for every artist - no matter your medium. I have always felt pretty confident in my use of colour even before I knew anything of its theory. I've been told many times that I have a good sense of colour - whatever that means, I figured it meant they liked my choices. I wasn't sure just what to expect to get from this so I was pretty open minded about it. Even so I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the book got me excited to get out my brushes and just try out some of the ways of using colour I had never really considered before.

[Bart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well laid out book with beautiful examples. Easy to read.
It would suit a person with some painting experience who is willing to do the exercises throughout the chapters.
I have struggled to comprehend how to use colour effectively for a number of years now. Explaining why you use a limited palette for harmony finally made more sense to me. The section on high key and low key triads was especially useful for myself and I will be constantly referred back to it in the future.
I dragged out a previous book I'd purchased by Stephen Quiller titled 'Color Choices' and found that his information now meant more to me.
To me painting has become a journey of discovery and reading this book was a major part of that journey.

[pmin.27 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hơi khó hiểu.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent reference book to learn about color. If you are an artist this is a must. Thanks to pastel artist Karen Margulis for recommending it.

[Tandava Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit skeptical of a book on color theory where the author doesn't even seem to be clear on what the word "theory" means. She says towards the beginning that "a theory is nothing more than something that hasn't been proven." Well, no, that's not right, and it's not helpful. And indeed, there's a bit of a conflict throughout the book between her trying to show us color principles/schemes and trying not to scare us with "rules." By the end, though, I decided that she's actually promoting a good balance of intuition rooted in knowledge. It's just that the book could have been stronger if she'd been less worried or apologetic about it.

Once you get past all that, though, there's some good stuff in here. I liked how she started off the color schemes with 8 different variations just on the primary triad (high-key, earth tones, etc). It was a really good way to investigate all the different possibilities of a limited number of colors as a foundation for a whole painting. And then all the other color schemes were laid out clearly as well. She includes lots of examples from artists in lots of medium, not just paints, but pencils, collage, quilting, and maybe others I've missed. So it's really just about color, and not specific to any one medium.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book based on the excellent reviews. Nothing wrong with it but it's not what I was looking for. I do like the spiral binding, it's a colourful book as expected, and there are many art examples of differing qualities. However, it seemed like a workbook for art students. The content I found to be repetitive and lacking depth. Most pages show a colour wheel, a colour combination, an artwork representing that and an exercise you could do, eg look at pictures and pick the colours used. When it came to temperature, I was hoping to read about differentiating warm and cool greens for example when it's not obvious, but this book divided the colour wheel into two halves - red yellow orange on one side, blue green violet on the other. It briefly mentioned cool and warm blues but didn't explain anything. It is a good book for beginners, a good reference for colour combinations and there's a chart of colours that's useful for purchasing paint. I was just hoping for a more advanced discussion of colour and to learn some of its secrets. If you've seen one like that, please let me know.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nita, you've done it again. This book breaks down color theory into understandable bits, with hands-on exercises for oil painters, watermedia and fiber artists alike. So much more than a mere reference book. Those who dig in and work through the book will learn so much about their materials and their passions.

[Book Nibbler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book, specifically for watercolorist. I'm trying to translate what I learned in this book to oils. Chapter 4 and 5 were the most useful because they offer suggested color palettes. The rest of the book is okay.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think everything i could possibly want to know about color is in this very beautiful, organized, hands-on book

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm hoping this book will give me the incentive and courage I need to play more with color.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

extremely cool cookbook of art ideas! I will probably buy this for keeps, too much fun!