Fascinating facts and useful information on all aspects of color. The most popular colors available to the artist are also the colors that are part of the everyday world. Simon Jennings deals with color history, mythology, science, chemistry and botany, and he tells engaging stories about the great artists and how they used color. Chapters on each of the primary, secondary and tertiary colors explore their history, composition and attributes. For example, the chapter on blue covers the variety of blues from natural to chemical -- including the Ancient Egyptians' copper-derived frit blue, and the accidental discovery of Prussian blue. Information on pigment standards and the mixing of colors, an extensive 450-color index and a guide to suppliers are useful for anyone working with color. Artist's Little Book of Color is a handy and attractive guide to the fascinating world of color and an essential sourcebook for artists, designers, art students and teachers.
"Fascinating facts" is a stretch, but there are some small nuggets of knowledge here and there. With a little more research this could've been done better so that the color index isn't the only thing that people will reuse.
I buy lots of tubes of artist's colors - watercolors, acrylic and some oils. It can be expensive, and the names of the colors vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. This little book takes away some of the confusion. There is lots of information here, about the history of various colors, how they are manufactured now, all sorts of interesting and useful information.