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Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
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From New York Times best-selling author of the Dinotopia series, James Gurney, comes a carefully crafted and researched study on color and light in paintings. This art instruction book will accompany the acclaimed Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist.
James Gurney, New York Times best-selling author and artist of the Dinotopia series, follows Imaginative Rea ...more
James Gurney, New York Times best-selling author and artist of the Dinotopia series, follows Imaginative Rea ...more
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Paperback, 224 pages
Published
November 30th 2010
by Andrews McMeel Publishing
(first published November 9th 2010)
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Aalaa Yassin
Yes, it's a handbook about color and light only.
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
Aug 03, 2011
Makingamark
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
art students, people wanting to improve their painting
Summary review: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Let me be very clear on this point. This book comes very highly recommended by me. James Gurney's coverage of the topic of colour and light is comprehensive. Plus it is accessible art instruction of a very high order. I've not come across any other book about colour by a practising artist and illustrator which covers this topic in such breadth and depth and makes it accessible as well.
* I've got ones which are more technical - but they're much less accessible ...more
* I've got ones which are more technical - but they're much less accessible ...more
(More pictures at parkablogs.com)
Color and Light is the latest book from James Gurney and it's fantastic. It is a very accessible guide that's filled with interesting and useful information on color and light. It's fortunate we have so many colors today at our disposable, and now with this book, something to help make sense of them.
The book talks about color in a very practical sense, as you would see them in life. The lessons are observations of light and colors from James Gurney's years of ...more
I’m usually not a fan of instructional art books. All to often, they devolve into breaking things down into a series of steps, or simply showing a the different stages of one image. While this breakdown might be helpful in creating that one painting or drawing, it rarely helps you develop the skills needed to apply to original work.
Thankfully, Color and Light is not that sort of book. Instead it is a wonderfully useful guide to how color and light works and how to incorporate them into your artw ...more
Thankfully, Color and Light is not that sort of book. Instead it is a wonderfully useful guide to how color and light works and how to incorporate them into your artw ...more
This is another book every art person should own. However, it is a little "hand-wavy" as most art books unfortunately are. James Gurney at least stays away from weird mythical art mumbo-jumbo, as he actually has a formal scientific background (archeologist). He has a very active, informative blog on which you can see his rather rigorous methods. This book is more like a discovery channel documentary than a serious textbook. Nonetheless, Gurney's attention to detail shines through and he at least
...more
Great book with lots of examples and applications. Theories are carefully explained and applied. Kudos to James Gurney for making this available to us!
That book is hands down.
This book is outstanding for anyone interested in painting in any media. I learned more in this book than I ever learned in my college days - in art classes, illustration courses, color theory classes, etc. Each topic is broken down into manageable chunks, usually spanning a two page spread, and illustrated with examples of the topic at hand, and usually from the author's own works. I appreciate the valuable lessons on color and light, and the practical explanations of how to employ each idea. T
...more
Overall I found the book quite interesting, his works and illustrations are also often impressive and there are a lot of interesting fun facts in it... however these latter two points are also the places where I think the book could have been better. I was expecting based on the promotion for the book to be more of an educational book, with more teaching, instead a good portion of it seemed to be oriented towards showcasing the author's works and trivia. I would have appreciated it even more if
...more
A companion volume to Gurney's excellent "Imaginative Realism," "Color and Light" provides intelligent, practical advice on what the author describes as "the painter's two most fundamental tools." Gurney discusses elements of color, color mixing, surfaces and effects, light and form, atmospheric perspective, and much more in clear, understandable terms. The book is lavishly illustrated with examples and includes a brief but comprehensive history of the title subjects from the Renaissance to the
...more
I had high hopes for this book. It turned out to be a fraud. An ignorant quotes any source he found and randomly throws in color reproductions. Pages filled with generic writing about styles with no trace of understanding what's written:
- Classicism was not some noble pursuit, but the entrenchment of the king's artists as the newly created cast of university professors.
- color does not "creep in" magazines, but it is a difficult and costly process made gradually available to the masses through ...more
- Classicism was not some noble pursuit, but the entrenchment of the king's artists as the newly created cast of university professors.
- color does not "creep in" magazines, but it is a difficult and costly process made gradually available to the masses through ...more
This is definitely a good book, specially for people who use watercolor. It explains how light and color work on several different scenarios in a very thorough and detailed fashion, always with several examples. It also contains a ton of references and indications of other books on the subject. The book is heavy on technical content, but it is still a pleasant and informative reading. Definitely recommend it!
James Gurney is the best. This book is a practical and unadorned guide to color and light, and from my limited experience the first book I'd recommend someone interested in the subject. The book is filled with useful information and contains no unnecessary fluff. Each section is paired with useful examples that clearly shows the principle he is discussing. I'll be returning to it for years.
For years I didn't read this book thinking it was about dinosaurs etc. This guy knows his stuff. This is serious information packaged in an imaginative cover, probably one of the most serious art instruction books out there & probably not for a beginner either, unless you are serious about learning.
...more
Good introduction to colour and light.
Interesting perspectives into the thought processes on how to look at a scene and deconstruct it, explain it and then paint it.
James Gurney also has a nice youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/gurneyjourney. ...more
Interesting perspectives into the thought processes on how to look at a scene and deconstruct it, explain it and then paint it.
James Gurney also has a nice youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/gurneyjourney. ...more
Nov 14, 2019
Somebody
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
Any illustrator interested in improving on their colour and lighting.
Recommended to Somebody by:
Caraid
An excellent book for those interested in building upon their fundamentals.
The book is filled with examples and artwork to help explain the ideas Gurney expresses. None of those long paragraphs with flowery language without a single image business. The book has examples-and tons of it. Also tons of James Gurneys wonderful artwork which looks really great on print. Even if you arent interested in the explanations the artwork is worth it.
Secondly, this book is not a step-by-step guide. There are n ...more
The book is filled with examples and artwork to help explain the ideas Gurney expresses. None of those long paragraphs with flowery language without a single image business. The book has examples-and tons of it. Also tons of James Gurneys wonderful artwork which looks really great on print. Even if you arent interested in the explanations the artwork is worth it.
Secondly, this book is not a step-by-step guide. There are n ...more
I read through this book twice and I will read it again, dragging it along on painting excursions to apply the examples in the book.
The book, physically, is extremely well made of quality paper and is quite heavy. The reproductions are excellent.
This is one of several books that I would recommend as required reading for any artist. This one should be a required text in Senior yr art and also in college painting classes. (Also, Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting). The earlier the better. How ...more
The book, physically, is extremely well made of quality paper and is quite heavy. The reproductions are excellent.
This is one of several books that I would recommend as required reading for any artist. This one should be a required text in Senior yr art and also in college painting classes. (Also, Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting). The earlier the better. How ...more
Right. I'm looking again at this lovely, lovely book. It will certainly make a handy reference guide later on, but its real power is its scientific approach to painting. It doesn't go far enough, but that would make it less approachable. It is good to hear from a professional that realism is not the slavish copying of nature to the point of imitating photography. Such an approach is visible around the internet and is discouraging for those who don't have the patience for it. One of my criticisms
...more
This is the books I have been looking for. Even though it says 'for the Realist Painter' this is an excellent book for anyone who wants to understand how light and colour work for their artwork; good for the folk artist, mixed media artist and others.
Each section is two facing pages, so even if you only have a couple of minutes, you can still read an entire section. I loved this. The book is very well formatted. Because it is so tightly written, each sentence imparts valuable information. Thing ...more
Each section is two facing pages, so even if you only have a couple of minutes, you can still read an entire section. I loved this. The book is very well formatted. Because it is so tightly written, each sentence imparts valuable information. Thing ...more
I don't paint. With this book, which is rich with color and light and disarmingly fun to look at, I can now look at a painting with so much more color and light. I can "see it" with a broader range of light and color composition now, that is, with much deeper appreciation and enjoyment that I couldn't have fathomed before. The beginning of this book also traces some modern techniques through of their historical developments--how color and light techniques came to be at the state they are at toda
...more
I am more of a sketcher, so perhaps not the most practical art book to me but it is a great insight on how a professional fantasy, science fiction, and palaeological illustrator goes to work.
Delving deeper into colour theory and the theoretical side of painting, it is perhaps a duller read than James Gurney's Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist, which I would advise to buy first. Unless of course, you are specifically looking for colour theory.
Delving deeper into colour theory and the theoretical side of painting, it is perhaps a duller read than James Gurney's Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist, which I would advise to buy first. Unless of course, you are specifically looking for colour theory.
You simply can't give this book enough stars, even if it were showered by every light in the heavens. This is the top book in it's field for artists in every media. This is the gold standard. There simply is no more authoritative voice than Gurney's. He is related to Dan Gurney the great race car driver and that makes him one of the greatest living artist of our time. Racing and painting: it doesn't get any better than that at any end of the gene pool.
Color and Light by James Gurney is an absolutely necessary compendium for artists and people that want to understand how the illusion of reality is conveyed in a painting. Every now and then you might need to go back and refresh the memory on the basics and this is the perfect book for that on this particular subject.
It's a nice reference book that you'd like to keep at hand at any time if you're an artist or a dilettante.
It's a nice reference book that you'd like to keep at hand at any time if you're an artist or a dilettante.
I need moaaarr of thissss. The words are easy to understand, the explanations are brief, like only the necessary points, along with tips and there's always pictures to pointed out the means. Most of it are about how color and light happened the way it happened in the nature and how to apply it in the painting. While I don't do (oil) painting, but I really enjoy the scientific explanations and the tips, and now I wish for updated/ extended version. Or maybe just a new book new topic altogether.
Packed with so much information. I am amazed at how the author has at least one of his works available to illustrate each and every effect and technique that is mentioned. He also gives great insight into the physical and pratical reasons behind why things look as they do. Great for studying light and color for any painter.
The concepts of color and light--and how light affects color (think of the blue/gold dress controversy) is technical and complicated. But Gurney is a good writer and explains all the concepts really well. This is a great guide for any painter of representational work. Can't wait to make up my own exercises to better understand the concepts.
Absolutely amazing and thorough. This book really shows the importance of knowledge in painting and explains the topics well. I don't think I could recommend this more for someone who wants to better understand their subject matter and how they're seeing it. It makes translating light to canvas that much easier.
Amazingly detailed and scientific view of art. I feel as though I should read through it about 12 more times in order to absorb the information.
But don’t be intimidated, it’s also a very easy to read book with lots of great informational nuggets that can be pulled out and used individually.
And so many lovely paintings!
But don’t be intimidated, it’s also a very easy to read book with lots of great informational nuggets that can be pulled out and used individually.
And so many lovely paintings!
For anyone interested in colour theory, making graphic novels or comics, or with a passion for capturing the natural world, I cannot recommend this book highly enough!! James Gurney is an underrated genius with a true passion and kindness and love of sharing artistic ideas. I will definitely be revisiting this book often!!
An amazing book! This book is so full of helpful information that I am glad I purchased a copy rather than borrowing it from the library. I am sure I will return to this book constantly to review the valuable information and admire the beautiful artwork.
Yeah I do like this book and I think it is so informative, an awesome reference to have by your side and periodically browse through. Although it got a bit complicated for my from the chapter about gamut masks onwards and I believe I'll have to revisit those chapters in the future.
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Born June 14, 1958 in Glendale, California. Raised in Palo Alto, the youngest of five children of Joanna and Robert Gurney (a mechanical engineer). Earned a B.A. in Anthropology in 1979 with Phi Beta Kappa honors from the University of California at Berkeley. Studied painting at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena,California, where he met his wife Jeanette. In 1984 they moved to the Hudso
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