Making Color Sing, 25th Anniversary Edition: Practical Lessons in Color and Design

This book was recommended by a friend of mine he was a watercolor artist and teaches painting. It has lessons that build on each other is beautifully Illustrated and seems easy to follow I can't wait to dive into it.

I bought this book because my watercolor instructor recommended it. It was her Bible & she recommended it to all her students, especially beginners.The book has great information about thought process, color mixing,... accompanied with beautiful artwork from the artist who wrote the book. The artist explained many fundamental stuff that any beginner watercolorist needs to know using her work as examples showing how she applied what she preached.This book will not ask you to buy a bunch of colors. But instead it teaches you how to mix color from a limited pallet.

This is one my favorite books on watercolor, certainly one of the best on the color side of watercolor painting. I love that the book is totally focused on watercolor and does not attempt to be a generic book on color at the expense of addressing the challenges and advantages of a specific medium. Jaanne Dobie clearly knows her way around watercolor and managed to condense all that experience in a very useful book that not only shows you how to use watercolor but explains why. A word of warning. Jeanne Dobie's will often make use of and reference "fugitive" watercolors in this book. These are watercolors that do not have very good lightfastness (i.e., they will fade in time). It is a matter of personal choice as to whether one uses these pigments or not, since you could argue that there are no appropriate replacements. I personally choose not use use fugitive pigments. I only mention this because a beginner watercolorist may not even be aware that certain pigments are not long-lasting.

The book offers great little tidbits to help improve the way color comes out in a painting. It even passes along great little "secrets" as to why one may not be getting a desired result. Great information that might not be so quickly attained otherwise.I was excited when I got the book because I had just mentioned my desire to "make color sing"; however, I wasn't so excited to learn that the artwork samples are in watercolor!It would've been nice to know ahead of time that the examples were all watercolor. I rate this book four stars because I don't consider this purchase a total bust. The information is great. I don't give five stars because it really should indicate the medium that all examples are in, if in only one medium. One day, I will use watercolor. When I do, this will be a great book in my library. I'll store the book until then.

Some days, I wonder if there is a new technique I might try, or an old idea that might deserve my re-attention in my artistic pursuits. I will thumb through this lovely volume and find a seed that I can then hybridize into my own product. Examples: remembering how many shades of white are possible and blending many new subtly different whites to make intentional expressions therefrom; thinking about the layers of glazes with great intent before even picking up the detail plans; creating a stronger background with shading before doing the foreground. As an amateur who emphasizes color and free expression, these tiny reminders of basic structures and values gives me a fresh challenge to then take towards free expression.

I bought this book after reading lots of reviews. I've been painting watercolors for a couple of years and loved the idea of a class on color theory in a book. This book is classic and timeless. Online I found an updated palette since the book is really old. Actually, I bought it used and the book is in perfect condition......looks like it was almost brand new and was less than half the amount for a new one. Buying some books through Amazon that are used has often been a great deal. Great book for learning colors. I love it!

I already have an earlier addition of this book and thought/hoped the 25th edition would have some new material, but other than the cover and addition of a front piece painting before the title page, it is the same book. It's "my bad" because when I saw the new price for the edition, I jumped on it without reading other reviews (still haven't) so missed any warning like this one. Having said that -- if you don't have this book in your art library, you are missing something special, and I don't know what else she could have added in an update. This is for those of you who share the experience of a tight budget! And thank you, Jeanne, for this treasure of information written so coherently!

Me encanta el libro, tiene explicaciones y ejercicios de teoría del color excelentes! Muy bueno para tenerlo de referencia