Cover Image: Color Harmony for Artists

Color Harmony for Artists

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I found this not only very colourful but a very interesting concept of mixing watercolours. The book starts with a chapter on colour theory and then goes onto to talk about an inspired palette using visual inspirations such photos, surroundings, lighting, culture colour influence, and lots ore to become familiar with making new colours and capturing the senses.
There are some very interesting techniques and beautiful examples to wet ones appetite for colour.

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Get your watercolors out
Ana Victoria Calderón presents her book "Color Harmony for Artists. How to Transform inspiration into Beautiful Watercolor Palettes and Paintings", published by Quarto Publishing Group - Quarry. She divides her book into two parts: 1) Hands-On color Theory, and 2) Inspirational Palettes. Calderón includes notes (e.g., color notes for techniques). She shows how a photo, or a part of it, or objects, or designs from an object can be adapted into a painting or used as an inspiration and which color palettes wold be needed to accomplish this task. Calderón has also included information about the resources that can be used to work such watercolor projects and an index for quick reference. Lastly she explains also how the template at the end of the book can be reproduced for exercises. I highly recommend this book. It not only makes a great present, but can be also very inspirational for artists, not only those who use watercolors, but also those who use other mediums such as acrylics or oils. It is very simple so it is also a good resource for beginners.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#ColorHarmonyForArtists #NetGalley

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This book is beautiful. I love how the author/artist took one photo, showed the palette she created and then a painting inspired by the photo. The colors are vivid and lovely, and the paintings are each unique and true to the palette of the photo. I do wish there was slightly more information about which exact colors she used to create her palettes as well as information about ht brushes and other tools used. But I would (will) buy this book and refer to it often.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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Colour theory is pretty simple, but this book shows how to apply colour theory to paintings created from vibrantly coloured photographs. Each example shown comes with a large palette of colour combinations. It's a wonderful invitation to create your own colourful paintings.

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Color Harmony for Artists
How to Transform Inspiration into Beautiful Watercolor Palettes and Paintings
by Ana Victoria Calderon
Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry

This book took me back to creating color swatches using the many watercolor paints I had. I would take the blues and put them down one side and mix them with yellows of all colors and paint them into grids with information beside them to keep and use in future painting projects. I learned a great deal creating color swatches like the ones mentioned in this book.

The interesting idea that I came away from while reading this book had more to do with looking at what surrounds me and then trying to recreate the colors I see. Each example included a photo example then a color swatch created from the photo and a design or painting that used the colors created in the swatch. Colors used by the artist with further information was also provided. I had never considered looking around my house, outside, in cities, at tiles, in historical sites and other places for palettes to create color swatches for paintings.

I believe this would be a great book to add to my library just for the ideas related to color. I am sitting here thinking of colors I would like to dabble with and what I would like to paint next and not having picked up and wet my watercolor brushes for a couple of years...that is rather contemplating to contemplate.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

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This is a wonderful book full of creative and valuable ways to incorporate and improve color in your true. I highly recommend this book for new artists. It would make a wonderful gift. I highly enjoyed it. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

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I have always struggled with color harmony so thumbs up for this book. Lots of examples and interesting things to try out. It certainly brightened my life. I can now make better choices of color that make my art work zing.

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This is a really beautiful book! I love all of the colors and swatches. The author really created a sense of harmony in this book and I think that is difficult to accomplish. I will be trying to look at my art in this way now with what colors I am using and trying to be more intentional! Wondeful book and thank you for giving me access to it! I'll be recommending this to all my art friends.

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Such a colorful, fun and very informative book! It was perfect for anyone who's into art. The author took a great idea and ran with it. 5/5 stars

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This is an awesome book for helping the creative learn how to best utilize color as a medium in their creations. I found it to be very interesting and beneficial no matter what form of art you create. Definitely an awesome resource!

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Color Harmony for Artists is a color and palette sourcebook by Ana Victoria Calderón. Due out 19th Nov 2019 from Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 144 pages and will be available in paperback format.

The introduction and basic color theory (color wheel, harmony, tone, temperature, some paints and supplies) take up about 18% of the page content. The writing is accessible and clear.There's a digestible amount of information for new watercolor artists, but probably little new info for intermediate and advanced artists.

The bulk of the page content is given over to specific palettes shown with an inspiration picture (See the book's cover). The book closes with an outline template with recommendations for utilization, resources and links for further exploration, an artist's statement, and a cross referenced index.

This is a graphically appealing book and there's a fair amount of usable info for the beginning to intermediate artist. It would also work for artists and crafters in other disciplines who need some help with picking out fibres and fabrics for embroidery, knitting, quilting, or other color heavy crafts.

Four stars.

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I'm not sure what audience this book is for. There's a couple pages on color theory at the beginning, and then pages and pages of color palettes created with watercolor inspired by various source materials (hair colors/skintones, landscapes, etc).

I suppose it illustrates how one can take inspiration from a source to create the palette for one's work, but for an actual working artist (as the title implies the reader to be), this feels like a pamphlet stretched into a book. Perhaps for those who consider themselves to be "not creative" or "not good at picking colors," this would offer some guidance? The book felt like flipping through someone's workbook to me.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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This is a lovely book bursting with ideas on different colour palettes for different subjects. It is more inspiration and idea based than instructional. But it is a real feast for the eyes and will get the creative juices flowing. It is an excellent book for inspiring beginners to see how a colour palette for a picture can be developed and used. It is a lovely book to browse through as the pictures used as examples were beautiful. It is one of those books to keep on your shelf and dip into.

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This is a very simple and straightforward book about color composition. It will be great for anyone looking to demystify the process of taking colors from an existing image and using it to create a new composition. It will also serve as inspiration for color swatches to jumpstart new ideas. For more complex concepts, another source will be needed, but this book with serve it's purpose well within its limited scope.

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Given that I've been following this artist for many years now, this book doesn't disappoint. The book covers loads of different colour palettes, but also gives a glimpse into ana's thought process. This will enable you to go off on your own finding colour inspiration of your own.
Wonderfully illustrated with not a word out of place. A wonderful read, and a great learning resource for both beginners and experienced painters alike,

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I have been unable to review this as unable to open the protected acsm format
really disappointed as this looked like a great book
have sent message to the publisher - hopefully this can be remedied

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