Colour Demystified - by Julie Collins (Paperback)

About the Book

"Unravel the mysteries of color and learn how to be more confident with your watercolour choices. Many painters are confused by their watercolour palettes and lack the confidence to experiment with color mixing. This book demystifies color, and helps artists understand how color works in a highly visual way through the use of color charts accompanied by examples, practical exercises, and analyses of watercolour paintings. Many painters are confused by their watercolor palettes and lack the confidence to experiment with color mixing. This book demystifies color, and helps artists understand how color works in a highly visual way through the use of color charts accompanied by examples, practical exercises, and analyses of watercolour paintings. Julie Collins helps you understand how color works in a highly visual way through the use of color charts accompanied by examples, practical exercises, and analyses of watercolor paintings, both her own works and those of contemporary artists. Topics such as granulation, iridescence, transparency and opacity are explained clearly and simply, to encourage you to experiment with colour and be altogether bolder and more creative. Numerous artworks by a variety of contemporary artists are featured in the book, covering a broad range of subjects and palettes. Topics such as granulation, iridescence, staining strength, and transparent and opaque colors will be explained clearly and simply, and there is practical guidance on colour relationships, using color to create space, and how to be more creative with color. Armed with a clearer understanding of color and how it looks and behaves on paper, artists will be encouraged to be more bold and creative in their use of color in their art"--Publisher's description.

Book Synopsis

With a highly visual approach by an award-winning watercolor artist, give yourself the confidence to experiment with color mixing and use color with confidence!

Unravel the riddles of watercolour palettes and learn how to use colour with confidence!

Julie Collins helps you understand how color works in a highly visual way through the use of color charts accompanied by numerous examples, practical exercises and studies of watercolor paintings, both her own works and those of contemporary artists.

Topics such as granulation, iridescence, transparency and opacity are explained clearly and simply, to encourage you to experiment with colour and be bolder and more creative in your art.

Armed with a clearer understanding of color and how it looks and behaves on paper, you'll be encouraged to be more bold and creative in the use of color in your art.

Review Quotes

Booklist - Starred Review - August 2021

Non-professional artistic color education starts and stops with the color wheel, primary andsecondary hues, and complementary and analogous colors. Award-winning UK watercolorist Collins (Painting Flowers with Impact in Watercolour, 2005) changes the conversation by delving into all the different ways hues, shades, and tones can play together. She explores topics like palettes, interactions, and glazing in detail with the intention of inspiring new thinking and experimentation, and furthers her cause with several different gallery-type examples, 16 worksheets that showcase techniques (painting a free hand tulip, for example), and seven step-by-step projects--still life with tulips, carte postale birds, even just one leaf. To amplify the book's title, she includes "demystifying" sidebars, observations, and recommendations that strengthen the artistic process, such as "the look of yellow differs in the center of green and red versusorange and green." A book with an aesthetic sensibility that more than lives up to the title. Includes a glossary. - Barbara Jacobs

About the Author

Julie Collins studied Fine Art at the University of Reading and has been an artist, writer and teacher since then. She has written colour mixing guides and artists' problem-solving books and also writes for The Artist magazine. She works from her studio in Hampshire, UK, where she explores her passion for painting, drawing and crafts.

Julie has won numerous prestigious awards for her watercolour paintings, including, most recently, the award of first prize for Watercolour at the Royal West of England Academy Annual Exhibition 2019. Julie was also elected an associate Member of the Society of Women Artists in August 2019.

Julie is the author of the Colour Mixing Guides in Acrylics, Oils and Watercolour, published by Search Press.