A Field Guide to Color - by Lisa Solomon (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Play with paint, get creative with color, and discover your personal palette--a joyful, interactive workbook for creativity, self-expression, and deepening your understanding of how color works.

Color is one of the most profound ways we have to express ourselves. In this lively workbook for artists, graphic designers, hobbyists, and creators of all types, you will journal your way through fresh and enriching ways to develop a more personal connection to color in your art and life. Using watercolors, gouache, or any other water-based medium, dive into color theory and explore your personal style while playing with a balanced blend of experiments and color meditations. Discover a personal color wheel while exploring tints and shades. Experiment with color mixing while you make as many of one color as you can - and then name them all (honeydew green, avocado green, mint ice cream...). Through playful prompts and inspiring examples, and with lots of room for painting, this book will guide you to a new or expanded relationship with color and deepen your understanding of what color can do for you.

Review Quotes

"Lisa Solomon's fun and interactive A Field Guide to Color functions as part sketchbook, part instruction. Learn more about color theory as you complete 30 journal exercises with the watermedia of your choice. Play, explore, and deepen your own practice."--Watercolor Artist magazine

"For many people, effectively using color in their work is a mysterious process. But in A Field Guide to Color, master-of-color Lisa Solomon breaks down how color works so that we can make both playful and harmonious choices as we create. This gorgeous and informative book is soon to be a bible for every painter."--Lisa Congdon, artist and author of Art Inc. and Find Your Artistic Voice

"A Field Guide to Color is a thoughtful, informative, beautiful book. It is almost too beautiful to use as the author intended, as a true workbook to be painted and experimented in. Even though I've worked as an artist for over a decade, I learned a lot from Lisa's book. The exercises are both informative and meditative, making the book an essential part of every artist's--whether professional or hobbyist--library."--Jen Hewett, author of Print, Pattern, Sew

"In her new book, A Field Guide to Color, Lisa Solomon joyfully presents the basic concepts of shade and saturation, all while inviting us to explore basic principles of color theory through guided exercises. Solomon expressly encourages experimentation through mixing, diluting, and matching, all with gentle reassurances to try things and not worry about getting it right or wrong. It is this freedom--the permission to make marks, not to replicate an image but simply for creation--that sets this book apart. A Field Guide to Color provides a multi-hued reason to take a moment away from screens and put brush to paper."--Sonya Philip, creator of 100 Acts of Sewing

About the Author

Lisa Solomon received her BA in art practice from UC Berkeley, her MFA from Mills College, and has been a professor in the Bay Area for over fifteen years. She is profoundly interested in bridging the gaps between being creative, living creatively, and making a living as a creative. Learn more at www.lisasolomon.com.