Colour Mixing Bible

This is an essential book in my reference library. Unlike most colour mixing guides it does not just stick to the standard or basic pallete - which I do not like much- but includes a lot more colours that produce some delightfully subtle and unusual mixes. I tend to produce my own mixing charts because every brands colours are slightly different and behave differently on different surfaces but have found this book full of useful advice that has expanded my knowledge. It helps a lot to know the opacity, tinting strength (how strong or weak a pigment is) or if it granulates before trying it out. Far better to consult this before being seduced into rash expenditure on all those lovely new paint colours that turn out to be of limited use for your kind of painting. It covers pastel, coloured pencil and ink too as well as oils, acrylic and watercolours but is worth buying even if you are only going to use part of it.

This book has grown on me - I like the fact that there are pages of colour charts for different mediums. I usually paint in oils but i have recent started to use acrylics and I appreciate that I have colour charts for acrylic too. The introduction on pigments and colour and the different mediums is interesting and useful too. Ultimately. it is best to divise and paint your own colour charts but these are an excellent starting point.

What can I say? New to painting at the age of 73, I had no idea how to achieve the colours I wanted, and then this little gem came into my life and everything fell into place. I was so happy with it that I took it into my art group, and it was such a hit with them that I know at least three members have also bought themselves a copy! I also loved the short history of how pigments evolved at the beginning of the book. Fascinating.

Informative book but not what I expected.No colour mix ratios to enable reproduction of colours.Still a good book to have.

Well, for a budding artist I had trouble mixing colours but this book really helped me to understand the basics of colour missing for all artist paint mediums. Easy to understand and gives to reasons for colour mixing. Quite expensive but worth the money.

I'm in the process of teaching myself colour theory and it's not been a quick, easy journey. I bought this book after reading all the wonderful reviews it's received. This has taken me to the next level: it is mega informative and the 'recipes', showing very clearly what happens when various colours are mixed, are a joy to look at. Since I use various media, it is especially useful because it covers so many - oils, acrylics, gouache, pastels, watercolours, inks and pencils. Utterly captivating and comprehensive. I'd recommend it highly to artists of any level of experience.

Well not so much written information, lots of charts of mixed colours in different media showing results of mixing different colours. If you only use one sort of paint ie acrylics this renders a large proportion of the book irrelevant and even then you are subject to the vagaries of the 4 colour printing process in reproducing the colours. Think I will mix my own versions according to the charts in the book to get a more accurate version and then put the book back on here second hand in which case ignore this review its a briliiant book, just what you are looking for. There are better colour mixing books on here but I won't name any here as am always suspicious of reviews that slate one item while promoting another.

Simple introduction to colour, but as a aid to mixing colour, this book is excellent, you can use it and quickly achieve confidence, even if you have long periods between your painting sessions this book can just be there as reference, you do have to worry about forgetting previous mixes .Not a book for other requirement in your painting interest ,but the prefect partner to any other you have. The mixing charts cover all the painting disciplines.