Watercolour
Winsor & Newton Colour Mixing Guides

by John Barber

Knowing about color and how to use it to its greatest advantage is one of the things that separates the artist from the painter. In these books (there is also one about oils, and another about acrylics) you can see at a glance what happens when you mix one color with another, to get exactly the look you want.

Obviously, there is no substitute for actually mixing the colors to see what they look like on your palette rather than on the printed page, but this is a wonderfully simple (and very useful) idea.

In true Search Press fashion, it is easy to use and even opens out flat due to the spiral-bound spine. Find out what six colors are indispensable for a beginner to buy, and then read what colors famous artists made the most use of. The book uses twenty-five colors from the range, and shows what each one looks like mixed with all the others. It also shows you which percentage of each color makes which shade, and arranges then in color families for easy reference. For the beginner, it briefly outlines what you need to take up watercolor painting.

This is the sort of book that makes a useful gift whatever the level of the artist you are giving it to. One for the keeper shelf, and such a clever idea.