Colour Mixing Guide: Oils

Everything the artist needs to know from colour theory to complementary, warm and cool colours, colour tone, using a limited palette, dull and bright colours and local colour. There follows an array of essential colour mixes for oils using widely available Winsor & Newton colours. Clear, practical and beautifully presented advice.

A clear, comprehensive guide to colour mixing for the artist using oil paints. It begins with simple colour theory and a colour wheel, with a template provided so that readers can paint their own; a vital step towards understanding colour. There is vividly illustrated guidance on complementary, warm and cool colours, colour tone, using a limited palette, dull and bright colours and factoring in local colour. There follows an array of essential colour mixes using widely available Winsor & Newton colours. A beautifully presented and practical guide to understanding and mixing colours.

Introduction 4
Materials 6
Colours used in this book 8
Colour 10
Colour wheel 10
Primary colours 12
Secondary colours 14
Tertiary colours 15
Complementary colours 16
Warm and cool colors 18
Colour tone 20
Using a limited palette 22
Dull and bright colours 26
Local colour 27
Colour mixes 28
Yellows and oranges 28
Reds and pinks 32
Violets and blues 36
Greens 40
Browns 44
Blacks and greys 46
Glossary 48

Jan 2017

Colour mixing guides tend to fall into the category of either very simple or exhaustingly complicated. This is one of the former. At only 48 pages, there''s no room for every possible combination of colours and nuance of tint, but the trade-off is that you won''t have to search through pages of almost identical blotches to find what you want. Julie Collins also condenses the apparatus of theory and practice into what we might call packed-lunch size sections. Her look at primary, secondary, tertiary colours is easy to understand and she also deals with warm and cool colours and the importance of tone. The final and main section is a straightforward catalogue of mixes organised by the predominant colour and showing effect of tinting white.

Like for any discipline, knowledge and mastery of the tools and materials differentiates the master and novice. This book by Julie Collins can aptly be stated as covering the ABCs of Color Mixing. The first part of the book addresses to a new self starter in oil painting and covers quickly and in simple terms, the concepts of the Color Wheel and prompts the reader to explore the vast combinations of color mixes. The later part of the book ( a good portion of 20 Pages) provides the color pallette for various mixes. This part of the book makes it a quick reference material for people who take to painting now and then, saving them time in recollecting the color mixes needed for arriving at their desired choice. Would recommend this book for its simplicity and for its usage as a good reference material for color mixes.

 I found this colour mixing guide by Julie Collins simple but very informative and explanatory. In the first few chapters she covers all the materials needed. A good thing I found was she only uses 13 colours, which is good for those who would love to paint but are on a budget. In the latter chapters Julie includes a lot of photos of her mixes for reference which I found very useful. Overall a very informative book for the price

Summer 2016

Search Press has added a new title to its colour mixing guides to acoompany Julie Collins'' books on acrylics and watercolours. This one focuses on oils. Opening with simple c