Making Color Sing

by Jeanne Dobie

“Practical Lessons in Color & Design”
25th Anniversary Edition

This book it is identical (except for the cover) to the original version. There’s a good reason it’s been a best seller for 25 years. It should be included on every watercolor artist bookshelf. Even though watercolor is the author’s chosen medium, the lessons easily apply to any medium.

There are 31 practical lessons with tips and exercises all the way through.

Each lesson cover picking and mixing colors, controlling greens, understanding warm and cool, using color for shape composition, values and much more. One of the most interesting chapters you how to make your whites and neutrals glow with subtle light.

If you like to glaze layers of color, this book covers this technique in detail. Your colors will go from muddy to sensational in no time once you grasp the concepts.

There are also several very helpful chapters on planning the white and dark value patterns before beginning to paint. This kind of pre-planning always helps make a good design even more sensational.