The Oil Painter's Color Handbook: A Contemporary Guide to Color Mixing, Pigments, Palettes, and Harmony

I've been drawing and painting as a hobby for a couple of years now and many years ago worked as a graphic designer so already understand quite a bit about colour. I bought this book to focus on oil painting which I'm new to. It's a work of art in its own right. It provides just the right amount of history, theory and practical advice. I've had this in my lists for quite some time and hesitated whether I needed another reference on colour but really glad that I bought this. Easily the best book I have on colour. A large hardback format makes this exceptional value for money. Whilst focused on oil paint, it will be just as invaluable for acrylic and watercolour because the principles are the same.

This has to be the most beautiful and comprehensive book on colour I have ever seen. Although written with the oil painter in mind, there's much in here for artists using other mediums. It has valuable information not usually included in most books on the topic, eg about all the different artist/genres/era's colour palettes. Highly Highly recommended.

I bought this after I saw it on a you tube channel which said it was a must for any oil painters. I have read it from start to finish which is quite a task as it is a mighty tome but the information in it is fascinating and I can see myself dipping in to it frequently in the future to refresh my memory as you can't hold all the information in one go. It's beautifully illustrated,but my only complaint is that some of the photos of palette with colour information on the writing is to small to identify the right colours plus it doesn't go into the munsel system very much compared to the other palette of colours. If you are an oil painter you seriously need this book

So comprehensive. Everything you want to know about colour from its history to the Munsell wheel. Really useful addition to any artist’s library

Excellent book and best paper quality

I was delighted with this book. It covers a wide range of topics and will be my go-to manual for oil painting. It’s also useful for colour theory in general too. Would highly recommend it

Very good tips in this book and really interesting.

Any book on colour theory and use is worth consideration. This one must be one of the best. Lots of palettes, and colour wheels, beautiful examples from famous artists and quite a lot by the author. A good solid heavy book with robust binding. I don't know of anything better, especially at the price. It is a very welcome addition to my bookshelf and I have referred to it a lot over the last months.

Very useful guide to a successful painting.

Love the book content but delivery comes without any form of protective bubble wrap, 2-3 edges are dented and the book doesn't comes with any wrapper and seems like a rejected or return copy. In short no effort is taken to protect the item, hopeless!!!

Very good color book, explains when and how to mix oilcolor for a specific result, well explained and some nice pictures

This book is perfect for both beginners and the experienced painter. Even if you do not work with oil paints, you will definitely find this book insightful. I certainly wish this book existed decades ago when I had just started my painting journey! The print quality is fantastic. A book that focuses on color that certainly has paid extra attention to detail on how colors should be presented most accurately and with high-fidelity in print. Every page contains valuable information that is supplemented by relevant visual aid which makes it a super effective learning tool for art students (who are mostly visual learners). I especially love that the author does not subscribe to any one school of thought in particular when it comes to color theory/color palettes, but presents his readers with multiple perspectives instead; from various eras, with various historical contexts so that the reader is encouraged to decide for themselves how they wish to approach their own paintings with all that given information. An additional bonus is that the science of optics, and of color perception are both topics that are also mentioned which are often neglected in other oil painting manuals. Sometimes the beginner painter does not realise that their ability to perceive color and value is just as important as the ability to understand how color and value should be utilised — and this book acknowledges that importance. There were so many things I had to relearn, so many questions that were raised during my painting journey and this book has finally provided the answers I was looking for that wasn’t available anywhere else previously. Color/pigment is such a complex subject and this book also goes into detail about the historicity of what we have gotten correctly and incorrectly in the past regarding its unique characteristics, chemical makeup, and properties. It is like having the most up-to-date version of what we now know about pigment properties so far — which is exactly what I was looking for: the contemporary color (oil painting) compendium.

This was a great book to learn more about mixing color for painting. Nice hard cover book with quality pages. I read through the book in less than a week cause I didn't want to put it down. The first few chapters were a bit more about color history and some things that I already knew, but once you get to chapter 5, it gets really good and had information I haven't seen presented anywhere else about color mixing. I'm not sure if this author has any other books out there, but would buy more if he did. There are a lot of nice photos throughout the book and great color wheels, especially helpful if you use Gamblin Oil paints since some of the detailed color wheels plot the gamblin pigments on the wheel and shows where they are in relation to all other colors in the paint line. I am probably going to go back through the book now that I finished it and write down all the highlights of great information into a notebook to keep near my easel.!