The Secrets of Coloring: Tutorials and Tricks of the Trade from a Professional Illustrator

I own several coloring books, who remain uncolored because they are so beautifully drawn that I lack the confidence to compliment them with my own colorings. So that compelled me to buy a coloring book tutorial.In my search results, I came across this book along with a competitor book called "The Colorist's Special Effects: How to make your colorings POP!" And had a hard time deciding between both books as at the time I financially could only afford to buy one. To my surprise the competitor book was available for free rent via Kindle, and I went ahead and purchased this book and waited for it to arrive.At first via Kindle the competitor book (The Colorist) truthfully held my attention, as she basically just dove right in, a perfect thing for an impatient person like me, unfortunately... while her book opened my eyes on what is possible, I still stared at my coloring books without confidence at the end.Finally this book by Jennifer Zimmerman arrived by mail, and I read it, and the result? I was able to color my books with confidence.The Secrets of Coloring book allows you to not only see significant improvements in your own art work, but leaves you with an excellent understanding of how things work, how they can be used, encourages you to try different methods that you would have not even thought of that could work with your masterpiece.Jennifer does this so gracefully, without boring you, yet doesn't just show you how to color one thing a certain way, she also explains the purpose behind it and how it can be utilized into different drawings, so that you are not stuck with a knowledge of how to color this one object without the ability to transfer it to a different shaped object. A hard to achieve perfect balance of knowledge and results!So if you are reading this, trying to decide between this book and other books that are competing for your attention and money, I will strongly recommend for you to get this book first, especially if you lack the confidence to color those cool coloring books that you have staring at you in the corner, and want to feel like you can actually color beyond medicore level.The best part about this book, is that it is not a read once and shelve it, it is definitely a worthy reference book to read and reread for years to come.Thank you Jennifer Zimmerman for taking the time to publish and to thoughtfully balance things out and be such an amazing teacher and for not acting like us readers are supposed to already be at a certain level, and for making it so that any level of experience reader can benefit from your knowledge and experience in so many untold ways. BIG KUDOS!*Note: I paid for this book full price and am not giving out a review for promotional or personal purposes. This is my 100% honest opinion.

I have a small handful of “how-to” color books and was not really looking for another when I came across “The Secrets of Coloring”. After debating it and reading the “Look Inside”, I came to the conclusion that this how-to book would be a good addition to what I already have. I liked the author's straight-forward attitude in the small blurb and wanted to read more.I am so glad that I did purchase the book. It is not just a small add to my techniques but a branch on its own. Jennifer Zimmerman walks you through each scenario with many steps and illustrations. The illustrations are so integral to the lessons that I really cannot show them without providing too much technique information at the same time – therefore, I won't do so. I will post a couple of images showing paper type and some of the designs, etc that are part of the book.The author uses brands that are fairly easy to find and that do not weight too heavily on the budget as well. I really appreciate the resource guide for materials at the back of the book.There are ten chapters in this book:Introduction to Coloring MaterialsPaper TypesColored Pencils (with varieties, techniques and terminology, pencil pressure, layers and burnishing and colorless blenders)Markers and Pens (markers and pens: varying tip types, gel pens)Other Necessities (spray fixatives, safety, erasers, pencil sharpeners, stencils, paint brushes, PanPastel/Pastels (YAY!)Non-traditional suppliesTime-Saving Tips and Techniques for maximum impactColoring Simplified (part of lights, color theory, CMYK color wheel, color temperature's effects and color palettesAn Illustrator's Secret Techniques and Tutorials for Interesting Reading 9 (this is a wonderful and extensive chapter that contains much information!)Finally, Coloring Pages and MoreI was expecting a book published on the quality of CreateSpace but this book is much nicer. Not quite that of a high publishing house but certainly a good quality with surprising paper for samples. It is soft cover glue bound with lots of color illustrations.I'm thrilled to see the Pastel subchapter though I will have to wait a bit before attempting the projects as I am on constant oxygen while recovering from a severe pneumonia (probably brought on by allergies!) Once better, this is where I will spend some time. In the meantime, there is a wealth of other techniques and information to keep my busy learning new and fun ways to color.

Nice book and a good one for beginners. She packs a lot of info in this. When I first opened the package, I was disappointed with the size of the book. I thought it rather thin compared to the other colorists instructional books I have. However, I soon changed my opinion after seeing there is an amazing amount of material in this volume. She explains things clearly and with little repetition. I find this book easier to follow than the other similar ones. The downloadable pages are a plus and the different colored pages for practice in the book help with experiencing different paper media. This will definitely be the one I use for quick and easy reference.

Lots of information. There is a LOT to learn about using pencils in artwork. Her books include gel pens, markers and other things that will go with pencils as well.I do learn more every time I dig into the book. There's too much to learn at one go.Am enjoying this and bought the sequel.

If you love to use pencil crayons and want to learn more, this is a great book.

WOW Super!!

Livro bonito, muito bem explicado!

Ich habe ja lange mit mir gehadert weil dieses Buch auf Englisch ist aber die Neugier war stärker. Ich habe es nicht bereut und gleich noch den 2. Teil bestellt. Ich bin kein Englischgenie aber dadurch das jeder einzelne Schritt mit Foto belegt ist kann man sehr gut nach Anleitung arbeiten. Die Künstlerin gibt auch genau an welche Stifte sie benutzt hat, da kann man natürlich auch abweichen. Am Anfang des Buches gibt es auch eine gute Zusammenfassung von diversen Materialien die man benutzen kann ohne ein Vermögen ausgeben zu müssen,zum Beispiel für schöne Hintergründe. Wer schon Erfahrungen mit dem Ausmalen hat dem wird das leichter von der Hand gehen wie einem Anfänger. Aber für jeden der eben nicht "nur ausmalen" will sondern etwas Besonderes schaffen möchte ist dieses Buch sehr empfehlenswert.

Attention livre en anglais... mais tellement riche d'explications et de conseils. Pour ma part, je les préfère (j'ai les 2 tomes) aux livres de Helen Elliston (Colorist's special effects) qui après un premier tome relativement intéressant, s'essoufflent au point de ne mettre plus que des images ... et des répétitions de ce qu'on trouve sur le web.