How to See Color and Paint It

By Arthur Stern

Book Overview

Arthur Stern claims that color is key to painting what you see. After working with three generations of students, he developed a program of 22 painting projects that teach the artist to observe, identify, mix, match, and paint the colors of the world with remarkable accuracy. Using a painting knife and oil paint, you learn to analyze every painting subject as a series of distinct color areas--called color spots--and place each spot on the canvas as a unique and vivid mixture.The fundamental lesson of the book is that if you put the right color spot in the right place, you create a realistic image of form, space, surface texture, atmosphere, light, and shade. As you follow the painting projects in this book, you'll make the dramatic discovery that everything in nature is filled with luminous color. You'll learn to see glowing color in the "blackest" shadow and the "whitest" linen. You'll learn when a green can appear red; how to use paint to replicate metal, glass, wood, paper, porcelain, and other opaque, transparent, or textured surfaces. Before long, you'll be seeing a multitude of colors in a slice of bread, apples and oranges, and a mass of green leaves. You'll learn how to paint quickly enough to capture a "live" still life--a flower that moves and slowly dies as you paint it. You'll even practice with a setup outdoors to see how sunlight and skylight affect color.How to See Color and Paint It is a must for beginners and a valuable asset for intermediate artists who want to develop a more subtle perception of color. A final section contains beautiful paintings of many subjects that have grown out of projects and ideas taught in this book.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1626540969
• ISBN13: 9781626540965
• Release Date: March 2015
• Publisher: Churchill & Dunn, Ltd
• Length: 146 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.5" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Simply the best

Of the many books in my art instruction collection, I rate this one at No. 1. It has had the greatest influence on me of any lessons or books I've had. If you treat this book as a course in painting you will: 1) learn how to mix absolutely any color with dead-on accuracy, 2) get practical advice on setting up materials and aids (for example, his "spotter" to isolate colors -- simple but indispensible), and 3) become comfortable with the painting knife, which most amateur artists shy away from. Get this book and devote a few months to it. You'll never regret it. (Note: He shows the use of oil paints. I prefer acrylics, and used them for these lessons without any problems.)

Worth every penny

Anyone serious about improving the color in their paintings should own this book. The reproductions are clear and lucious. The work is done in palette knife so the color notes are clean. It takes you step by step through several still life settings and excercises and shows how the objects were first divided into shadow and light patterns and then breaks down to the finer nuances of color. It teaches the student how to look closer and see the subtle temperature shifts of color. There are also several reproductions of completed paintings in the back that utilize the approach. Fortunately I bought it while it was still in print and cheap, but, I'd pay $60 for it if I didn't own it already.

Waste no more time with flaky, new age egopainting. This is it.

Arthur Stern, student of the legacy of that almost-lost thread that has passed through Classical art, the Renaissance masters, the Baroque masters, into Chase, Hawthorne, Henri (and his students- Bellows, Hopper, Kent, etc.), the Bay Area artists (etc.), offers up the eye-clearing humility, without BS, that is necessary to see in order to paint what Cezanne called the "ensemble". Akin to tuning a guitar, the method reveals that the harmony of the few notes ("spots" of value/hue/chroma) must be chorded before you learn how to glue an American flag and a photocopy of the Twin Towers to your 21st Century bombast. THE FUNDAMENTAL basis for painting. A pathway, not to be viewed as a fixed style or dogmatic cul-de-sac, but a route of initiation to Beauty. Hawthorne/Hensche purists irk me with their holier-than-thou, plein air fascism (and some of their students with how-to books should be, with Thomas Kincaid, whipped), but I DO agree that THIS IS THE DOOR TO THE WAY. Beautiful, simple truth. Reprint Stern's book before the world ends.

Reprint Please

How sad that this book is out of print. It is a wonderful book that deals with the process of isolating colors. First it starts you with a simple project and then progresses within each study exercise that you do. My gray view finder from class has now seen better days, however, I will always carry one with me and used it even to capture items for my journaling.

Kat Eldred

This book uncovers the mystery of painting. For anyone who wants to grasp the basic concepts of color in a very visual manner. A CLASSIC! If I had found this book sooner, I would not have paid so much for art instruction.