5 comments about Blue and Yellow Dont Make Green.

1. I'm a sorter. I organize. I put things in boxes. Color doesn't want to go in boxes. Or categories, or areas, or mix well with others. It drove me nuts. Sometimes it was too bright and sometimes it was so dull it hurt like a toothache. This book began my understanding of why color does what it does. Michael Wilcox put together a dictionary which unravels for me the complexities of color and the how's and why's of hue, tint, and shade. He has broken down the chemical compounds of color in an understandable way and broken the secret codes of the paint manufacturers so that you and I can read the labels. Now we can purchase exactly what colors we want and either mix our own exact shades and tints or get the individual paint supplier's.
   
   Ever wonder why you sweat in your sister's bathroom and not in your's? Her's is painted peach and your's is blue. Why that works, now, is someone else's story. And then there's black. Who knew there were so many different kinds of black? There's a black to fit each room in your house, made out of every color in the room in which it is to reside. And it matches perfectly. Amazing.
   
   Now when I see two shades of lemon yellow I don't see yellow at all. I see either greenish yellow or brownish yellow and refer to them as green or brown. It's very tricky to see the primary hue over the secondary color anymore. Huh. I guess that's what an educated color sense sees nowadays. Never thought about it before. Three cheers for Michael Wilcox and PO3, PV15, PY3 and others! I get true colors every time.



2. this book gets more interest for its paradoxical (and inaccurate) title than for its contents, which are straight out of 18th century color theory and painting practice. for a review of this book and links to background materials, google "wilcox handprint" and click the first few links. i should add that some of the positive reviews posted here appear verbatim at the wilcox "school of colour" website and are therefore just viral marketing.
   
   the quiller book "color choices" and the hilary page book "color right from the start" are excellent resources. this book is heavy on simplification, routine, and computer generated color samples.



3. This ia a fabulous book for any artist or aspiring artist. From a pallet of only 12 colors he show you the hows and especially the whys of mixing just about any color you want. Especially good for water colorists. You'll never be mixing "mud" again.
   
   Ben Albert



4. I am very pleased with this book. It is filled with valuable information for the painter which is presented in terms that are easy to comprehend. I am currently working my way through the exercises and by doing so can already see where the book has been worth every penny. As someone well acquainted with "mud" I think the book will save me a fortune in paint down the road. I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to recommend this book to anyone interested in painting whether new to painting or an experienced artist. We can all learn something new from it. In fact, I think it would make a great text book.



5. Before reading this book, I already had a good basis in the basic color theory: the primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, and the ideas of complementary and analogous colors. I even knew that mixing complementaries would result in browns to blacks.
   
   However, I hadn't learned how to apply that knowledge in the way this book presents it. As a result, sometimes I would mix colors that were muddy or shaded, and I didn't know why. This book explains it all so clearly and so simply that you are sure to retain and use the information with ease.
   
   In summary, this book tells you how to mix any color you want, reliably and with confidence, just using six colors, two of each primary color. Everyone who understands color knows that yellows fall on a range from almost-orange to almost green, blues fall on a range from almost-green to almost-purple, and reds fall on a range from almost-purple to almost orange. The fact that these colors are in a range means that, when you mix them, you will get different results depending on where the colors fall in that range.
   
   This book tells how to determine where a color falls in those ranges, and also gives you a clear and understandable way of knowing what to expect when mixing different primaries. The system works.
   
   One nice thing is that, with the price of paints today, if you need to, you can only purchase six colors and you will pretty much be set. Accordingly, this book recommends that you purchase those six colors, two from each primary, with one color each that tends toward each end of each primary (a green-yellow and an orange-yellow, for example).
   
   Of course, you can always buy a larger range of colors, but armed with the information in this book, when you do so, you can confidently purchase and mix those colors and have a good idea of what the results will be each time.
   
   If you are impatient with theory, you can skip all the stuff about reflected light, additive versus subtractive color mixing, color perception in the brain, and so on; it may or may not all be true, and is anyway only Mr. Wilcox's theory about *why* his system works. Instead, if you are impatient, just read the juicy stuff about the colors themselves. It will definitely improve your ability to mix colors well. If I were making a list of "must have" books in an artist's reference library, this would be one of them.

5 comments about Klimt (Big Art).

1. This is truly a wonderful book. The paintings are beautifully re-produced and printed. The analysis is in depth and fascinating. I would like an index of all the works contained in the book. Perhaps individual critical analysis of each print would be better, but it's difficult to criticize a book selling for 10 dollar!
   This book was originally published in 1990 so it does not have the current developmets of Klimt's art: such as the 2006 auction of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for 135 million dollars - the highest price ever paid for a painting. A B-B I is hardly critiqued in this book. But overall, the book is a must read!



2. My disappointment comes from the printing process rather than the content,
   which is chock full of color plates of Klimt's paintings and some great
   photos of Klimt's life and times.
   All of the color plates and the photos are printed soft-edged and the wonderful vibrant golds are somehow absent. None the less, it is a lovely
   book with a very good text and a marvelous range of his work.



3. First of all, the book is not covered as shown in the amazon photo which shows the famous "kiss" painting. The book, apparently updated in 2006, shows a cover photo of Klimt's famous Danae (1907-8) oil on canvas painting. I think this cover is more provacative and more organic and softer than the famed Kiss painting which reveals a couple entwined in gold looking rather stiff. Danae was certainly a better choice for the cover. The book is definitely not written for the casual art reader. It is written with extreme depth as what I'd expect from a historian of the arts on a university research level. As verbose as it is, it has plenty, if not hundreds of photos of the famous works, including all of Klimt's paintings and lesser known sketches. The author discusses several of Klimt's famous paintings in depth and reviews various critics of Klimt's time period as well as Klimt's personal opinions and struggles. Culture, politics, and various movements in the arts is also discussed at length. This book is too deep for the casual browser or reader but makes a great coffee table book if only for the pictures alone. It is a high quality book and the pages are high quality (acid free) and glossy. The painting photos are rich and fully colored, better than other books I've bought on Klimt (where the precious gold paint is reduced to lousy brownish or greenish prints). The gold tones in this book, so famous in Klimt's work, are reproduced extremely well as well as the other vivid colors so characteristic of Klimt's work. It's a bargain to get this book at the price.



4. Over the years, I've only looked at Klimt from the edges - that is, I was aware only of the more popular poster images you couldn't help seeing here and there. But this book is a big revelation to me. Such genius! He is truly amazing, and I had no idea of the range of his thought or the depth of his talent. He was a superb draftsman, which enabled him to take risks with the figure because he knew exactly what he was doing.
   
   A well-designed book - a complete visual pleasure, and fire to the imagination.



5. Spend more. get a bigger book. the painting are worth it.

5 comments about Michelangelo (XL Series).

1. Excellent pictures of the frescoes, inadequate coverage of sculptures. This book is unrivaled for the sheer size of its reproductions. It is so huge that it is a bit difficult to read--one has to rest it on a table. Not suitable for reading in bed, to say the least. But the quality of the printing and colors in the main part of the book is first class. Its coverage is especially fine on the paintings. It comprehensively covers the Sistine Chapel with huge-size foldout prints of every fresco. There are fine close-ups of important areas, which are an amazing 2/3 of life size. One can examine these fresco details from a foot away--never before possible--instead of from 60 feet away with a craned neck. This can be breathtaking.
   
   The sculpture photos are excellent too, but not numerous. I had been expecting several photos of each sculpture from various angles. Bacchus, Pieta, and David are well shown in multiple views but this is not the case for most works.
   
   The text is on the whole very well written and illuminating.
   
   The authors have extreme views on authenticity. This leads them to exclude very important sculptures because, it appears, the authors consider them unproven to be authentic. For example, the Santo Spirito wooden crucifix is shown only small, poor quality, and in black and white. (A far better, color, picture, can be found, free, in Wikipedia.) Even the Madonna and Child bas-relief that is his first work, the one selected to adorn the cover of the 1,000 euro ($1,500) La Dotta Mano book, and, worst of all, the four Slave sculptures, some of his most iconic works, are also relegated to poor quality black-and-whites at back of the book, as all are judged suspect by these authors. Drawings, however, if of doubful authenticity, or even known to be copies, escape this rigorous exclusion. So we have too many drawings and missing sculptures.
   
   Some paintings receive the same relegation: the Manchester Madonna (which is clearly at least in part by Michelangelo) is hardly visible in a tiny, dark, picture, as is the Entombment (which I must agree is of doubtful authenticity).
   
   A book claiming to be comprehensive should have more detailed and thorough illustrations of questioned works than this. Opinions change over the years and some of these will doubtless be accepted in the future. In some cases it seems that the authors are among a minority who dispute authenticity.
   
   The book has a very large number of drawings, but the coarser paper in that section of the book, and the low contrast and low resolution and small size (even in this monster book) of their printing, makes them hard to see clearly. This section is in sharp contrast to the wonderful beauty of the fresco reproductions in the first section of this book. It would have been better to show fewer drawings at a larger size, and illustrate the sculptures properly.
   
   Nevertheless, this is a truly outstanding book for the frescoes, and the photos of the sculptures that are shown and the text are excellent too. Worth its price.



2. this book is extraordinary for the paintings; the drawings are documented, but its print quality is rather low, even the quality of paper they are printed on is inferior... and THIS IS A VERY DISAPPOINTING BOOK FOR THE SCULPTURES



3. Wonderful inside and out. No further commentes are necessary: by all means, buy it !!



4. This massive book is stronger on the paintings than on the sculptures. And after all, Michelangelo is one of the greatest (to me the greatest) sculptors of all time. Still, this impressive book is certainly worth purchasing. Try to find a copy of the William E. Wallace book published in 1998 to enjoy magnificent plates on the sulptures. You might still find copies online from remainder booksellers.



5. I received this book yesterday, and it is certainly a monumental work, weighing close to 20 pounds and superbly produced. But potential buyers should be aware that while this book is labeled as a definitive, complete guide to Michelangelo's work, its real focus are the paintings and drawings. There is probably no better book for the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment, with scores of extraordinary closeups of every part of each painting. The foldout of the creation of Adam is a joy to behold. Readers may or may not like the fact that probably 40% of the book is on Michelangelo's drawings, given that these are mostly preliminary sketches for sculptures or paintings, as opposed to complete drawings in their own right, as in the case of Leonardo Da Vinci. The book also covers Michelangelo's architecture very well.
   But obviously many readers will buy this book because they want to see Michelangelo's sculptures, and this book is surprisingly, disappointingly weak in this area. Of course, the David gets its due and there is also good coverage of the Vatican Pieta and, oddly, the Bacchus. But many of the other sculptures, such as the Moses and the Risen Christ, get only one large and one small picture, despite the fact that the book, at over 700 pages, has space to spare. By contrast, the "Complete Michelangelo" by William Wallace provides multiple views of each and every piece of sculpture.
   But most incredible, indeed inexplicable, of all, is that this book (unlike Wallace, or any other Michelangelo book that I know of) fails to provide any large pictures at all of what are, next to the David, the most iconic and powerful of Michelangelo's sculptures: his four "prisoners" in Florence. Having seen these in person, I can easily understand why artists for centuries have looked in awe at these amazing "unfinished" sculptures which show figures struggling to emerge from the marble-which is exactly what Michelangelo felt he was doing when he took his chisel to the rock. How on earth, in a book of this size and ambition, can the omission of these sculptures be explained? Indeed, no explanation is provided, and the only illustration of these four sculptures, which have so influenced modern art, is four tiny, poor quality pictures in the second section of the book that is a complete catalog of all of Michelangelo's sculptures. By contrast, the Wallace book has a four page foldout that shows the four sculptures next to each other.
   In short, this book is fantastic for the paintings and drawings and a very disappointing missed opportunity for the sculptures. One can only wistfully imagine what would have been if the sculptures had been photographed as carefully and as thoroughly as the Sistine Chapel paintings. By all means get this book--and overall I am glad that I did, despite its high cost--but adjust your expectations and don't expect that this one book will suffice to fully cover all of Michelangelo's genius.

4 comments about Painting with Acrylics (Acrylic Tips & Techniques).

1. This book is great, it shows in detail exactly how to do acrylic paintings using all kinds of subjects and mediums... as a newby to painting (I usually draw) I am having a lot of fun. I thoroughly recommend this book



2. After a short introduction about the materials, color, and tips on composition, Arnold Lowrey spends the bulk of this book giving instructions on how he created 6 paintings that use different techniques. These instructions really are step by step and never jump way ahead in the painting in one "step" leaving you thinking, "what, how did he do that?" He always lets you know exactly what colors and instruments he used to create each object in the painting. All in all, incredibly helpful.



3. "Painting With Acrylics" starts with an informative introduction which discusses the wide variety in styles and uses of acrylic paint. The sections on acrylic mediums, brush strokes, composition and using color were particularly interesting. The author then shows how to paint six scenes using a well-rounded variety of techniques. He shows how to use palette knives, sponges, sand paper, paper towels, razor blades, fingers and of course paint brushes to achieve the look of water color, scumbling, oil paint, and glazes. In addition, he teaches the reader how to use acrylic pastes and gels. I highly recommend this book.



4. I was unsure of buying this book because it was unreviewed and I had not heard of the author. I'm very glad I took the chance. I've been dabbling with acrylic painting for the last year or so (with no other painting or art experience), and I'm still a pretty rank beginner. I have several other books on acrylic painting. Some of them I like very well, but this is the one I was able to follow the most easily and wind up with something approximating "art."
   
   The strenght of the book is the detailed instruction for completing each project. Lowrey approaches things in a step by step manner. Some of my other books are step by step, but they seem like huge steps because I am left wondering, okay, how did you get from this step to that step? Not here. I think any beginner would be very pleased with this book.
   
   As for what the book covers - It has brief sections on materials, color theory, and composition. Most of the book, though, is split up into six projects:
   1. Watercolor technique
   2. Oil (impasto) technique
   3. mixed watercolor/oil technique
   4. glazing with white
   5. glasing with color
   6. using pastes & gels.
   
   Following each project is a number of paintings created with the same technique. And Mr. Lowrey's paintings are very attractive, I think. I very much like his use of color.
   
   At any rate, Mr. Lowrey's book was very helpful to this beginner. He maintains a website, so check out some of his art if you're curious. (an internet search on Arnold Lowrey and acrylic should be sure to turn it up.)

3 comments about Lego for Adults - build real working LEGO guns.

1. This is a great idea, but I suspect it was a lot more fun to create than it is to actually "read." You have to really be an avid Lego-lover to want to build the projects contained in this book. And you either need to already own an incredible array of Lego pieces (preferably neatly cataloged and stored), or be willing to place a substantial order of individual bricks from the company. I didn't take the time to figure out how much it would cost to build one of the guns designed by the author, but I suspect it would be very steep.
   
   But don't let me stop you if you love building Lego models from scratch instead of in a pre-packaged kit. That's just not my thing and I don't have the time to invest in doing so. Still, it was interesting to see what they came up with. For me, though, I don't think it will ever go beyond a curiosity on paper.



2. I ordered this book, not really knowing what was in it. its very detailed, and has funny pictures of the author posing with the gun in combat fatigues. but only 1 gun design is included plus one variation of that gun. this "book" is more magazine sized. that said, it's very cool. price isn't bad, so if you really like lego, get it, it's worth it for a neat project...



3. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2YF71W9VQD1H8 This video demonstrates how the Thriller Automatic works. It's a slide action lego crossbow featured in this book.

5 comments about Practice Books For The Flute: Omnibus Edition (Books 1-5).

1. The book was in excellent condition, exactly what we needed and $10.00 cheaper than anywhere else.



2. For anyone that plays the flute, especially those that need guidance for practicing, this is a fantastic resource. When using this collection, you should have a metronome and tuner at your disposal, especially for the volume on intonation.



3. 4 stars instead of 5 only because I haven't gone through the whole book yet. The exercizes on tone and breathing are really helpful. It is well written, easy to understand, and realistic as far as goal setting.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone getting back into playing on their own or an experienced musician.



4. I purchased the omnibus version after buying the single publication on tone. The Omnibus edition comes spiral bound and the pages can be sometimes unruly...slipping out of the slots of spiral binding and giving an untidy look to your sacred sheets of flute wisdom(which is rather annoying to this already disorganized musician).
   
   I refer to the information in the tone section more than any other. The other 'books' in the omnibus were a bit sparse in terms of content. I am glad I spent under 30.00usd on the omnibus instead of buying each book individually.
   
   For those musicians with a sense of humor, the writing style of the author is quite fun to read. His discussions are loaded with flute-specific musings, puns, and other subtle rhetoric. His writing style is ingenious...and a relief from the monotoned, sedate style we usually encouter in method publications.



5. This book covers almost everything there is when it comes to developing tone, technique and skill. I'm really enjoying it. I think it is a must for beginners, and also really useful for the developing-intermediate flutist that needs a little more to get to the advanced level. my tone is better allready...

5 comments about Perspective for Artists (Dover Art Instruction and Reference Books).

1. This book is like a little paper back novel so dont expect any big diagrams and its printed on butchers paper basically, but having said that it is cheap and a handy little reference pocket book for someone who needs to look up drawing in perspective its very old as well first published way back last cenury or the one before cant rember but it is an oldie ,I got something out of this book so i dont consider it a waste of money has things like drawing stairs in perspective inclined planes elipses , domes spires stuff like that there is a fair bit of info crammed into it . worth a go.



2. Yes the language can be a little hard, but with some logic and patience it's completely understandable. This is an incredibly thorough book and I highly reccommend it.
   
   I give it four stars because there will always be people who are irritated by old fashioned writing and if you are that sort of person, I'd say try another book.



3. I have read 7+ books on perspective and I believe the thouroughness of this book and its explanations make it the one book you could use above any other. It is comparable to G. A. Storey's book but is easier to understand and it fills in the gaps that other books take the reader's knowledge for granted. I would, however, suggest reading multiple books on perspective because many will explain certain things that others will take for granted and vis versa.



4. I purchased this book as a reference, but after getting it in my
   hands, I found it engrossing cover to cover. I would never have
   guessed that a book on a subject like perspective could draw the
   reader in like this one does. Mr. Cole had a nice way of including
   the reader in a way that makes you feel like he's present. I had
   no experience with perspective before this book, but now I can draw
   realistic arbitrary items with confidence. It has helped my
   portrait drawing as well. A must-have for any artists library.



5. Imaginary settings, like fantasy novels, sometimes need to be anchored by a lot of realism. While emphasising getting the perspective of what you're looking at right, there is a tremendous amount here for the artist drawing what only exists in his or her imagination. The last section, frighteningly called "Mechanical Perspective" (anything mechanical is evil, right?), merely deals with how to start with an overhead plan and wind up with a sketch of the building or ship, inside or out.

5 comments about The Fantasy Illustrator's Technique Book (Quarto Book).

1. This is a really cool book. Great for artist. filled with tons of great info, techniques and referrence materials.
   i would highly recommend this book to any one who likes to draw. you won't be disappointed.



2. This is one of the better art books I have found up to date. It does give some instruction on painting and drawing but I feel is meant more for an advance student of fantasy art than a beginner. Some one with some art experience will find it very helpful in many areas. It is definitely one of my favorite additions to my own reference library.



3. This book was helpful for determining things like color choices for skin tones, and was inspirational for trees, and different creatures. Their choices of finished artist's works were neat. However, this book did not give much information for techniques in acrylics, which is what I work in. For people who need help drawing fantasy characters, and fleshing them out, this book is great, but I do this naturally, so it wasn't a really big help for me.



4. This is a light-hearted, profusely illustrated book on the making of fantasy art, with a nice gallery of other artist's works in the back.
   It is, though, not necessarily a book for present illustrators looking to get into the fantasy market; it is really more for a young person just starting out. Artists who are further along with fundamental skills in drawing and painting would benefit more from John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop, a more in-depth and less elementary approach. But for lovers of fantasy art, either book is a pleasure to see.



5. I found this book, and a few others like it to be absolutely indespensable when it comes to building a library for the functional artist within this genre. Well written, informative, and lavishly illustrated with how to's as well as finished peices meant to inspire the aspiring and the pros alike. Recommended.
   John F Willis

4 comments about Fantastic Ornament: 110 Designs and Motifs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series).

1. A couple of reviews have mentioned that the designs in this book were too intricate and therefore they gave it less than stellar reviews. However, I believe that this is the books strength and not it weakness. I design websites and the images in this book worked perfectly, precisely because they were more detailed.



2. I don't agree with the previous 2 reviews of this book. I think it has plenty of great elements to incorporate into any design. Maybe they are right about being too complicated for crafts. I am a graphic artist, and the more complicated, the better. I especially like the details of the mystical creatures that are featured in this book. Lots of flourishes and victorian type ornamentation like most of Dover's books in this genre. I believe this book stands on it's own and worth having it as part of your clipart library.



3. Just received this book and although pretty, there is very little in it that I could use. Was looking for more design ideas for working ceramic tiles, and the items in this book were far too complicated to transfer or use in any simple fashion. This book would be more suited to someone designing wallpaper or historical features in home decor, and not so much for someone wanting practical design ideas.



4. This book is more for people who are looking for Designs and motifs for furniture, grave stones, or wall panals, the designs are too intricate to transfere, I'm not impressed with this book for designs & motifs for craft.

5 comments about The Greatest Album Covers of All Time.

1. What a great book. Could sit and look at it for hours. Makes a great gift.



2. My fiance and I spent over an hour in the book store looking through this book. We were so impressed by the collection that we actually decided to use this as the guest book at our wedding. There is something in this book for everyone and we intend to let our guest flip to their favorite cover and leave us a message. The great thing about music is that is spans cultures and generations, and we will be able to learn more about our wedding guests through their choices in this book. We highly recommend it for music lovers fanatic to casual listener.



3. My husband, John Berg, was the art director of many of the covers in this book. I looked in the index to find where they were and I was amazed that a book on the subject of the album COVERS would not have a listing for the people who created the album covers. Listing the albums by recording artist and listing by album name is fine but the subject of the book is the ART on the covers, and yet the art directors, while buried in the text under the pictures of the individual album covers within the body of the book, are not singled out in an index. A person researching the work of John Berg, or Bob Defrin or Paula Scher would have to KNOW the album title or the band in order to see the work. That's ok for a book about the bands, or the music or even the decade, but if it's about the cover art lets have it BE about the cover art- there should have been an index for the ART PEOPLE: the illustrators, the photographers and the art directors...so for someone interested in who did the covers rather than just what they look like this is not the best book, no matter how well it's printed.



4. I received this book for the holidays and wound up reading it cover to cover in 3 hours. The book does a great job of explaining the evolution of the album cover. It also gives great background into what the artist's was trying to portray with the cover. The book covers all genres, as well as, explains covers that were giving social commentary to covers that are just plain silly. Great purchase for anyone that loves not only the music but everything that goes into it.



5. If I had known, this would have been the last gift my husband opened. We could not get him away from this book on Christmas morning. It was fun to see him sit with our daughter and tell her about which titles he had and some of his memories to go along with the album covers. Neat book!