Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

this is a disappointing book, for three reasons. first, edwards simply recycles the mummified "color theory" dogma inherited from the 19th century (primary colors, complementary color contrast); worse, she merely parrots it secondhand, in dribs and drabs and without understanding what she is saying. second, the "scientific" statements about color are dilettantish, superficial and in many specifics factually wrong, inserted merely to give her text a savant and authoritative tone. finally, the practical guidance is devoid of any artistic spirit: the introductory color lesson asks the student to make little wheels of color and then, when the little wheels are completed, to copy wallpaper. no, that's not a metaphor: you choose a piece of wallpaper, paste it to a sheet of watercolor paper, then copy the design while inverting or shifting the color scheme. the grossly misleading information contained in this book speaks very poorly of the book's publisher. edwards directs students to use acrylic paints, then tells them to buy "cadmium yellow pale" (which appears in no acrylic paint line manufactured anywhere in the world) and "cobalt violet" (which is offered by only one acrylic paint manufacturer, and not under that name). she uses "hue" when she means "color" then, when she wants to signify "hue", she must call it "source hue"; she calls paints "pigments", achromatic or neutral colors "no-color colors", and saturated colors "spectrum hues", even when the colors (such as purple or magenta) do not exist in a light spectrum. she calls "red" the painter's primary color as opposed to the printer's primary color (magenta), when it fact magenta is the correct subtractive primary in both printing and painting; she claims there is no useful magenta pigment for painters to use when in fact several very satisfactory blue red and red violet pigments, the quinacridones, are now available in all commercial acrylic lines -- and have been used by artists since the 1960's. in their place, she recommends using alizaring crimson, a dull, fugitive pigment invented in the victorian era. as we are in the realm of mummified "color theory", edwards relies on the 18th century complementary color contrasts (yellow+purple, orange+blue, red+green) for color harmony, guidance that has turned amateur painting into an anthill of identical cliches. this simplistic rule has been repeated for generations, not because it is accurate or useful (colors that are "off complementary" are actually more harmonious together), but simply because it is dogma -- something you can teach that has been taught before. significantly, these teachers (edwards included) are never fine artists themselves. indeed, the whole book has numbly reductive approach that resembles teaching the deaf to sing. paint something simple, like a vase with flowers. hold up you metric wheels to judge colors. adjust colors using your wallpaper painting methods. make paintings by blocking in colors, then adjusting colors. stand back, squint, and "change whatever color doesn't look right." add colors that are missing and vary colors that are too similar. avoid mud. use complementary colors. get a new sheet of paper, rinse and repeat. the only thing soaring about this book is the flight it takes as you fling it out your window; the only inspiring moment is when it flops into your trash can. yes! three points!