Color Workshop: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Artistic Effects

I like Rachel's drawings, they seem loose and impressionistic and in her examples she uses a fairly restrained palette to achieve subtle effects. The book tackles colour theory, various coloured pencil techniques, blending, highlighting, burnishing. The book also relies pretty well on combining various colour mediums together to create vibrant effect. Alcohol markers, gel pens, watercolour and pastel are all combined within the pages of this book. There is something there for everyone, independent of the level of their experience. The effects she has achieved are varied, and she encourages the reader to try experimenting with media and colour schemesAt the back of the book are twelve perforated pages, all double sided of the various drawings Rachel has used in her tutorials. The paper is a good firm drawing paper with a nice "tooth." Rachel has also given permission to photocopy those pages; so you have plenty of opportunity to practise the techniques to your satisfaction. The drawings include such subjects as leaves, flowers, toadstools, birds, butterflies, feathers, crystals and a wood nymph.Although I haven't yet read this book cover to cover; I've dipped in and out on topics that catch my eye, I have found a few things that I had to question. On the back cover is a really eye catching rendition of a maple leaf, one of the things that decided me to buy the book, and in the project Rachel recommends blending the pencil colour with petroleum jelly as she said earlier in the book she liked a less toxic blender! I have no doubt this will indeed dissolve the pigment binder and allow a good blend, and that adding further colour after doing this will be very smooth, but I was worried about the risk of an oily stain seeping through the paper if too much is used. I normally use odourless mineral spirits, which in normal circumstances evaporate after use. I experimented with the petroleum jelly on various papers, a sketch book, an envelope and also a Millie Marotta colouring book and I was agreeably surprised to see that short term at least, there was no bleed through to the other side of the paper. I was being too pessimistic! Thanks to Rachel for that tip.Another thing that that came to mind was her statement in her chapter on Markers: Basics, that she recommends alcohol markers because they won't bleed through the paper. Granted that I only possess Sharpies, not any of the Copics or W&N Brushmarkers, but I find they bleed through very easily, and other colourists on the web are always warning against using alcohol markers in books with double sided pages because of bleed through; I will take Rachel's statement with a pinch of salt!One slight moan remains, Rachel illustrates her examples with Prismacolors and Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, which she kindly identifies by colour name. Not everybody might have these particular brands, or even those colours. I just wonder if it might not be helpful if colour swatches had been provided as well so that people can match colours from their own supplies.These small issues aside, I've enjoyed the book and there are things I am trying on the strength of her tutorials and she is furthermore making me enthusiastic to try different effects.

I’m not a natural artist but really enjoy it. I was getting very frustrated by my incredibly average skills and I just didn’t have the knowledge to create the kind of art I wanted to. I bought this book in an effort to learn and I’m SO GLAD I did! This book is a fantastic book for beginners or developing artists/colourists. The author covers lots of different techniques and media and I’m absolutely thrilled with the results I’ve got with her guidance. So much better than anything I’ve ever produced on my own! One of the best things is that at the back of the book there’s the line drawings for all the projects so you can trace or photocopy them (the author gives permission to do this) so if you’re not good at drawing (like me!) then you’ve no need to worry because the author has done the work for you. I scanned them into my computer and printed them out onto heavyweight artists sketch paper. It worked a treat.

I have a few books on this subject, but i can say this is the best book that i ever bought, if you are into this ART, please buy this book,really well written

Unusual aspects

Absolutely love this book! Great step by step instructions for some useful techniques that will make your pages come to life. Nice practice pages at the back which are on good quality paper (not create space stuff) Really please with it and would absolutely recommend.

The book was not as detailed as I would have liked but apart from that, it is ok for a beginner and shows how to colour the samples provided in the practice sheets.

This book was just what I wanted. V useful. Gets the thumbs up from me.

Lovely book great for following the tutorial as the pictures are all there to colour along with the guide. Fabulous tips on blending and on how to use your gell pens on your work. This is my leaf I did using the guide .