[.ca] Paints & Colors (ISBN 087341831X)

An Inside Look into Pigments and Paints:
For anyone who has ever wondered how modern artists paints and the pigments and binders for various media are made this is an excellent book. The chapters and photos showing how various kinds of artists paint are made from start to finish is very enlightening. For example, I assumed acrylics were manufactured similarly to oils and watercolors. However, due to the nature of the acrylic polymer itself a different manufacturing process must be employed. Also, one of the more fascinating chapters in the book is on the pigments themselves. After reading this chapter I added to my color palette many new modern pigments. In many cases I use them exclusively for a painting. Until reading this book I did not realize just how incredibly lightfast, permanent and resistant to varying weather conditions these new pigments really are. Thank you, Auto Industry for giving artists all these great new pigments! Books like this will help get the word out that these new pigments really are superior to many traditional ones. The Rennaissance masters would have loved to have access to the colors artists have available today. For example, for my orange colors I now often use a benzimidazolone, an isoindoline and a pyrole. The reds and browns are now quinacridones and pyroles (although I still use red, orange and yellow cadmiums on occasion). My most frequently used yellows are azo and hansa. One of my favorite blues is an anthraquinone. Practically the only color on artist palettes that has not benefitted from auto industry pigment research is white. Titanium white significantly compromises the lightfastness of any color it is mixed with. As for the pigments I mentioned above many have transparent qualities while others are very opaque. This book explores how you can exploit each of these new pigments' qualities to add new dimensions to your artwork. And you may want to consider trying some of the secondary colors because they have qualities that might not be available from a mixed secondary. Later chapters in the book discuss the binder and mediums for various types of paints such as oils, watercolors and acrylics. One of the last chapters examines "painting" with computer programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The final chapter covers health and safety issues. Get this book. It will open your eyes to the wonderful possibilities of today's pigments and paints.

A must:
No doubt a 5 stars. If you are ever interested in color, you must read and understand this book.