Mastering Colored Pencil: An Essential Guide to Materials, Concepts, and Techniques for Learning to Draw in Color

I haven't even finished the second chapter, yet there is zero doubt in my mind that this book brought it's "A" game to the market.It gives you the feeling of having a one on one conversation with the author, welcoming and engaging.This is my 9th book that I've come across that covers the colored pencil medium. So I feel safe in saying that I'm a snob when it comes to tutorials.There is zero feeling of childish approach/hold your hands in a smothering way. Yet doesn't be vague that you are bumping into things in the dark.It goes on in a completely natural course and does an exceptional job of reinforcing what subjects had recently been covered. There is no information overload or starved for information business happening with this thoughtfully laid and written out book.Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner here, and it is definitely worthwhile to own this awesome book. Don't get left out in the cold, come inside and become enlightened and learn/improve in the process by buying this book without hesitation. Hmm, now I sound like a sales person LOL. Smh. It is that good!Note: My review is of 110% honesty, and I did not receive this book in exchange for a review or promotional purposes. I paid out of pocket for this book. One of my best investments when it comes to the colored pencil topic!

Recently I purchased several books specific to Colored Pencils Artists and bought this one hoping to learn something new that others have not already published. Overall the book is decent, it covers the basics of color, using pencils various techniques etc. but it fails to go into any sense of real detail, it's more like Cliff Notes. No one section other than Color Theory really provides any wealth of information, most pages are dedicated to larger images with notes about the artist than actual details on any given subject. Nearly 1/3 of the book is about other Artists, well over 1/3 is dedicated to color theory with some mini tutorials or "homework" but no real depth to it or details. It's slim pickings for the rest of the book. The few tutorials are incredibly basic and more about color theory than use of a colored pencil itself.Most artists I personally know already are well versed on Color Theory so I feel it was some really wasted information that could be better put to use to technique and detailed technical information.If you are looking for a brief intro to Colored Pencils and a whole lot of Color Theory this may be the book for you, but for an Artist who is most likely already well versed in color and light etc. it really falls short of being any "Essential Guide"I had high hopes for this book but they fell incredibly short. There are other, more engrossing and educational, Colored Pencil books that are better suited to learning.

For those art lovers who have been fortunate enough to take Lisa Dinhofer’s courses, her book Mastering Colored Pencil is a proof of her great talent to communicate and teaching art students to learn and improve the different techniques of colored pencil. For those who have not attended her classes, this book will help and encourage students to go through the different steps presented there in a methodical order, that is, beginning with the necessary tools and ending with home assignments. Every stage is enriched with concrete examples of how to proceed to attain new results with different color shades. Thus, the book begins with discussing the basic supplies, the type of paper that works best with colored pencils. This is the first step, then colors are distinguished in primary (red, yellow, and blue), secondary and tertiary colors, giving to the student the possibility to explore new effects by mixing colors and learning their relationships. The author assigns homework to encourage the reader to use all the possible tools in order to reach new and inventive effects. What better way to take your color pencils than to put into practice what you have learned from this book? Finally, in the 7th chapter, Dinhofer’s book reproduces the works of different artists who have excelled in learning from her method of doing art with colored pencils. This is a useful, beautiful book, new and complete in its conceptions that teaches also how to preserve pencil works.

This book is wonderful in every way, starting with the outstanding information and illustrations throughout. The quality of the paper and printing is of the highest quality. I love the way that Lisa Dinhofer presents the material, in a well-written, intelligent, and very readable manner that covers all basics and so much more! And I was excited to find the detailed section on materials, papers, and all the various brands of colors. And the color charts are extremely useful. Having just completed a course with a teacher who taught only black and white, including charcoals, I feel so ready to explore the possibilities in this book! And since my adult daughters also love art, I ordered books for them as well and we are going to share our progress long distance. Thank you, Lisa Dinhofer!

A beautifully designed and user-friendly book, The information is presented simply and clearly with lovely illustrations, and includes many tips for beginners as well as professional artists. The examples of various techniques are excellent and it is a great pleasure to see the beautiful drawings by the author. Highly recommended.

Having read many coloured pencil books, I would rate this one as being at the bottom of my list. Particularly, if you have recently started using this medium, you might find this book a put off. The author devotes a whole chapter against the case for using photographs. If you are a beginner, or you have a disability and cannot easily use real life subjects, you may find this very discouraging. People produce very beautiful coloured pencil art using reference photographs.The author spends too much time on unimportant detail like how to extend the life of your pencils by supergluing stumps to pencils. We can all figure that out and it is advice freely available on the internet. Useful techniques such as scraffito and stencilling are given only a paragraph and no demonstration or context for use. The author gives a large part of her book over to exhibit her work and other artists.This book was a real disappointment.

This book was a real disappointment. Too much time is spend on unimportant detail like how to extend the life of your pencils by supergluing stumps to pencils. The author gives a large part of her book over to exhibit her work and other artists.

Ok

Déçue du peu de contenu. Trop « de base » cet ouvrage s’adresse vraiment à un débutant, j’aurais aimé qu’il soit indiqué. Il ne m’a rien apporté.Poor contenu. For beginner only. Very desapointed. Was expecting a specialized book...it is for beginner. I didn’t learn anything from it!

Its you are an adult colorist my opinion would be, there are better books on here whan it comes down to coloring.If you are an artist that draws your own designs then i think this book is more for you.Its not a bad book, but just less for only colorists in my opinion.