Book Review: CONFIDENT COLOR

CONFIDENT COLOR: AN ARTIST’S GUIDE TO HARMONY, CONTRAST, AND UNITY by Nita Leland. (North Light Books, 2008.)

Imagine a book you could open to almost any page, and find a thought to explore for the day. Nita Leland has created this book, in CONFIDENT COLOR. Every page of the book explores color with illustrations from a variety of artists, charts, and “Try It” exercises to emphasize the principles. Want to know what colors will emerge from your palette? Create color cards and organize them or display them. Want to create a more brilliant palette? Leland helps you explore this too. She covers basic color terminology and theory, the seven contrasts of color, and color harmonies. She includes exercises in limited palette and thoroughly explores many different types of palettes. Her exercises will open your eyes to working with color, not to creating color recipes. This book, with its wonderful stay-flat binding, is easy to open and use in the studio. A compendium of color thoughts for the beginning and advanced artist alike.