The New Color Mixing Companion

The New Color Mixing Companion by Josie Lewis

Wonderful use of color and ideas for art projects that made me want to get out my paints. The templates at the end of the book allow the artist to print out then paint using the techniques in the book. One of the most intriguing and perhaps new-to-me ideas was the idea of a “mother color” that is the base for all of the colors used in a project. Supplies needed, techiniques and tips are all included in a way that makes this book easy to use and I believe it will allow the reader to find success in whatever art project in the book that they undertake while giving them new ways to use color mixing in future personal projects.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Quarry for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

This comprehensive guide starts with a crash course in essential terminology and visual vocabulary, then shows you how to go beyond the wheel and basic theory with hands-on projects that illustrate and illuminate a variety of color elements and techniques. The materials used—including watercolor and acrylic paints, and found or purchased collage papers—are accessible, inexpensive, and readily available. Plus, this art guide includes easy-to-use templates featured in many of the projects; their modern geometric layouts yield stunning color arrangements.

I am by no means an artist, but I do love learning about art and this book taught me a lot of new and different techniques about colors and paints. I loved how easy it is to follow, especially if you're like me and just want to jump right in. Not only does this hold my attention, but it has projects that you can do. They start from beginner all the way to advanced, so there's something for everyone in this book.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC of #TheNewColorMixingCompanion
Pub Date: 04 Dec 2018

This book is a great additional for all of the watercolor lover out there. It has projects from beginner to advance that is fun to do.
She also gave tips and clear instructions. As a beginner in watercolor, books like this helps so much. You get to learn about colors, how to play with them to make a beautiful artwork.

Love color and pattern but don't have a clue? This book offers templates for using color and simple geometric projects that are a lot of fun. You can use many materials to mix colors, and the instructions are clear and illustrated well.

It's simple and easy. If you've wanted to do something artistic - say for a book cover or journal - this might be the way to go. Enjoy it!

Another absolute fantastic art-book I found on NetGalley. The New Color Mixing Companion is chapterized from beginners to advanced color projects. As an artist I enjoy playing around with colors and values, always on the lookout for my next palette to use in one of my paintings. This book doesn't only cover painting it also covers collage art. The templates at the end of the book are incredibly helpful. Print one out on water color paper and you are ready to go.

This was a useful book for artists, going into some interesting and practical detail about color mixing, gradation, shading and tinting. It's patently evident that the author has put in some serious work here. It covers collage, mixed media, and pure paint, and works through examples you can follow practically, exploring various aspects of color mixing as you go.

The book includes a glossary of terms and goes above and beyond color wheels and simple paint-matching and contrasting into a more advanced appreciation of just what color can do and how it can impact the eye. It offers inexpensive solutions and provides a series of printed templates for the practical experimentation and emulation of the examples the author sets. Obviously it's intended as a print book, and presumably using photocopies of these images rather than paint directly in the book(!), but it would be no problem to take a screen-shot of the images in your ebook version, bring them into a computer so they can be printed out to work with them that way.

I found this to be a comprehensive, detailed, and eminently useful contribution to painting, and I commend it as a worthy read.

This is absolutely fabulous book - not only as an introduction to colour, but also written in a very easy to read and confidence building way.
Having just read a book on using craft in the same way as mindfulness, this book shows how combines the real feeling of getting completely involved with your creative side, small steps at a time, to achieve a stress free and calm state of mind.
There are templates to use and lots of small exercise and projects with lots confidence built- in. The language is interesting and I could empathise with lots of the examples and blocks to my painting. Written with acrylic, collage and watercolour in mind, this is a great start to understanding and using colour in these mediums.
I really recommend this book for anyone.

This book goes beyond being a great introduction to color theory. I liked that the projects moved from beginner to advanced through the chapters and that projects are not just painting, but also collage. Lessons learned through these projects could be applied to a wide range of arts and crafts.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

The New Color Mixing Companion by Josie Lewis is an unusual art book about color that makes the reader look at creativity and color in a whole new light. There are many pearls of wisdom in this book that go well beyond learning about color mixing. There are yje standard chapters about supplies and how to buy supplies. There are unique starter projects where one skill builds upon another. . There are many lessons about watercolor techniques like wet on wet, wet on dry and so forth .
The author talks about "art scars". These scars inhibits peoples ability to explore their own creativity, These scars are enemies of creativity. Procrastination, perfectionism, comparison, conformity, and fear are creativity killers. . This was a really interesting way to think about why some of us don't try or why we don't succeed in the crafting we try.
There are next step projects to work on too. There are special effects with watercolor, focal points, neutral colors, gradating value and intuitive color. I believe the author's intent is not only to teach the reader about color but to truly look at our skills and our mind set while crafting.
I would like to thank the publisher, the author and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review..

What a beautiful book!
Even If you never pick up a tube of paint, just looking at the colours bursting off the pages will fill you with joy.
The author brings together art theory, history, science and personal anecdotes with engaging enthusiasm. Her explanation of the colour wheel is great for reference and the projects are accessible and have visual punch.
I viewed a digital version of this book. I’m hoping the physical version has good quality paper and if so, I would love to give it to someone as a gift.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

I loved this book. I have always struggled to make make art work look bright and viberant. This book shows you how to make colours zing together and how to make them compliment each other. The geometric shapes and patterns ( templates included) make for beatuiful art works you can quickly get stuck into. They would also make great greetings cards. I have a number of die cutters collected over the years, now I have new ideas to but them to good use. Not also does this book give good colour inspiration but also ideas about adding texture to your work.
Many thanks to Quarto publications for access to this book. It is on my list to acquire.

It took a lot of trial and error for me to read this book. I had difficulties opening the format I received from Netgalley. However I knew it would be worth succeeding. Thank you Quarto Publications.
Not only are the illustrations and colors in this book brilliant, the prose that goes along and explains the process is delightful and easy to read.
I appreciate that this author knows the value of better materials, but says that learning with less expensive materials and items frees the soul to play and experiment.
That said, paper quality and brush quality are still important to your results. Do not go for the very cheapest. Save those for kids.

The book projects are divided into acrylic paints, watercolors and collage.
With tips, tricks, a little psychology and self confession, this book is like spending time with a good friend, a very patient and encouraging teacher. I enjoyed her light hearted, humorous phrasing.
I now have new definitions for experiment and failure. While we learn more about light values and complementary or antagonistic colors, this book is about so much more than just colors and overcoming your resistance to create art.

I have discovered a new wonderful artist to follow!

My New Years resolution is to learn to paint, so I’m a complete newbie. This book was so informative, but not daunting. It makes creating art seem like something anyone can do. I can’t wait to try these out!

This book is impressive in all ways: visually appealing, full of extensive notes, tips, step-by-step projects from a very personable teacher who mixes real experiential knowledge (been there, done that and this is what happens) put forth in a down-to-earth way, with a delightful sense of humor. I know that's a long, muddled sentence, but have you ever been so excited about something that you just had to tell people about it as quickly as you could? That's how I'm feeling right now; and I don't even paint!! But I am fascinated with art, the essence, the colors, the creativity of it, and Josie Lewis makes me feel that it is something that even those such as I could do. WOW!

The author extensively describes color (color charts, primary, secondary, tertiary colors, monochromatic colors, analogous colors and complementary colors) and offers insight into how best to mix them. She then offers many projects (complete with free templates) to do.

All projects in the book (which are pretty cool by the way!) show the following, so you know at a glance if it's something you have the skills, materials, and time for:
Skill level
Skills learned
Materials needed
Mess level (dead give-away that a woman wrote this book! I love it!)
Time necessary to complete

This is a book that anyone who uses color in whatever way, in whatever media will find worthy of a place on their bookshelf. Very well done!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarry Books for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I'm a fan of Josie Lewis's Instagram feed where she posts videos of her work. The same beautiful, mesmerizing work appears in her book, The New Color Mixing Companion. The ideas contained within are beautiful and appear to be fun to make. High art? Probably not, but that's not really the point. Lewis inspires readers to get their hands dirty and to work beyond creative blocks. I found this book to be very fun and it even inspired me to dust off my watercolors and play for a few hours. If you like her work, you'll like her book.

This book was received as an ARC from Quarto Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Color patterns and mix's is always something that is of interest with our community of patrons that are extreme artists. We always get requests all the time of the latest Art and Color books for those that like to draw and paint. The book was wonderfully descriptive and had a lot of great ideas for projects that are easy and can look very impressive to the modern eye. I am also very impressed with the layout of the book and having the book be easy to read and most importantly easy to understand. Also the color combination presented in this book are very interesting and I am curious to try these combos the next time I have a watercolor class.

We will consider adding this title to our Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

This book is an incredible addition to anyone that is learning to paint and to those that have been painting for years. Also for those that are interested in colours and color- blending.
As a watercolor newbie this is a very helpful book to learn about colours and to tray many different projects to learn how colours mix and behave together and separate.
This is a book I would recommend to all, painters, drawing artist and just creative people in general.

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry for this book.

This book is different from a lot of your regular art books. Josie Lewis takes you beyond animals and still life, and explores colors and shapes. Her projects are unique and inspire creativity. I like that there are templates included so you can work focus on the color aspects of projects. I really think this book will take my art to new creative levels.

This book is a different take on exposing yourself to and challenging yourself with color mixing. In addition, the author uses methods that may be transferred to various media for the rules of color are transferable across the spectrum of creative artwork. This makes an excellent gift for color artists in all genres from the art student to needlework designers.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book that was provided by the publisher through Net Galley. However, the thoughts and opinions presented here are my own.

If you are looking for a book that is all text and talks and talks about color, then this is not the book for you. The New Color Mixing Companion is chock full of exercises or projects for the beginner and for those with moderate skills. The media used include acrylics, watercolors and paper but you could apply many of the techniques to different media. There is a lot of eye candy to see here, practically on every page! Josie Lewis is a very talented and accomplished artist who encourages and inspires at every step on your creative journey.

The book begins with the color wheel, supplies and goes on from there to discuss standard or more traditional topics like value, saturation, gradients, etc. The exercises, roughly split between beginner and intermediate, explore many different techniques to mix colors and create palettes. My favorite was the overlapping diamonds/triangles made with watercolors — in fact, I would frame the example of this technique in a heartbeat! Just beautiful. In fact, so many of the techniques she employs create stunning pictures.

But the bonus part of this book, beyond the different techniques, are the brief essays discussing topics of relevance for any artist, including talent, flow and creativity, artscars, and failure. Lewis has important lessons to impart and also illustrates many with anecdotes and personal stories. Her motivation to paint and create was emotional and touching to say the least.

Lewis supplies all the templates to use in many of the exercises so you have no excuse not to create. She also discusses perfection and procrastination, explaining how they work hand-in-hand. So there are no reasons not to get started having fun with these projects and learning about mixing colors and creating palettes.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group - Quarry Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

While not a painter myself, I found this book inspirational for other projects, including my craft of choice, embroidery. The projects and the photographs gave me several ideas for personal projects and the templates in the back of the book provide a nice guide to implement the books projects. I would recommend this book to crafters of any ilk including quilters, painters, sewers, etc.

I really like the pretty patterns and the colorful pictures. The templates in the back of the book make it easier to follow along with each lesson. Josie also some interesting philosophy to share. Fun book.

As an artist, I have spent years creating commissioned artwork in pen & ink pointillism. When I saw Ms Lewis' book up for review I could not resist. 
 
The book is very well done, laid out in two parts, each with a multiple of exercises. The author takes time to address the reality of creating art in little snippets or mini essays, such as 'Flow', 'Art Scars', 'Developing your Fist' and others. I initially ignored them but as I went over some of the book material, I read them and found them to be very relevant to the practice of being an artist.
 
The exercise used different materials, such as water color, paint chips, acrylics, pictures from magazines.
 
Some of the exercises I seen when I took 2-d art, while others were new to me and quite interesting. My least favorite exercises where the collages made from magazine pictures. I love the exercises titled 'Dots', 'Bring Out Your Dead', 'Hex Addict' and my favorite 'Classic Schmear'.
 
Ms Lewis is a great writer, making humor a part of her writing craft. Her instruction is clear and for those who purchase this book and start practicing the exercises need to remember that it takes practice not 'talent' to master these exercises.  I recommend this book for others, especially those of us beginning or out of practice with color mixing.
 
My only con; I do wish Ms Lewis took time out to develop a couple more exercises in color pencil, pastels, soluble color pencils and even crayon.

Great informative book on color basics, such as how colors compliment eachother, mixed in with " how to" guides that include different techniques in acrylic, watercolor, and mixed media.. The pictures are amazing and I love the projects. Templates are also included which is a huge plus. Great book for any artists shelf.

A really enjoyable and informative book! Perfect for a beginner, or for a more experienced artist who wants to refresh their color skills. The introduction includes color theory and techniques, and a guide to materials used for the projects in the book, with templates for the projects in the back of book. The bulk of the text is projects, ranging from beginner to advanced, that allow the reader to explore color in a number of ways, using watercolors, acrylics, and paper. You'll definitely end up with some lovely artwork after playing with these projects! Sprinkled throughout the text are little side stories- autobiographical moments, inspirational stories, tips on how to find your style, etc. I really liked the tone of this book- turn off that inner voice that tells you you're not an artist, and turn on your flow.

The New Color Mixing Companion is the perfect book for those of us who want to learn how to mix and use colors in ways that are fresh, exciting and challenging. This may mean throwing away some of your preconceived notions about how to mix colors, or how to look at color or learn a new technique or skill. As a beginner I was able to lose most of my hesitancy after a few exercises and found it liberating and enjoyable.

This book is funny I usually don't laugh aloud when using my art books, but I chuckled and guffawed all through the book. The book itself is beautiful, just gorgeous to look at. This is my favorite art book I own.

Thank you Josie Lewis for this fabulous, gorgeous and generous book. I know that I will using it a lot.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me a copy of this ARC for an honest opinion.

Thank you Quatro Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

I really enjoyed reading this book and learning lots of ideas and tips about colour and how to use it,. As a beginner level dabbler it was fabulous and encourages me to try different techniques and ideas.

Reading this author is like listening to a friend. The book flows easily and is full of interesting ideas to explore color. I’m primarily into acrylic painting and found useful information to explore complimentary colors using the mother method. I enjoyed the author relating how meaningful painting has been to help overcome personal tragedy.

The New Color Mixing Companion is a tutorial instruction guide with exercises to help the student gain facility with and expand their comfort zones in creating and mixing palettes. After many years of sewing and painting, calligraphy and needlework, beading and jewelry making, I've seen in my own artistic endeavors that I go back to the same 'comfortable' palette again and again. One of the reasons that I picked up this book and worked through many of the included exercises is to try to emerge from my comfort zone when picking project colors.

Released 4th Dec 2018 by Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 160 pages and available in paperback format.

Most art/crafting tutorial books concentrate on the technical and don't venture (much) into the philosophical side of creativity. This book is a joyful and exuberant exception. The author uses personal anecdote and a whimsically encouraging voice to provide profound insights into tapping our innate creativity to produce art.

The author grabbed me from the preface page on. I definitely wasn't expecting that level of emotional engagement and I was honestly moved to drag out my supplies (watercolors in this case) and start right away.

Here's a quote:

Though this book is about color and painting in particular, it’s important to emphasize that creativity includes so much more than just visual art. We need creativity in literally every area of our lives. The basic function of creativity is releasing old solutions and generating new ones. Creativity is at the root of the scientific method, all kinds of technological advances, and every breakthrough, large and small, in every human effort—ranging from parenting to surgery. This book invites you to joyfully welcome and nurture your generative powers. You were born to be creative. It’s one of the most essential human endowments.



There is so much of this book which resonated really deeply with me. The author describes being stressed when buying and subsequently using really expensive professional art supplies for learning and experimenting. I have felt exactly the same so many times, with a nasty little whiny internal voice calculating how much money I'm 'wasting' using up this or that ingredient. Wow, she really 'gets it'.

The exercises cover collage, watercolor, acrylic, and mixed media, but could (and should) be adapted to other media.

I've never considered myself a talented or even competent watercolorist. From the first exercises onward, I exceeded my own expectations and produced painterly results. I couldn't be more pleased with this book. Obviously everyone is different and needs to find instruction and methods which work for them... but this one definitely worked for me.

Five stars, really worthwhile book.

So, I follow Josie Lewis on Instagram and she is amazingggg. I love her tutorials and how colorful her art is, so I KNEW I had to read this. I had huge expectations and the book didn't disappoint me.
This book has lots of tutorials about painting, collage, etc. It has many instructions too. I tried one of the exercises and it turned out really well.!!! An easy to follow book, perfect for beginners :).

Josie Lewis’ bright and exciting color palettes are a visual enchantment. My personal artistic medium is not paint, but fiber, but Lewis’ techniques for color exploration are very translatable across media, and I had a lot of fun playing with some of the projects she designed for collage. Fair Isle swatches of color wheels are nothing very new, but her explorations of value gradients are must do’s for beginning color-workers in knitting. Chevron Spectrums that looked like Bhutanese temple flags reminded me of a dormant project that I had started and put aside to replicate that same feeling. I also did some entrelac swatching inspired by the Flat Diamond project.
I look forward to more work with these exercises, particularly an exploration of neutrals using the strategy outlined in Antagonistic Complements.
Many thanks to Josie Lewis, and the Quarto Publishing Group for providing an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A fun book for playing in art and getting your creative mojo going. The author provides links to fun templates you can print out from her blog too, for fun projects and experiments.

Wonderful book on colours, ideas on mixing, colouring, painting, collages, step by step procedures, lots of exercises. It is a visual treat.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

The review is also posted here: http://craftytuts.com/the-new-color-mixing-companion-book-review/

The New Color Mixing Companion is a modern, hands-on guide to working with color featuring approachable projects that each explore a different aspect of color mixing.

This book is so full of information! Just a quick look over the table of contents is enough to excite me about all that I am about to learn.

Although I received an unfinished preview of this book, which means, that final revision could have been made.

So let’s take a look at that promising list of what is included in this colorful book:
An introduction to color
Main color techniques
Studio supplies
Why I paint: My story
Starter projects
Glorious extravagance
Mini Mono
Flow: Not Just for Hippies
Collage Rainbow Wheel
The Classic Schmear
Flow Neuroscience: Turning Off
Value Gradient Primer
Tri Me
Loose Brain Mojo
The Freud
What Happens If
Whipped Rainbow
Q*bert
Failure
Bring Out Your Dead
Dots
Art Scars
Next Step Projects
Chevron Expectrum
Talet Doesn’t Exist
Waiting For The Diamond
Flat Diamond
Seed Of Life
Developing Your Fist
Diamond Crystals
Hex Addict
Mandala Hex
Hex Appeal
Sashiko
Enemies of Flow
Radiating Diamonds
Antagonistic Complements
Faded Hex
More Enemies Of Flow
Working With Neutrals
Final Thoughts: Painting Heaven
Practical Considerations For Sharing Your Work
Templates
Thanks
Credits
Resources

More about: The New Color Mixing Companion Book
If you’ve been following my blog, you might know that I am just a beginner when it comes to painting, but I am eagerly learning, little by little, and thanks to resources like this, I can take my own time to do so.

As most painting books, this also has an introduction to color, using the color wheel and choosing colors that complement each other.

The author then proceeds to share studio supplies. And I have to say that I love her approach. She writes that her golden rule of studio supplies is “to start cheap”. So many authors stress the importance of supplies of professional quality, and although I agree that artist quality and student quality have a great difference; but it can be quite intimidating for a beginner to be told that the most expensive supplies are the way to go.

Following the general introduction about studio supplies, you will then find more specific information about each kind of materials the author uses in the projects presented in this book.

Acrylic Paints, collage paper and glue, watercolors, brushes, and palettes.

Before she starts sharing a wide variety of projects, the author writes about a very personal story about why she paints.

And finally, you’ll reach the starter projects!
A total of 17 starter projects, most of them extremely colorful, and a few monochrome projects as well. All of them designed for beginner artists to moderate skill levels required, but designed for beginners to start gaining new skills.

All of the projects list the skill level required (or suggested) to create the piece, the skills you will learn by following the instructions, materials needed, time to complete, and even the “mess level”.

From projects that will take 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, and a few labeled “who knows”. Certainly, there is plenty to choose from.

My favorite projects are the watercolor ones, and although I find all of the beautiful, there is something about the watercolors that just sparks my inspiration.

The “Next Step Projects” follows, and they require medium skills.
Some of these projects take longer to finish, from 60 minutes to 2-3 hours and more. One project indicates it could take a week to finish.

After all the projects you’ll find a set of templates. Line guides to trace or copy to create the projects presented in this book.

And finally, a small list of resources is presented.

Overall I really liked this book. As a beginner is nice to have guidelines or ideas to start painting and creating.

Although my goal is to someday paint directly from my own imagination, I find resources like these very valuable, as they help me with the practice I need to get started. By following the projects I am able to experimental techniques and new materials, but with a project in mind, allowing me to have a final piece of art to be proud of, and to keep a visual proof of my evolution and progress.

This is just a fantastically creative collection of cool projects. If you want a book that describes color theory simply and interestingly then I would highly recommended this read.

Thanks to #NetGalley, I had an advanced PDF to read and review.

*All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review. *

This was a fun book to read. I learned quite a bit about color mixing using many different mediums such as watercolors, paints, colored papers. I immediately got out my colored pencils and started playing with different combinations. As a crocheter and knitter this information given will really help me find great color combinations.

I am a fairly new person to the ideas of mixing colors but the information was given in straight forward language. I really like the idea of the "mother color" to base a project off of.

This book is all about colorful acrylic, collage and watercolor projects and having fun while learning how to mix colors in beautiful ways. It has a clear introduction to color theory and mixing techniques. I got specially interested about the “mother method” to achieve harmonious color shifts.

I appreciate the uplifting mood this book has. In between projects there are bits of information for artists: talent, failure, flow neuroscience and Lewis’ emotional and inspiring story about her art journey. The dash of humor and playfulness in each lesson matches the vibrant rainbow colors from the projects. My favorite one was “The Classic Schmear”.

I loved everything about this book, I just wished the “mother method” was further explained. There’s only a couple of lines explaining how to create it without process pictures and it can be confusing, specially for beginners. If you like rainbow colored projects and are ready to paint or cut repetitive shapes to create beautiful patterns, this is absolutely for you.