Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits

A great book and guide to color mixing!! I found it to be very helpful and detailed in laying out color formats. Super great read and perfect for any artists out there!

*Thanks Netgalley and Walter Foster Publishing for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

One of the titles of the Color Mixing Recipes series and will be so useful for any artist wanting to paint portraits. Skin tones can be so hard to paint accurately. I like how instructions are also provided on how you can further tweak a color for more accuracy.

I tried one of the recipes and was pleasantly surprised how well it turned out. I am looking forward to owning at least one of the titles in this series.

This is a concise, practical guide to color mixing for portraits. It is very practical and if you are looking for technical and straightforward booklet that is a good resource without being overwhelming. It has details of paintings to show the colors in context (eye iris, swatch of hair), but I would have loved to see some full images to see all the color mixes working together in context.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Very useful book for portrait painters. Painting human skin realistically is very difficult, but this volume makes it a lot easier. It contains basic mixes for skintones, color theory notices on how to lighten, darken or grey a color., explanation on facial planes and the corresponding values and colors. The different parts of the face are treated as well with their caracteristics (cool or warm).. For skintones, eyes and hair there come parts with many mixes.
You select a color palette from the book, create the master color using the recipe that belongs to it and modify it to obtain the exact color you need.. Not only for oil and acrylic, there is a section for watercolor painting too, where intensity is regulated through water amount.

This book is a great tool for artists. Its focus is skin tones, but it also introduces colour theory, great illustrations for those with a prominent visual learning style. The instructions of how to achieve the colour mixes are clear and concise, and there are many examples that help visualize the instructions. Very helpful, I'd definitely love to have a physical copy when it's available.

I didn't realize at the time of requesting this that this is the same author of the 1500 color mixing recipe book I already own. This volume specifically features recipes for skin, hair and eyes.
This book is like my art bible and one of the books I use almost every time I want to adjust or browse for other options for a portrait. You will use the grid less and less and mixing colors will become second nature the more often you do it. I still find any of the authors books highly valuable, especially if you're just starting out and getting the hang of things.

I can highly recommend this for any artist.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Every artist should have at least one color mixing book. I have three of William Powell’s color mixing books. His are all very useful and I like his color mixing chart to measure out your paints. I have a print copy and electronic copy of 1500 color recipes. Some of the color swatches are different when you compare the book to the electronic version.

I would recommend 1500 color mixing recipes over the one for portraits and the one that is just oil and acrylic. The reason is there is so much more information in 1500. Not just the watercolor recipes, 1500 includes landscape recipes. I was surprised to find that it included all of the information from the portrait color mixing book.

I highly recommend William Powell’s 1500 color mixing recipes for oil, acrylic, and watercolor.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Good color combinations! Would be very useful for portraits