Name: How to See Color and Paint It
ISBN: 9780823024681

What Hacker News says

odessacubbageFeb 2022

honestly? just start drawing from life every single day. then do some referenced imaginative drawing, e.g; redraw the subject of your life drawings from a few different angles/with different simple lighting setups from your head, try to replicate the rendering style of an artist or painting that you like. supplement this study with ONE anatomy resource and ONE perspective resource and maybe one dynamic drawing resource [scott robertson's how to draw, peter han drawing courses] if you are going to invest money into anything, maybe buy a nice plaster cast, an ecorche figure and a simple lighting setup. try to find figure drawing sessions in your area that you can attend. as you become comfortable with drawing simple indoor subjects, start doing some plein air studies as well.

imo pretty much all the anatomy and perspective books are more or less equal, they are all using different methods to get to the same place, so just look at some pictures and choose the style that makes the most sense to you. personally i like zarins and was very impressed by scott eaton's courses. the most important thing is to simply draw as much as possible even if your output is utter garbage [and no matter how devastating producing garbage is to your ego], no book and no amount of money can do that part for you. similar to language acquisition, the most effective way to build drawing skills in a short amount of time is through pure immersion; turning drawing, like speaking into a natural extension of your everyday life. find ways to incorporate your life into drawing and you will get good.

with that said, these are the resources that helped me out the most in the beginning, plus a few that i wish i had read much earlier

http://www.huevaluechroma.com

https://imgur.com/gallery/Wia19

Alla Prima: Everything I Know about Painting by Richard Schmid

Graphic LA by Robh Ruppel

How to See Color and Paint It by Arthur Stern

Rendering in pen and ink by Arthur Leighton Guptill

https://www.heavypaint.com

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zedshawJun 2017

How to See Color and Paint It -- It taught me how to see color and paint it. Also how to use a palette knife which makes my paintings very different and fun.

Remembrance of Things Past -- I'm still reading this, as it's a massive stream of consciousness book, but I wish I'd started it when I was younger so that I'd be done with it by now. It's just so weird to read it and experience the writing that I enjoy it for simply being different. As you read it just remember that every ; is really a . and every . is really \n\n.

Van Gogh: The Life -- I absolutely hate the authors. They're great at research, but I feel they had a vendetta against Van Gogh of some kind. Throughout the book, at times when Van Gogh should be praised for an invention, they make him seem like a clueless dork. Ironically, their attempt to portray him as a dork who deserves his treatment ends up demonstrating more concretely how terrible his life was because he was different. I think if this book were around when I was younger I might have become an artist instead of a programmer.

A Confederacy of Dunces -- Absolutely brilliant book, and probably one of the greatest examples of comedic writing there is. It's also nearly impossible to explain to people except to say it's the greatest example of "and then hilarity ensues".

Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar -- After a terrible guitar teacher damaged my left thumb I thought I'd never play guitar again. I found this book and was able to use it to learn to retrain how my left hand works and finally get back to playing. Mickey Baker's album also brought me to the Bass VI, which got me thinking I could build one, and then I did and now I've built 6 guitars. I play really weird because of this book and I love it. This book also inspired how I wrote my own books teaching programming and without it I'd still be a cube drone writing Python code for assholes. If I'd found this book when I was younger it most likely would have changed my life then too.

Reflections on A Pond -- It's just a book of this guy painting the same scene 365 times, one for each "day of the year" even though it took him many years to do it. All tiny little 6x8 impressions of the same scene. I learned so much about how little paint you need to do so much, and it's also impressive he was able to do it. I can't really think about anything I've done repetitively for every day of a year. I've attempted the same idea with self-portraits but the best I could do was about 3 month's worth before I went insane and started hating my own face.

Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting -- Instructionally this book isn't as good as How To See Color, but as a reference guide it is about the most thorough book on painting there is. It's so huge it's almost impossible to absorb all of it in one reading, so I've read it maybe 5 times over the years.

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knopkopJun 2017

> How to See Color and Paint It

Ordered a copy, thanks!

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zedshawDec 2014

These actually took me most of 2013 and 2014 to get through:

How To See Color And Paint It - http://www.amazon.com/How-Color-Paint-Arthur-Stern/dp/082302... Taught me how to paint what I see accurately.

Secret Knowledge - http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Knowledge-New-Expanded-Rediscov... Taught me that painters have been using projection for hundreds of years so I'm allowed to use any technology I can get my hands on to make art.

Van Gogh: The Life -- http://www.amazon.com/Van-Gogh-Life-Steven-Naifeh/dp/0375758... Hated this book because the authors (two obnoxious lawyers who happen to be good at research) write about him with zero compassion like he deserved the abuse he received for being different. However, Van Gogh's story is fantastic and inspiring even if it is very tragic.

There's a whole ton of others, but those stand out.

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JachMar 2019

I've been referred to "How to See Color and Paint It" by a self-taught painter: https://www.amazon.com/How-Color-Paint-Arthur-Stern/dp/16265...

I haven't made the time to get into it myself yet, though.

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