Review: Color and Light by James Gurney

I hate being sick. Some artists can draw and paint whilst little microscopic lifeforms devour their bodies, but I can't. It's too damned distracting. I just can't concentrate and I always make horrible color and light choices. So I looked around for a good book to read while I coughed and hacked and I cracked open my copy of Color and Light.

I know, I know, what was I waiting for? To be honest, I was afraid to find out how little I knew. I was afraid I wouldn't understand anything in the book. Well it turns out I know more than I thought and with Mr. Gurney's excellent explanations, I actually understood even the most complex principles in the book.

Mr. Gurney provides the best art instruction anyone will ever get in this book. He nails down everything an artist needs to know, from atmospheric perspective to what oil paints are lightfast. He instructs us on how to organize and harmonize our colors and gives us very simple ways to do it.

This book is far undervalued. For the meager price you get the best of a first-class art school. In fact, you get many concepts and tips that some art schools don't even provide. At the very least, you get the best artwork of James Gurney (Dinotopia) on every page; most of it never-before-seen landscapes that will blow your mind.

This book will not teach you how to draw. It's not that kind of book. This is an essential guide to illustrators and painters already working in the field or just knocking on the door of becoming professionals. The information in Color and Light will fill in the cracks of your artistic knowledge. Art-spackle for your flaws.