Local Color: Seeing Place Through Watercolor (learn to create color palettes, with a guide to materials, preparation, and techniques; includes 14 practices, for beginners and experts) Paperback – April 21, 2015

A great book on color!

I’m learning about color in painting and have to say this is superb as a lesson planning tool. Teaches how to see color in a landscape but can be utilized elsewhere. Highly recommend!

Mimi Robinson has a special way of looking at the world, and I want more of it! This lovely book showcases her amazing ability to break any scene down into color - a must for any artist, but especially watercolorists. Her paintings are lovely and ethereal, and I find myself flipping through this book often for inspiration.

CAUTION: Do NOT purchase Kindle version; about 1/3 of pictures would not open in close-up view. I returned mine and bought the hard copy.Other reviews about lack of specific instructional information are correct - light weight in that department. However, it is a beautiful collection of color charts based on a procedure Ms. Robinson has outlined clearly in the book. As the friend who recommended the book said, "This is a book about SEEING", not painting." I am new at watercolor and find this book inspirational if not heavily instructive; the exercises are basically the same procedure repeated in different environments and with slightly different "takes". I am currently working through Betty Edwards' book on color (emphasis is acrylic but info on using color is great); she is giving me the depth of information and mechanics of color mixing, and this book is giving me application models and ideas for "just practicing". I will not be doing "plein aire" painting for some time, but can use this with good photos or bring in small articles from nature and "get the message".

Am enjoying using this book as a guide to a better understanding of color. Love doing the grids and experimenting with watercolor pencils as well as pan watercolors, layering them and mixing the twotogether.

Sometimes it's daunting to paint a landscape...it's a bit overwhelming to even begin...but in this book, you will see each piece of the puzzle by color, value and tone...the very subtle blues of a sky, the various shades available through mixing your own of greens, the earth tones of a desert or the blues, greens and grays of lakes and oceans....I own this as a book and on my KIndle, so I have reference and inspiration with me...a must for watercolor artists of all levels.

Also think book is lovely to look at, but missed being valuable to me because of the lack of information of the PIGMENTS she uses in her palette, and mixes. She suggests using Winsor Newton, or Sennelier as good paints, well, I use mostly Daniel Smith. We all know the names of colors are not enough information and this designer/author could have made bit of extra effort to IDENTIFY all those beautiful colors, and mixes with PIGMENT NUMBERS. As the book is, it's like Sara Midda ( and I do LOVE Sara's watercolors) with larger pictures.I'm disappointed, but not enough to give it two stars, more like two and one half.

After a beach walk on the pacific side of Panama, and some shell collecting, I was inspired to do a color palette and pull all of the tropical color out of the shells. I saw hues of fuchsia, pinks, grey and bright oranges and purples...I was curious by how the shell got their colors and learned that the species that live inside of them created the color based on the minerals in the sea. I was able to drop in and examine color values and shades, and experience the uniqueness of each shell

This is a book for those that love subtle variations and a different way to keep a memory of a special place. I really enjoy this book, it is softly beautiful.

Very useful concepts

Lindo livro.

Een prachtig boek met inspiratie om door kleur naar je (natuurlijke) omgeving te kijken, zowel thuis als op reis.(Jammer genoeg liet de kaft al na een paar dagen los. Voor mij geen ramp, maar evengoed jammer).

Die Idee der "Local Colors" finde ich super, lassen sich leicht umsetzen und regen die Kreativität an. Ich kann mit dem Prinzip der Local Colors prima Fotos mit aquarellierten Colorcharts verbinden.Was in dem Buch jedoch komplett zu kurz kommt, ist das "Wie". Es sind eigentlich fast nur Bilder der Künstler, Seite für Seite, es fehlen aber konkrete Anleitungen. Die Idee, das Buch hätte Potenzial, wenn es nicht eher wie ein "Portfolio" der Künstlerin anmuten ließe und stattdessen den Leser konkret anleiten würde: wie erreiche ich Mischungen analog zu den Fotos, wie gehe ich vor, was brauche ich dazu usw. Schade.