Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor: Mixing recipes for more than 400 color combinations

by William F. Powell

'The perfect guide for any aspiring watercolorist, this book includes more than 400 paint recipes, each revealing the color proportions and dilution level needed to achieve the featured swatch. Artists also will discover helpful tips about altering values, graying with complements, and creating portrait colors. A color mixing grid makes measuring simple, and the concealed wire-o bound book lies flat when opened for convenience.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

48 pages, Spiral-bound

First published December 1, 2007

About the author

William F. Powell is an internationally recognized artist recognized as one of America's foremost colorists. He has written and illustrated more than 30 instructional art books.

Reviews

[Westveil Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was granted complimentary eARC access to Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor through the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

For relevance: I am a self-taught illustrator who favours watercolour.

This book starts out with mixing techniques and colour theory, both very necessary before diving into the mixing recipes, and these pages are very informative. I feel compelled to note, however, that the section on warm and cool colours only discusses surface level "red is warm, blue is cool" theory and doesn't dive into the nuances of warm and cool tones among the primaries. (For example, most watercolour artists will agree that ultramarine is a warm blue and alizarin crimson is a cool red.) It also doesn't make any attempts to use the CMYK primaries system, which though not popular in watercolour is still quite possible.

From there the book dives right into the colour recipes. Recipe pages are laid out with a "colours used" key at the top followed by a grid of larger swatch squares of possible colour mixes labelled with the percentage of starting colours and the water dilution level. After many pages of these mixing grids, the book progresses into a tutorial on colours for portraiture and then ends on a glossary of colour names.

I very much appreciate the focus on mixing for portraiture! Most affordably priced watercolours and starting sets do not include convenience shades for this sort of work, so learning to mix skin tones is vital, and something I've struggled with before. This is a great resource for artists looking to learn colour mixing in general, artists looking to learn or improve mixing skills with watercolour, and artists familiar with watercolour but needing more instruction for portraits.

[Mechthild · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make many watercolors out of a few
William F. Powell was an internationally recognized artist and colorist. His book "Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor. Mixing recipes for more than 450 color combinations" published by Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster was published for the first time in 2007. Powell presents four simple steps to mix more than 450 color combinations. He touches Color Theory, Color Recipes, Value Recipes, Intensity Recipes, and Portrait Colors. Furthermore, the book contains a detailed color index. The recipes in the different sections include very many samples.
The book is presented with a great design and helpful illustrations. It includes the paint colors which are needed in order that artists can repeat the exercises of mixing the various colors. There is also a reusable color mixing grid for watercolor included at the end of the book (it would be helpful if this grid could also be downloaded so that artists can print it on watercolor paper for easier usage). I recommend the book for beginning, intermediate, and advanced artists, may they be watercolor or mixed media artists, mainly for those who want to learn and improve their watercolor mixing skills and especially also for those who want to learn or improve their skills in mixing skin tones.
It is important to note that it seems that this book is a part of William F. Powell's book "1,500 Color Mixing Recipes for Oil, Acrylic & Watercolor."
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#ColorMixingRecipesForWatercolor #NetGalley

[Angelina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this complimentary eARC of Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest. For reference: I got into watercolor during the pandemic so I consider myself a beginner..

This book starts out with mixing techniques and color theory, a needed foundation before diving into the mixing recipes, and these pages are very informative. I wish the section on warm and cool colors got into the nuances of warm and cool primary colors (Ultramarine being a warm blue and Alizarian Crimson being a cool red!)

Then we get right into the color and intensity recipes. Recipe pages are laid out with a "colors used" key at the top followed by a grid of larger swatch squares of possible color mixes labelled with the percentage of starting colors and the water dilution level.

Finally, the book dives into a tutorial of colors for portraits. I appreciated the focus on mixing for portraiture! Most affordable watercolors and starter sets do not include convenience shades for this sort of work, so learning to mix skin tones is vital, and something I'm struggling with. Big props on covering light to dark skin tones. Dark skin tones can be tricky to get right. This is a great resource for intermediate - advanced artists looking to learn color mixing in general or improve mixing skills with watercolor.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor is a tutorial guide with recipes for palette mixing by William F. Powell. Originally released in 2007 this reformat and re-release is due out 22nd June 2021 from Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint. It's 48 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is a no-nonsense bare bones mixing guide for watercolor media. The mixing diagrams are specific and useful. The charts are arranged according to color and contain specific values and ranges for 450 colors from 28 base colors (Burnt sienna, Burnt umber, Cadmium orange, Cadmium red light, Cadmium yellow, etc).

The author has also included a short tutorial on watercolor mixing specifically for portraiture with a good overview over values and tones for skin colors across a wide range of skins.The book also includes a short tutorial about color theory.

This is a very short book but very useful. It would make a good reference for maker's spaces, studios, library acquisition, or the home studio.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Witch-at-Heart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a treasure trove of information on color mixing for watercolor painting. I feel it would make a fantastic gift for any student or art lover.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very nice companion for a watercolour painter. Good combinations for colour and doing portraits. good reference

[Elizabeth Grieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good resource for the artist but would benefit from some updating with regard to colour alternatives from different brands, as different brands of paint have different names and formulations.