Colour - A Practical Approach - Part 1

My new book Colour - A Practical Approach  has been published. When you click on the link you will be able to see a preview. It’s the culmination of a year’s work. The idea originated from a request from one of my Studio classes for more intensive colour studies, particularly on mixing colour. 

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I began by making notes; collating information that had been used during colour workshops held over the last few years. These notes took shape and became quite extensive. When I realised that text with no illustrations would not be very effective, it was a logical decision to write a book instead.

Previously, I had taken an online course, By Design, with the artist and teacher, Roz Stendhal. The course covered the fundamentals of page layout and design for working with both handmade and digital pages so I was ready to try writing my book.

At the time I had a brief foray into working with Adobe’s InDesign. It soon proved to be a stretch to learn the programme since I wasn’t working with it regularly enough. Then I discovered that Blurb, a self-publishing company with a very good reputation, offer Bookwright software obtainable as a free download. It was the solution to my problems. The software is easy to use, offers hints and tips like - the resolution of this image is too low - reduce the size or replace. There are numerous set formats to use. alternatively one can self-design each page. 

There are a number of different kinds of books - Photo books, Trade Books and Magazines, each with a different focus and  price point. After watching a webinar on the Trade Book it was the best option for me. It would provide the best format, 8” x 10” and could be printed at an affordable cost. In addition, and Ebook could be published using the same format text and illustrations and easy and good value option for anyone anywhere in the world. 

I was excited to see how the book would look, to check the paper quality and the colour accuracy of the photographs so I ordered a single copy. Once I had the book in my hands, I realised that there needed to be more - more detailed information, more chapters, and more colour exercises. There were also a few layout issues with the Ebook which needed to be corrected. 

So it was back to the writing desk. 

Fast forward a year after the first draft, the new, updated extend, and largely re-written book has been published. 

Colour - A Practical Approach is available from Blurb in the following options - Soft cover, Hard cover and Ebook. 

More details to come in Part 2.