Working with Color

I’m so proud that Quarto Books asked me to write The Urban Sketching Handbook: Working with Color, the fifth volume in their respected Urban Sketching Handbook series!

It was a lot of fun to write and to choose sketches from my own archives and from artists I admire from around the world.

I know that, for a variety of reasons, many people can’t attend my workshops. While a book will never replace the live experience, I did try to cram this one with enough tips, techniques, illustrations and examples — especially as they apply to seeing and using colour on location — that you’ll get a good sense of how I work and what I teach.

Express yourself!

Individual expression pretty much sums up my biggest and most important lesson. And I believe in expressing your individuality and creativity through colour. My book covers colour-water ratio, how to achieve bold colour, avoiding muddy washes, painting in layers, and using wet-in-wet techniques.

You’ll also find my personal take on:

Supplies and materials
Sample colour palettes
Color mixing
Using limited palettes
Monochrome sketching
The power of complementary colours
And, of course, using evocative, expressive and individual colour

It’s a guidebook, reference manual and how-to. So I hope you’ll keep your copy handy and that it helps you gain confidence as your practice, practice, practice!

What People Are Saying

“I was excited to see that she shares a great deal about her green mixes, shadow mixes, neutrals, etc. I am a landscape painter living in a tropical setting, so tackling those walls of green have been a challenge and I can’t wait to experiment with some of these new mixes.”
Catherine Moore

“A vibrant collection of painter’s wisdom, served up with colorful artwork and friendly and encouraging captions.”
James Gurney

“Spoiler alert: It’s worth reading. Blaukopf is a master of color, period. Whatever your chosen medium, her color principles and practices will apply. You don’t need a degree in color theory to understand these principles – you just need Blaukopf to explain them simply and succinctly (with a heavy dose of excellent sketch examples so that you can see what you are reading).”
Tina Koyama