Editorial Reviews

Let go of what you see, and paint what you feel! Brilliant Color reveals a new way of thinking about color, empowering you to push the envelope beyond ordinary realism into bold landscapes full of life and energy.

The transformation begins by learning to see color as value. Starting with short demos featuring diagrams, color wheels and side-by-side visual comparisons, award-winning artist Julie Gilbert Pollard shows you how to liberate your use of color to capture the lively essence of every landscape. It's not about complex color theory or painstaking attempts to paint exactly what you see. Rather, it's about pushing color to warmer or cooler extremes for stronger contrasts.

Julie's signature style blends acrylic underpainting with water-mixable oils to produce striking luminosity in less time and fewer layers than traditional oil painting techniques. Ten complete step-by-step demonstrations show you how to paint gorgeous landscapes with an inspiring range of settings and seasons.

Each in-depth demonstration features foolproof color mixing charts, reference photos, initial sketches, and numbered steps with detailed captions. Simply follow along and give it a try. In no time, you'll have what it takes to make your colors zing and your paintings glow.

Customer Reviews

Colors, 2009-05-17
by D. Jenkins (Clarksville, IN USA)

I thought it to be interesting and very colorful. The book shows how to change colors in a landscape by values. The paintings are beautiful.

Brilliant Artist Write a Book!, 2009-05-07
by K. Ulrich

Congratulations to Julie for creating an understandable, beautifully illustrated book.

I can tell you I am not surprised, as many years ago, I was one of her students. (No, that doesn't mean I'll give her a great review.) She really was an excellent teacher.

Follow this book and you may obtain lovely results!

A Gift to Us Artists Who Want to Amp-up Our Color, 2009-04-24
by William Polm (Southern California, USA)

This book would be worth the price if all you did was look at the gorgeous paintings and their beautiful colors. But the artist/writer of course does more. She explains her methods in detail, then provides 10 detailed demonstrations, specifying the pigments she used for each and also providing narrative on her color thinking.

To me, color is the adult sport in art. It's the challenge that awaits you once you gain some skill at drawing, and some understanding of compositional design as well as skill with your medium. Do yourself an artistic favor, and get this book and study these potent color strategies.

Highly recommended.

The one book I've been looking for, 2009-03-16
by B. DRAKE (Huntsville, AL)

I discovered Ms. Pollard's Brilliant Color this weekend and have been in heaven reading it.

Finally, an art book that explains the concepts of pushing color based on value. I'm a self-taught hobbyist and have been oil painting for 4 years. I've taken a couple of classes and have purchased alot of books. But something was lacking. I couldn't paint the way I wanted to. Ms. Pollard's book closes the gap for me.

I now have the knowledge to paint boldly colorful landscapes using the colors I want. I was stuck trying to recreate colors of my subject. Her demonstrations are paramount.

Ms. Pollard's work makes me stop in my shoes and just say "Wow!". For me, this is what art is all about. I would love it if she would release video productions of her process.