Thank you to NetGalley and Familius for providing a review copy of this book.

“Influenced by her classical art training, designer and artist Kimberly Collins Jermain makes color theory simple and understandable for the everyday reader

Color is one of Mother Nature’s most elegant ideas and the most powerful visual tool to inspire human response. After teaching classical art and color theory for over 35 years, Kimberly Collins Jermain believes the visual skills we need to create art and to design interior spaces can be seen and understood best right outside your back door. Nature of Color is a field guide for exploring color theory on hikes, beach walks, while gardening, or when exercising outdoors. Jermain’s simple approach to color theory will train your perceptions and give you the tools you need to solve everyday problems and create with color confidence. Unlike most color theory texts, Nature of Color is an active practice of outdoor adventure. As you joyfully explore and experience color outdoors with Nature of Color, you will understand the importance of keeping nature’s exquisite lessons in mind as we navigate and share our natural world.”

“…there is both art and science involved in creating an illusion. One day’s work painting on location may be blissful inspiration and reverie. Another may be a deliberate scientific endeavour to visually capture the mechanisms of a temperature inversion on canvas. My goal in creating this field guide is to help you integrate both approaches.”

Nature of Color Your Field Guide for Exploring Color in the Natural World by Kimberly Collins Jermain is useful for people who already have a regular painting practice but want to explore colour within the context of nature. Complete beginners can also use this book to start exploring colour in nature with the included exercises.

The book contains a list of basic supplies, and can be used as a field guide as you go outdoors on hikes. There are also practical tips on planning for weather and the different types of gear and clothing you might need to be comfortable while hiking.

If you are new to hiking in nature, the book also contains tips on how to embark on nature walks and how to search for interesting examples of colour.

The exercises following each chapter made me excited to get outdoors with my art supplies! 

Exercise topics include:

• Calibrating your colour vision baseline
• Colour expectations
• Seeing local colour, and colour context.
• Pastel studies on the trail
• Color perspective
• Making a colour dial
• Using all the senses

My favourite exercise was the chapter on ‘color expectations’. I went to the hardware store and chose several paint chips that made me think of colours in the New Zealand bush. I took them to our local bird sanctuary and was surprised to discover how my expectations of colour differed from the colours actually seen in nature. This excercise made me think about colour in interesting and new ways, and you can see the results in this video: Finding Colour in Nature, New Sticker Sheets, Oil Painting Update! | Studio Vlog

I found the discussion of how humans perceive colour extremely interesting and the scientific concepts in each chapter were clearly explained. For instance, I was fascinated to learn that when we have trouble differentiating colours and all we can see is gray, that means we are tired and our eyes need a rest. The cones and rods in our eyes will work better if we look away from our subject for a little bit, before continuing. I also enjoyed learning about how colour changes depending on lighting.

I have the advanced reader copy in ebook format, which means that the final printed edition may differ slightly from my copy. However, it looks like the print version has space for you to record your findings and also extra blank pages for notes. It is intended that you will take this book with you out into nature. “…Nature of Color provides a place to paint what you see with a color medium or to take notes on what you found fascinating.”

I have already been using the lessons I’ve learned from this book in my daily art practice. I am getting out and about in nature more often, while actively observing and recording my colour findings in nature!

I would definitely take along a print edition of this book with me on hikes and bush walks. It is packed with practical information. I would be very keen to read a second volume with more in depth information and exercises!

“A hilarious celebration of cats in artwork from medieval times.

Look what the cat dragged in from the Middle Ages—a curious compendium of cats unlike any you’ve ever lapped up before.

For more than a millennium, a myriad of medieval manuscripts and artworks painted a picture of cats as playful and curious but also lazy, selfish, and vicious. Today, these masterpieces live on, shining a bright light on the dark age of cats and telling a hilarious story of their paw-some glory. From bum-licking to cat-fighting to mouse-tricking, Medieval Cats is a hilarious celebration of cats who are up to no good.

Learn cat facts from the Middle Ages and the origins of cat proverbs, and discover poems and excerpts from literature that mention cats. Both humor book and peek into medieval art, Medieval Cats is for cat lovers—and haters—everywhere!”

I discovered Medieval Cats Paws Claws and Kitties of Yore, in the Arts & Photography section in Netgalley. Unfortunately I did not notice that it had been also filed under Humor & Satire. My expectations for a lovely book about depictions of cats in medieval art and literature were dashed. It seems that Medieval Cats is just a coffee table satire book filled with lots of art, but very little useful information.

The author of the book, Professor Catherine Nappington (Cat…Nap?) is purported to teach felineology at the University of Maine. However, I was unable to find any information on the university’s website about this professor, and no results for the subject of ‘felineology’.

Once I got over my disappointment, I started the book in the hopes that I could still learn a little bit about cats in Medieval art and literature.

Medieval Cats Paws Claws and Kitties of Yore is filled with lots of interesting examples of cat illustrations in medieval manuscripts, and snippets from medieval literature. Each piece of art or text has the reference right underneath. This is helpful if you want to go looking for more information.

On the other hand, at least in my copy which is an advance reader copy and therefore possibly not complete, there is no index or bibliography. It is hard to tell if the book is supposed to include an index or bibliography, as my copy stops rather abruptly at page 208.

I found the format of the book confusing, and it would have been nice if the examples were organised chronologically. As it is, the dates of the examples within each chapter jump all over the place. The chapters themselves are named in a joking faux-medieval style, for instance: “The Catt Satteth upon the Matteth”. While humorous, these titles have nothing to do with the chapter contents.

The reddit-style captions underneath each illustration are also amusing, but that made me ask: why wouldn’t I just go straight to /r/MedievalCats for almost the exact same experience?

In fact the whole of Medieval Cats by Catherine Nappington reads like someone scraped /r/Medieval Cats for the best art examples and then compiled these into a book with some added snippets of literature from the period. Having realised this, I found it difficult to enjoy the remainder of this volume.

I would suggest picking up Medieval Cats by Catherine Nappington if you just want to look at amusing pictures of cats in Medieval art, or would like to have a fun coffee table book available for visitors to peruse while you are making the coffee.

Or, you could just go straight to Reddit…

Synopsis:

“An essential guide for a new generation of artists to learn professional-level art skills—no student loan required!

Now a successful artist, illustrator, and YouTube star, Marco Bucci once thought you had to be born with art talent and go to an expensive art school to have a career in art. Unfortunately, he couldn’t draw and didn’t get into art school, but he heard that drawing was something you could learn anyway, so he set off on a self-guided journey of becoming an artist. In Debt-Free Art Degree: Foundations in Drawing, Marco shares what he learned to help you become a successful artist without experiencing the same false starts and setbacks he did.”

Book Review:

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book.

Are you looking for a book with clear and straight-forward instructions on how to thoughtfully improve your art practice?

Marco Bucci’s Debt-Free Art Degree: Foundations in Drawing. The Affordable way to Learn Professional Skills is filled with step-by-step examples and common-sense advice on topics such as:

• designing shapes
• gesture drawing
• perspective
• color theory
• light and shadow

The writing style is clear and easy to understand. Each topic is explained in a way that enables new artists to learn foundational skills, and more experienced artists to fill in gaps in their existing knowledge.

Every chapter is well laid out, with clear examples, great explanations of each topic, and how to incorporate that knowledge into your work.

QR codes are sprinkled throughout each chapter with links to video demos of the topics discussed. The videos were very helpful as I worked my way through the book. It is always beneficial seeing an artist demonstrate how they construct a drawing after reading about the theory and methods!

At the end of each chapter the reader will find assignments that build on the topic discussed. Each mini assignment includes a helpful tip or two to get you started and encourages you to explore the subject in greater detail.

The emphasis is on producing finished studies, rather than finished artworks. The reader is expected to learn and absorb the information slowly, returning to the book over time. In re-visiting and re-absorbing more of the information presented, they will see how they can further extend their knowledge and level up their skills.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters on perspective and colour theory. These are both topics that I have found challenging. The examples and diagrams explain very clearly how to apply what you are learning to your own art. The accompanying assignments at the end of these chapters were also very helpful for me!

Applying what I learned in the chapter on perspective to my own drawing:

‘Moving through the greys’ – studying temperature shifts in colour from one of my Zealandia photos:

I have been constantly applying the lessons I learned from Debt-Free Art Degree: Foundations in Drawing to my own art practice since finishing the book. I will purchase this book for myself and refer back to it again and again in the future as I keep learning and improving in my daily art practice.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting a straight-forward instructional guide on the fundamentals of art, with sensible advice on how to study the fundamentals separately, and then apply them to your art. Once you are comfortable with the fundamentals, you put them all together and your brain becomes a “hotel for art”!

RIP My Twitter
This week I made the decision to stop posting on Twitter and delete all my tweets. I have not enjoyed my time there for a while and since they announced that any content would be sucked into their AI for training after November 15th, I decided that it would be a good time for me to finally leave!

My Twitter profile is still up with links to my website, but everything else is gone. I did request my data and download the archive of my tweets, so it is possible that I could host that somewhere in the future.

I am currently posting on Bluesky, but am still finding my feet there.

To be honest, I am still finding my feet here too. I am not sure what to post on my new blog and when to make posts. I think I will be sharing mostly little update posts, and maybe the occasional book review!

This Month’s Supporter Rewards and Art Markets
I have been working hard this month to get all of the supporter rewards finished early to give me time to prepare for the art markets.

Speaking of which, I got into a December art market! More to follow, as I just received the acceptance email this morning – but I am excited to be doing a Christmas market again in December!

My Desk This Week
I have been have fun making watercolour sketchbooks, especially tiny little accordion books from offcuts! I’ve also started prototyping leather covers for my sketchbooks. Here is a photo of my desk from after a stream this week:

Currently Reading
Debt-Free Art Degree Foundations in Drawing. The Affordable Way to Learn Professional Skills by Marco Bucci.
This is a very good foundational book, and I have enjoyed the first few chapters! I am going to post a book review when I finish the book, but already I can tell I would recommend it!

That’s all for today, I’ll be back again soon!

I hope you are all having a great weekend! It is a long weekend here so I took yesterday off. Today I am working on the website and tidying things up a bit!

Next week’s stream schedule will be a bit different, with no stream on Monday due to the public holiday. Here is the stream schedule!

Monday: NO STREAM

Tuesday: 1pm – 4pm NZST – oil painting

Wednesday: 7.30pm – 9.30pm NZST – making sketchbooks

Thursday: 1pm – 4pm NZST – Wizard of Oz watercolours

I’ve also been having a fun time experimenting with sublimation printing and you can see more of that in this week’s vlog!

I plan to spend the rest of the long weekend working on art and cleaning up my workspace, then it’s on to planning and preparing for the next lot of markets in November!

It’s been a long while since I’ve had a blog, but I am looking forward to getting back into blogging and sharing small snippets and random updates that don’t fit anywhere else!

No algorithms, no schedule and no pressure.

This is going to be my cozy little home on the web, I hope you enjoy your time here!