Harley Brown’s Eternal Truths for Every Artist

Phew, long title to spew out but in all honesty it has been one of the best book purchases I have ever made.

It has a wealth of information ranging from drawing to composition. I have learnt more from this one book than any of the other 6 other art books I have at my disposal. I cannot recommend it enough.

Speaking of recommending, my good friend Robin Morley recommended this book to me. I searched high and low for it but since it has been out of print for so long it took me a long while to find a new copy that wasn’t over priced.

Then as fate would have it I found it at a price I was willing to pay over at Alibris.com. Someone over at the Wetcanvas forums points to Dakota Art Pastels site where the book is readily available and it is only $24.99USD. Needless to say I had a sinking feeling as I could have bought it for much less. Ugg… After I received the book, though, that sinking feeling disappeared as the book is worth what I paid. Looks like it has been confirmed that Dakota Art Pastels no long have the book available for sale.

(Some of the points that have made the most impact to me were his statements that:

• “Accuracy is not a dirty word”. In other words, you have to plan the painting out first. Measure twice, then paint. As he says, “Painting becomes much, much easier, more fun, when you’re right on the money from the start, and because you’ll no longer be reworking, your paintings can become as spontaneous and vital [as it can be].”
• Value is the most important aspect of a painting. “When values are right, it doesn’t matter what the colour you put in!”
• Colour! I really like his approach to using the Munsell System for colour over the traditional colour wheel. I am going to have to try this and see what the results are. Basically the Munsell system has 5 primary colours, not just tree. Along with that, the colours change as it move toward the centre, changing chroma, depending where on the value scale the pigment is. Now, due to the 5 primary colours both complimentary and triad (discord colours as he calls them) colours change. Blue’s complimentary is no long orange, it is yellow-red. Reds is blue-green. The triad of blue is not yellow and red it is red-purple and green-yellow. The whole idea is that the Munsell system will improve your results over the traditional primary model. Test will tell.

Beyond those ideas I have listed the book is filled with a lot more great information no matter what your medium. His medium of choice in the book is pastel which makes it ideal for us pastelist!

Overall I cannot recommend this book enough. I hope you have my luck in finding it at a reasonable price!