Making Color Sing || Jeanne Dobie

It’s really only the typeface of this anniversary reissue of what ought to be a classic that suggests that the book is 25 years old, and even then, you’d probably need to have a bit of a design background to spot it.

Jeanne Dobie’s work makes heavy use of washes and granulation and remains as fresh to modern eyes as when it first appeared. The book is about using subtle colour and is characteristic of the New England school (I’m not sure what part of the US she comes from), which has a climate that promotes a style more like English than continental watercolours, and this has much to do with why the book has been so popular.

The emphasis throughout is on experimentation and discovery and is an absolute must for anyone wanting to paint classic landscapes.