Color and light
by James Gurney · first published 2010
12mentions
8recommended by
9HN commenters
2011–2025first – last mentioned
89% recommend11% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A strong, observation-focused guide to color and lighting for realist painters, serving as a standard reference from first purchase through advanced work.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…tricks have been around for a while. I can recommend the Andrew Loomis classic from the 1930s-40s, Creative Illustration. It's full of all kinds of filtering tricks. For a more modern book, James Gurney's Color and Light and Imaginative Realism are both quite good. You can also pick up a copy of one of his Dinotopia books, it won't help designing graphics, but, hey, dinosaurs. Right? (He also has an excellent website:…
on “Pixel-fitting – how antialiasing can ruin your logos and icons” ↗…often - seems unnatural as shadows are generally cooler. http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm - this link touches a bit on color theory from a digital-painting standpoint, though it's pretty applicable. Color and Light for the Realist Painter by James Gurney is also a good book that has some info about creating unified palettes.
on “Basic colour theory for programmers” ↗…spatial structure, you have to make multiple attempts. You should enjoy looking at things, in the same way that a writer enjoys reading. Color is a freaky beast, you should probably get a copy of the book Color and Light by James Gurney if you want to understand how to make color work for you.
on “Ask HN: How Do I Become as Proficient with Art as I Am with Computing?” ↗…claiming it is high-art, or facing ridicule as uneducated rubes. I believe most of the time this actually means "has some market value". For a reference from a painter's perspective, James Gurney's "Color and light - a guide for the realist painter" is probably the current standard.
on “What Artists Notice” ↗Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney is a good book on color theory. Strong emphasis on learning to observe color and lighting effects observationally.
on “Books For Learning to Design, The Hard Way” ↗…stroke that gives the illusion of details,...). Again, this falls under the things that are easy to explain, but take a while to be able to observe it and longer to reproduce it. There's a book called "Color and Light" by James Gurney that goes in depth about all of these. There's a lot of parameters that goes inside a brush stroke in a specific area of a painting.
on “The new skill in AI is not prompting, it's context engineering” ↗…and Invention, Michael Hampton: The author also post on Youtube - How to Render, Scott Robenson, Thomas Bertling - How To Draw, Scott Robenson, Thomas Bertling - Imaginative Realism, James Gurney - Color and Light, James Gurney - The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression, Gary Faigin - Classic Human Anatomy, Valerie Winslow - Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life And a few others - Anatomy…
on “Ask HN: Best books on various topics of drawing, art and animation?” ↗…think you’ll still want to refer to no matter how far you take your skill, rather than books aimed at beginners: books designed as reference books and aimed at artists are ideal. First book I bought was ‘Color and Light’ by James Gurney. Also, buy the book Art & Fear if you don’t own it already. At first, this is all about fear of failure. One of the main differences in the way children learn to adults is that children…
on “Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?” ↗…Strength: Basic Barbell Training by Mark Rippetoe. This is the book that got me into powerlifting as a regular part of my fitness. I used this to heal my back, neck, and wrist pain. Changed my life. - Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney. The GOAT of plein air painting himself teaches so much about how light works on complex forms. I've dog-eared this book. - Reinventing Organizations…
on “Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?” ↗…subject. In art I've had to go through a lot of resources and piece information bits from everywhere. Basically what dharmon said, and checking some of the most recommended books, like any Loomis, Gurney's Color and Light, ... Instead of Marco Bucci who's very popular on Youtube nowadays I got started with Feng Zhu, so definitely look out for different formats that would suit you best.
on “Painting from Primitives (2017)” ↗…on bright" (watercolors) or "bright on dark" (soft pastel) the way to go? Can I dilute and perform washes (watercolor), or will the medium break down (acrylic). I can only recommend James Guerney's "Color and Light" book to get impressions. Then again, if you do digital art to scren, or if you are printing things from a computer, you need to anticipate how the devices render your colors. This is where color spaces…
on “Color Wheels Are Wrong (2011)” ↗…people draw lines?." ACM SIGGRAPH 2008 papers. 2008. 1-11. I made a stab at summarizing their wisdoms here: https://rmit.instructure.com/courses/87565/pages/drawing-lin... > There's a book called "Color and Light" by James Gurney that goes in depth about all of these. There's a lot of parameters that goes inside a brush stroke in a specific area of a painting. Looking at it now. Any writer who references the…
on “The new skill in AI is not prompting, it's context engineering” ↗