Johannes Itten

The undisputed King of color theory

The Art of Color, the absolute color bible for artists or anyone who is concerned with the use of color in their daily practice, was written by Yohannes Itten in 1960. Its not just a color reference or definition but rather something that explains all those feelings and natural responses an artist has every time they use color.

Have you ever wondered why you lean more to one color than an another, why and how you combine certain colors? (No, its not just because ‘it looks nyyyyicce’.) What about the feeling you get when you’re confronted with certain colors? What made you fill your triangle with yellow rather than red for one client and then blue for another? Its all explained in this brilliant book folks and if you haven’t read it then you must. If only to better understand yourself, to clearly identify the natural gift an artist has, that is the respect and ability to use color or even for the purpose of learning the color rules and give yourself the license to break them.

There are many moments when reading this book that you experience a truly glorious dawning and its not excitement at finally having met Mrs Yellow (yes, she’s female) but rather that you met a part of yourself, you gained an incredible understanding and realise the gift you were born with and live with the knowledge that you will always have a special connection to the color world. How lucky, how spectacular is that?