Book Review: Local Color by Mimi Robinson
A wonderful resource on seeing, and training yourself to see the world through colour
Getting straight to the point, I love this book. A lot.
It is one of my top 3 resources for anyone getting in to nature journaling and sketching, along with John Muir Laws' Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling and Cathy Johnson's Painting Nature in Watercolor.
Local Color Book - Front Cover
What is it about?
Essentially, this is a book about colour palettes - getting into the habit of creating them, and in turn allowing them to connect you to a place or subject more intimately - whether or not you then choose to sketch or paint the subject.
In addition to the essentials like materials and colour theory, what makes this book so special is the way in which Mimi Robinson takes us along with her on a journey of colour, from Guatemala to Jordan, Kyrgyzstan to the US.
Nature, culture and colour collide to create a book that makes me immediately want to pick up my brush and paint.
Dipping your Toes in Watercolour and Sketching
If you are starting out in watercolour, this is an excellent book to get you practicing colour mixing and noticing the shades and tones around you. You may want to try to match the colours exactly, or you may want to just focus on getting a feel of the palette as a whole. I do a bit of both depending on what I’m trying to capture in my sketchbook.
If you want to start a sketchbook but are nervous about the actual sketching part – this is such a fun and no-fuss way to get started without worrying about all the other nitty gritty about drawing or painting.
For the experienced sketcher too!
If you already sketch or want to sketch outdoors but find completing a full sketch outdoors a bit daunting/too much pressure – just capture colour!
I found this particularly helpful as quite often, cameras do not accurately represent the colours I am seeing. They rarely represent the colours in the way I feel them on location. Capturing the colours as I experience them at the time really helps with reminding me of what they were when looking at the photos later.
For accomplished artists or practiced journalers and sketchers – many of you probably already do this, but if not, it is so much fun. It has definitely made me much more aware of colour and its subtleties outside.
The ways in which I have found this book really useful:
Focusing on just one aspect when I’m outside - colour.
The first time I tried this outdoors, I immediately noticed the many many shades in the rocks below me. These are colours I may have noticed before, I may have even tried to take a photo (or many) to capture the colours as I saw them, but quite likely, I’d have forgotten them down the track – it is not what I would have remembered of the day.
Having taken the time to sit and paint the colours I was seeing, I can vividly bring up a memory of the pinks that I was surprised to see in the rocks.
2. As a starting point to painting outdoors.
When I started nature journaling and trying to take my sketchbook out with me more, I was a bit nervous. I had a good first experience with a few simple flowers, but I definitely was not comfortable with landscapes, and sometimes I found myself just wanting to get a feel for the place but was not confident enough to just ‘sketch loosely’.
Mimi Robinson’s book inspired me to just paint the colours I was seeing and make some notes on them. It gave me a low-pressure tool to start with.
3. It was the perfect way to remember what a place felt like.
And, because these are my little colour swatches, I can add little pops that catch my eye too. For example, in John Forrest National Park, the beautiful purple Hoveas were stunning but not the main features of the spot I was sitting in.
Despite that, I found my eye constantly drawn to them and so I decided to honour my personal experience of the setting and feature the purples of the Hoveas more prominently.
John Forrest National Park Field Colour study + Hoveas sketched at home
Inspiring, informative and so re-readable
I love the book because it is something I can come back to over and over and still be both inspired and learn something new or think of a new way to try noticing colours around me.
Good art books are generally inspiring or they teach well. In my mind, great art books do both, and this is definitely one of my favourite art books so far because there is just so much to come back to over and over.
There is also just something stunningly beautiful about Mimi Robinson's colour studies, especially next to the photos of the places she was doing them in. It is interesting to see the colours she was drawn to in each case.
The absolute best part about it? It fits perfectly with whatever I feel like painting. Even if I don't really know what that is yet.
Connecting more deeply, slowing down and observing
I am very excited to have these tools in my arsenal now, but I do often wish I had gotten into nature journaling, discovered the portability of watercolour so much sooner. I wish had been painting my travels for the last few years.
It is not just for travel though: the three pages below show journal pages with colour studies done in the little part of the world I call my permanent home.
These little colour studies gave me a much more tangible sense of the wonderfully varied colours of a view I thought I was already intimately familiar with.
Late afternoon light on trees near Lake Coogee. Colour study, sunset at the Lake.
Gum trees in the early morning, Colour study sunrise from the window.
Cloudy day colours, Lake Coogee.
Nature journaling and sketching have really helped me to slow down and notice the places around me in more depth – colours, shapes, animals, plants.
Local Color by Mimi Robinson is an excellent book for the reason that it makes deeply observing a place so simple. This is a book for anyone who wants to notice and experience the colours of their world more intimately.
It is available as an e-book!
Like Around the World in 80 Trees, and John Muir Laws' Guide to Nature Journaling, this is a book I just had to have as an e-book so I always have it on me.