Working with Color
Reviewed: Geetesh Bajaj
July 29th 2006
February 25th 2009
Introduction
About Lynda.com and Bruce Heavin
Using the Tutorial
Pricing and Support
Conclusion
Introduction
Working with Color with Bruce Heavin is a movie-based online training tutorial (not available on CD-ROM) from Lynda.com which helps anyone understand the basic principles of color relationships. In my opinion, it is the best introduction to color theory for a beginner -- the tutorial explains color principles including value, hue and color relationships. The training sessions covers digital color mixing, shifting, saturation, tinting, shading, hue, toning, the creation of swatches, personalized color systems, etc. Last but not the least, you'll find exercises on using Adobe Photoshop to create color swatches and color templates.
About Lynda.com and Bruce Heavin
Working with Color is from Lynda.com, a company based in California, USA that provides educational content for computer users in the form of instructional books, an online training library of movies, and CD and DVD based video training. Lynda.com is promoted by noted author and designer Lynda Weinman.
Do visit their site at lynda.com
Bruce Heavin, who created this title is an acclaimed
painter and illustrator -- he is also the co-founder of Lynda.com.
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Using the Tutorial
The tutorial is divided into two parts.
The first part helps understand colors, being based more on color
practice than color theory.
The second part goes into color theory -- explaining color worksheets,
tinting, shifting, saturation, shading, etc. You also learn how
you can create your own color scheme swatches by using Adobe Photoshop.
Pricing and Support
Working with Color is not available on CD-ROM -- it's only available as part of Lynda.com's Online Training Library.
The Online Training Library is a subscription based service that is available in three different plans. The basic, monthly plan costs $25 monthly, and the same plan costs $250 for an annual subscription. The premium plan, which costs $375 annually provides access to exercise files as well in addition to unlimited movie access.
Support is through an online FAQ -- you can also contact support through email and a toll free number.
Conclusion
With a total training time of just 3 hours, this tutorial is the quickest and the easiest way to get friendly with color. Although the examples sometimes use Adobe Photoshop, that's only to create the swatches -- the principles you learn in this title will help you with color everywhere -- in print, web, and presentations.
