In 2012 I made them into a book, 'Watercolour Mixing Charts', and published them on Blurb.com. Later I also made the eBook available. The First edition is still available through the Apple Store.
In 2015 I spent may hours cleaning up the charts further on photoshop, and re-publishing the second edition. I have numbered all the charts for greater ease of use. This is now available as a hardcover book, a softcover book and an eBook on Blurb.com. The eBook works on the Mac platform so will load into iBooks on your Mac computer, iPhone or iPad. If you have the Windows platform you can now but the book as a PDF. Here is a link to all the second edition versions. You can see a preview of the whole book.
I a considering adding a Premium Lustre paper hardcover option as well.
Here is the eBook link.
March 2015 update: I have just published another book, 'The Ultimate Mixing Palette, a World of Colours', which covers the amazing range of mixes you can get with just 15 colours. It shows every possible two colour combination with the 15 colours that make up my 'Ultimate Mixing Set' and the most useful three colour mixes. You can see all versions of both books here, and link to the website page about this palette and book here.
Then I have a few other book ideas on the go :-)
Jane, I would love to buy your book but I can't afford print, and don't have an iPad. Unfortunately, iBooks (and I am a Mac user) doesn't appear to have a reader for their computer, like kindle does for any computer. Might you be willing to make a PDF version that I can download and read? I'd be happy to pay for that!
ReplyDeleteKatie have a look at the detailed instructions below on how to load on a Mac computer - it may help!
DeleteJane I stand corrected. I will give it a shot on an app that it says can be used on my Mac . . . You can delete these if you like!
ReplyDeleteHi Katie. I hope you have been successful. I have downloaded the book into iBooks on my Mac. I'll leave your comments up as others may have the same questions :-)
DeleteI would really like the print version to be cheaper. I only add a very small mark-up so there's not much I can do about the price. Sometimes Blurb has discounts but you have to subscribe to find them I think. The next book will have less pages (about 64 I think) so that will reduce the price. I also plan to have it printed myself in Australia as well as offering it on Blurb as a physical book and an eBook.
I know there is little profit in blurb's numbers. I've thought of doing a book for our business. I have no doubt I want it -- and will buy the ebook!
DeleteJane, I wrote to blurb because apple said it would work on a mac. This is what they said:
DeleteCharles ( Blurb Support) Jan 08 16:47
Hello, Thank you for contacting us regarding your Ebook.
Currently our ebooks are only supported on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch though we are looking to expand to other devices.
So not thinking that I can do this.
Check out one of the ways Gwenn Seemel does her books -- PDF downloads, how simple. She also publishes but this is infinitely afford able and easy. You can charge the same and it all goes to you minus a paypal-type % charge: http://www.gwennseemel.com/index.php/pages/
OK Katie I will certainly look into that. I guess that's how I got it into my computer - as a PDF file. The file is very large so I'll have to look into how it can work as a PDF - certainly I can't email it unless I reduce all the pictures in size. Anyway, I'll update once I have it sorted. :-)
DeleteMy new mac will let me sue it and I bought your book -- excellent. I hope the next book will be in this eformat as well. I'd love to buy hardcopy but can't afford it -- and I totally understand about prices. I am an experienced artist and always learn so much from you! Thank you.
DeleteI have a similar problem to Katie, Jane, so if you are able to find a way to create a PDF version for sale I would be delighted. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLooking into is Jules.
ReplyDeleteMy "Watercolour Mixing Charts" works in iBooks on my Mac. I've never had any problems with it at all - or on my iPhone. It's so interesting and useful and I discover something new every time I look through. The bonus is it's a portable reference on the iPhone. I'll look forward to the Limited Palette book too. Thanks for all your work experimenting with colour mixing Jane - hours of work I don't have to repeat!
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Annee - I have the sample on my Mac and it works fine so I don't understand why it won't work in iBooks on a Mac computer. Did you have to load it in in some way? If you could share it may help others with a Mac.
DeleteFor Windows users the PDF is probably the best option though it is not nearly as nice to use as you have to scroll it up and down rather than 'read' it.
Can you get your iBook to display only one page at a time?
DeleteI've downloaded a free sample but it shows both pages side by side and I can't get it to display just one page. I don't want to buy it if I can't get it to display one page at a time. I'd rather have a hard copy instead.
The book is designed so you can see, for example, ultramarine mixed with a warm red on one page, and with a cool red on the other page. However if you zoom on the iPad you can concentrate on one page and still 'turn the page' to the next one. Or you can get the PDF version and look at just one page at a time. Hope that helps.
DeleteHere is the text in the email I received after buying the eBook from the Blurb site (as shown above). It's exactly the procedure I followed. After downloading to the iPhone and viewing the book, I plugged the phone by USB into my computer and the eBook was available in iBooks on the Mac. I didn't do any deliberate transfer and it may have even already been there via wi-fi. The last sentence of the email is important.
ReplyDelete"The ebook Watercolour Mixing Charts is available for download. Here's how to get this ebook onto your iOS device:
Open this email on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
If you do not have the free Apple iBooks app you’ll need to install it before downloading your book.
Follow this link to get the book: XXXXXXXX (This link will expire in 48 hours, after which you will be prompted to login)
Safari will open and begin downloading the ebook to your device.
When the download is complete, you will be given the option to 'Open in iBooks.' Tap this button once.
iBooks will launch , import the ebook, and then open it for viewing.
A few notes for a smoother experience...
Connect to wi-fi: Image-rich ebooks can be quite large, so downloading and importing them to iBooks can take several minutes.
Be patient: Very little feedback is given while iBooks is opening the file, so you may want to check your device after a few minutes.
Make room: Be sure you have enough free space on your device or the download may fail.
Can't find your book? In iBooks, make sure you're viewing the 'Books' collection and not the 'PDFs' collection. To switch views, just tap the 'Collections' button in your iBooks library."
I hope this is useful!
This is the email I received from Blurb after I ordered it from the site as shown above. I followed the instructions exactly. Afterwards I connected my iPhone into my Mac via USB and later checked it was in iBooks on the Mac. It was, I didn't do any manual transfer, it may have happened automatically or via wi-fi. The last sentence is important in regard to viewing the eBook.
ReplyDelete"The ebook Watercolour Mixing Charts is available for download. Here's how to get this ebook onto your iOS device:
Open this email on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
If you do not have the free Apple iBooks app you’ll need to install it before downloading your book.
Follow this link to get the book: XXXXXXXX (This link will expire in 48 hours, after which you will be prompted to login)
Safari will open and begin downloading the ebook to your device.
When the download is complete, you will be given the option to 'Open in iBooks.' Tap this button once.
iBooks will launch , import the ebook, and then open it for viewing.
A few notes for a smoother experience...
Connect to wi-fi: Image-rich ebooks can be quite large, so downloading and importing them to iBooks can take several minutes.
Be patient: Very little feedback is given while iBooks is opening the file, so you may want to check your device after a few minutes.
Make room: Be sure you have enough free space on your device or the download may fail.
Can't find your book? In iBooks, make sure you're viewing the 'Books' collection and not the 'PDFs' collection. To switch views, just tap the 'Collections' button in your iBooks library."
I hope this helps!
This message was posted by Annee, but doesn't seem to appear so I'll copy it here - others may find it very helpful.
ReplyDelete'This is the email I received from Blurb after I ordered it from the site as shown above. I followed the instructions exactly. Afterwards I connected my iPhone into my Mac via USB and later checked it was in iBooks on the Mac. It was, I didn't do any manual transfer, it may have happened automatically or via wi-fi. The last sentence is important in regard to viewing the eBook.
"The ebook Watercolour Mixing Charts is available for download. Here's how to get this ebook onto your iOS device:
Open this email on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
If you do not have the free Apple iBooks app you’ll need to install it before downloading your book.
Follow this link to get the book: XXXXXXXX (This link will expire in 48 hours, after which you will be prompted to login)
Safari will open and begin downloading the ebook to your device.
When the download is complete, you will be given the option to 'Open in iBooks.' Tap this button once.
iBooks will launch , import the ebook, and then open it for viewing.
A few notes for a smoother experience...
Connect to wi-fi: Image-rich ebooks can be quite large, so downloading and importing them to iBooks can take several minutes.
Be patient: Very little feedback is given while iBooks is opening the file, so you may want to check your device after a few minutes.
Make room: Be sure you have enough free space on your device or the download may fail.
Can't find your book? In iBooks, make sure you're viewing the 'Books' collection and not the 'PDFs' collection. To switch views, just tap the 'Collections' button in your iBooks library."
I hope this helps! '
Thanks Annee!
Dear Jane, I have just downloaded your beautiful color mixes on my mini IPad and it works well. I have one question. To see each page well, I need to widen each screen. It's a little slow. Is there an index? I am not seeing one and it would make it a faster search. I really appreciate that you have made this available in iBooks. It will be very useful. Thanks, Peggy
ReplyDeleteDear Peggy. It's a good question and one I did consider but there were a few problems - the software I was using had no ability to add page numbers, there are such a lot of colours used that the index would have covered many pages (adding to the cost of the physical book) and then if I added a chart in of re-painted one I'd have to do it all again. So no, there isn't an index. When people buy the physical book I suggest they add page numbers and their own notes but you can't do that with the eBook :-(
DeleteWhat I suggest you do though is try to see the flow of the book. I have laid out the charts in a logical sequence of mixes so that where possible the reds and blues are together leading into blues and oranges them blues and browns etc, and mixes of yellows and blues are in the same section of the book leading into others to create a logical flow. Understanding the flow will help you to find specific colour mixes.
Please keep in mind this one was not planned or designed as a book initially - they were my own explorations painted over about 10 years and I added them to my website, then made a book as so many people asked for it, then an eBook to keep costs down. My next one is much more carefully planned.
Thanks very much Jane. Knowing the flow helps. I didn't think of it that way. By the way, I really appreciate that you have made the e book available. Besides being a very reasonable price, I like the portability of it. It's a huge collection of work and you've saved us a lot of time
ReplyDeleteI have almost finished the second book now and will re-edit the first one. I am planning to re-do it on better software so I can add page numbers, chart numbers, cross references and more alternative colours to try.
DeleteI may attempt to create an index document that could be uploaded from my website at the same time.
In the meantime, knowing the flow is helpful as I tried to make each chart related to the one before, and often two charts on facing pages show one colour mixed with, for example, a warm red on the left and a cool red on the right.
The book is now available as a PDF on Blurb.com for those who don't have access to iBooks :-)
ReplyDeleteBlurb's PDF version is not available as a link -- just an FYI, as i bought it in ebook.
DeleteThe link for the PDF version of Watercolour Mixing Charts is http://www.blurb.com/b/3736881-watercolour-mixing-charts. I hope you enjoy the eBook :-)
DeleteI am doing something similar with acrylic paint. I own your physical book and adore it. Do you have any recommendation for how to prepare to make a color swatch collection into a book? Did you paint your swatches on loose sheets, or in a sketchbook? I favor the latter for organization, and I have a flat lay one, but just wondered if you could give a pointer to a fellow painter. :) Thank you in advance.
ReplyDeleteFor this book I used loose sheets, single sided, for each chart. I scanned them all myself and did some colour adjustment but not much.
DeleteFor my second book (The Ultimate Mixing Palettte: a World or Colours) I did all the charts in a sketchbook, which made them more difficult to have professionally photographed, though we managed it. They were all professionally colour matched too - a big job.
For my third book (Working with Watercolour Triads) I have painted all the wheels and charts onto full sheets of watercolour paper that will be scanned and colour matched as full sheets, then cropped. It should be less work for my photographer.
It takes some thinking through which way is best for what you are trying to do.