This is a book which lives completely up to its title and explains not just what’s happening on your palette, but on paper, in actual use.

Written in language aimed at the practising artist rather than the chemist, Julie shows you what colour is, how different pigments work with each other and what all this means for finished results, for which she provides easy-to-follow demonstrations.

Topics include primary and tertiary colours, harmonious and complementary colours, warm and cool colour, granulation and glazing as well as transparent and opaque pigments, staining and, of course, mixing. She also looks at basic palettes, including earth colours, limited selections and vibrant pigments. Everything is fully illustrated and there are exercises all the way that put theory firmly into practice.

This is an ambitious project that succeeds every step of the way.