Reviews and Comments

I stopped reading this book about 20% in when he had bold statements like that the impact on society is measured by money (NGOs, marginalized groups whose credit was taken, underpaid healthcare workers, anyone?). Also the parts I read went on with highlighting multiple times his (monetary) success and how these principles helped him. The content I skimmed through sent similar to ones found in other self-optimization books (set an ambitious goal, work for it, fail, try harder, etc). The author also did not acknowledge his privilege of growing up as a white male in one of the richest societies world wide. His chances of getting really successful are way higher by birth than by people with less privilege and are thus not really applicable.

This is by far one of the best books I read on painting. The insights are not only useful for artists but also designers and photographers. Textures, light sources, color theory, reflections, physics, color models, etc. - there is so much valuable information in this book. It is written in a very comprehensive format due to the illustrations and short chapters.
In the beginning is the theory and a suggestion for exercises, then there are some tutorials and in the end a gallery of works of contemporary artists. I loved reading this book, I will certainly revisit it as a reference.