I’ve been thinking about color recently and the impact it has on my prints. Colors carry so much impact with them. The role color plays in art work is endless. It can evoke emotion, convey the mood of a piece, and convey shadows or shape just to mention a few. Color is essential but color choices and mixing always seems to challenge me. I find myself selecting colors I like or gravitate to for my artwork instead of the color that is best for the image.
The colors that I lean towards bold colors that are medium value but then avoid natural earthy tones. I know the lighter tones have their purpose for contrast and creating balance in a print. My color choices usually are not intentionally limited to a specif value range, it just ends up that way. I have been attempting moving outside of my “box” and attempting to making more intentional choices with a wider palette range.
I have been using a couple of different books to help with my color choices. The first one is the Color Mixing Bible: All You’ll Ever Need to Know About Mixing Pigments in Oil, Acrylic, Watercolor, Gouache, Soft Pastel, Pencil, and Ink by Ian Sidaway. 
It a great guide for mixing colors to get just the color you are looking for. The other book is the Color Index: Over 1100 Color Combinations, CMYK and RGB Formulas, for Print and Web Media by Jim Kraus. 
Great color combinations for whatever you need and recipes for creating the colors.
We must constantly challenge our comfort zone and be open to explore our short comings in order to grow. Even the basic principals such as color and art principles must constantly be explored.
Until next time. Cheers!
Daylene Horn Art 