Color Your Own Van Gogh Paintings (Coloring Books)

May 29, 2008 | By Doug In van Gogh |

Thirty meticulously rendered black-and-white drawings of van Gogh masterpieces. By referring to the accompanying full-color illustrations, you can bring alive these skillful adaptations that include Sunflowers, Starry Night, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe, The Church at Auvers, and many more. Captions identify each artwork.

List Price: $4.95
Amazon Price: $4.95
Used Price: $0.41
Customer Review: Impressionist Coloring Book For Kids Of Any Age
I am a fan of this series of books, and especially appreciate their utility in introducing great art to children and young adults. I am a great admirer of Vincent van Gogh, and have always appreciated his unique style and especially his brushwork. In my mind his use of dynamic brushstrokes and bright contrasting colors defines impressionism for all time. The problem, of course, is that these characteristics are impossible to reproduce in a coloring book or paint-by-numbers book of any sort. While I prefer the abstract coloring books from the same series, I recognize that impressionism is more difficult to reproduce than the (generally) hard-lined linearity inherent in abstract art. While I considered giving this book four stars due to the impossibilities in reproducing a van Gogh masterpiece, I elected to give it five because of the educational and inspirational value that exposing people to these great works intrinsically has. The book is well printed, and comes with a nice color guide for rendering the individual pieces. It is a bargain, and is a great, interactive way to introduce kids (or adults new to van Gogh, for that matter) to the work of the master impressionist.
Customer Review: Pretty good
This is a great coloring book for adults. I use it as a time to just do something a little mindless. Its a nice change to have a book like this that isn’t a bunch of cartoons intended for 5 year olds.

Van Gogh: Explore Vincent van Gogh’s Life and Art, and the Influences That Shaped His Work (DK Eyewitness Books)
Explore Vincent van Gogh’s life and art, and the influences that shaped his work.

Discover the tragic genius of Vincent van Gogh with this beautiful and highly informative guide, which tells the fascinating story of his life and work. Superb specially commissioned photographs show the methods and materials van Gogh used to create his masterpieces, while art expert Bruce Bernard offers a rare “eyewitness” view into the painter’s distinctive canvases, and the complex character behind them. See van Gogh’s striking use of color and texture, the originality and expressiveness of his techniques, the masters that inspired him, and the work he produced during his madness. Learn of young Vincent’s painful unrequited love, how poverty and illness added to his despair, how we won Monet’s praise and influenced Toulouse-Lautrec, and about van Gogh’s interest in Japan. Discover the astonishing speed at which van Gogh painted, the crisis that caused him to cut off part of his ear, his friendships with other artists, including Paul Gauguin, and much, much more.
List Price: $15.99
Amazon Price: $11.99
Used Price: $5.19
Customer Review: Pleasing to the eye
This is an easy to read, summary of his life, with nice pictures and information.
Customer Review: WELL WRITTEN & ILLUSTRATED PLUS SUCCINCT INFO! FOR AGE 9-99!
First of all I must say anything DK Publishing touches turns to gold; and the same goes double to infinity for Vincent. You would not believe the information packed into this 64 page carry anywhere book full of photographs of family and places he lived, amazing sketches, personal belongings, influences, quotes, and over 70 of his most popular and beautiful paintings and so much more! This is for everyone! It does not include “Starry Night” however. Here are the contents: 1 YOUTH AND FAMILY 2 LIFE IN ENGLAND 3 PREACHING AND POVERTY 4 THE IMAGE OF THE SOWER 5 ETTEN AND THE HAGUE 6 PEASANTS AT WORK 7 A LOVE OF NATURE 8 A MATTER OF FAITH 9 A PEASANT MEAL 10 ARRIVAL IN ANTWERP 11 THE ANTWERP ACADEMY 12 A PARISIAN EXPERIENCE 13 IMAGES OF PARIS 14 THE IMPRESSIONISTS 15 NEW APPROACHES 16 JAPANESE INFLUENCES 17 SUNFLOWERS 18 A STUDY IN YELLOW 19 THE LURE OF THE SOUTH 20 VAN GOGH AND GAUGUIN 21 A HEROIC SELF PORTRAIT 22 THE AFFLICTED ARTIST 23 NATURAL STUDIES 24 COPIES 25 PROVENCAL LANDSCAPE 26 AN ERRATIC RECOVERY 27 A RETURN TO THE NORTH 28 THE FINAL ACT 29 KEY DATES/ VAN GOGH COLLECTIONS 30 GLOSSARY/ WORKS ON EXHIBIT 31 INDEX/ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS What makes this book so enjoyable is that it has it all. Most books I’ve seen on Vincent are either loaded with art but the book layout is impossible to read due to lack of organization; or the opposite–books with tons of information but nothing but black and white thumbnail sketches. This book is a gem; extremely colorful plus has some black and white– but each and every page is fully organized and beautiful to read and look at. Bruce Bernard, you have got to be the most organized man in the universe! WOW! A must own for anyone and everyone! Especially the beginner to intermediate van Gogh enthusiast, however; the personal belongings, photographs, quotes and succinctness of this book would be well appreciated by the most acumen of Vincent’s studiers/admirers. P.S. I highly recommend this book and any other of the series of Eyewitness books that strike your fancy. I also own book #25 Crystal and Gems. There are 110 different books from everything to Music, Fossils, Reptiles, Invention, Weather, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Bible Lands, Volcano and Earthquake, Shark; Aztec, Inca and Maya; Castle, Pyramid, Ancient China, Archeology, North American Indian, Ocean, Battle, Witches and Magic-Makers, Space Exploration, Crime Detection, Force and Motion, Chemistry, Time and Space, Astronomy, Earth, Human Body, Medicine, Technology, Electronics, Renaissance, Impressionism, Goya, Manet, Monet, Leonardo & his times, Future, Mythology, Titanic, Football, Hurricane & Tornado, Presidents, Baseball….on and on! Oh I’ve got to buy a few more I see!