This is an excellent basic book for novice pastel artists. I've owned it since 1968 or so -- I was about 12 -- and the things it taught me about colour balance, working on grey paper in the direction of dark and light, have been very useful. As in most books of the era, there is a preponderance of black-and-white reproductions with only a few colour plates, but this really works well for pastels. ( )