The acrylics I've decided to use are Winsor and Newton Artists Acrylics. They have no colour shift (meaning that when the paint dries, it doesn't dry darker as most acrylics do.) Here's a link: http://www.winsornewton.com/products/acrylic-colours/artists-acrylic-colour-/
As for instructional material, I decided on a course on colour from this artist,New Zealand Painter, Richard Robinson: http://www.livepaintinglessons.com/colour.php
This is an excellent downloadable course and he is a clear and interesting speaker. Even Canadian artist Robert Genn, in his newsletter, http://www.painterskeys.com/ thinks this is a great course!
And the other is a painting landscape DVD and book from one of my favourite artists, another Richard, Richard Schmid. He is a "living master" and I've admired him for years and he's a great mentor to boot! Here is the link to his website: http://www.richardschmid.com/default.htm
So what is the result of all this? Well both these artists recommend doing colour charts...an ardurous task, but I have learned so much about my paints and colour relationships in doing a few of these. Here's a picture of my efforts...it took some time to do these!