Colour, drawing, and painting courses

My colour courses are of two kinds:

1. An intensive course in colour theory and practice consisting of illustrated lectures (about 50%) alternating with practical exercises leading up to painting studies. This course is currently solely available as Understanding and Applying Colour (evening class, National Art School Public Programs).

2. Painting classes where the focus is on practical painting with just enough theory to get started (about 5%). These courses are Oil Painting with Colour and Light (National Art School Public Programs) and Evening Painting and Drawing (Julian Ashton Art School).

These two course types are designed to be complementary and many students who do one go on to do the other.

My life drawing classes focus on artistic anatomy and here the choice is between a structured course over five terms (one introductory and four advanced) at the Julian Ashton Art School, and short courses run over a weekend at the Julian Ashton Art School or over five days at the National Art School.

All NAS public programs courses are NESA registered for professional development of teachers in NSW.

NATIONAL ART SCHOOL, SYDNEY

National Art School public programs courses can fill quickly, and at other times can be cancelled because not enough enrollments arrive in time, so either way it's important to book as early as possible. The cutoff date is not advertised but can be two weeks before the scheduled start date.

Like all NAS Public Programs courses, these courses are NESA registered for professional development of teachers in NSW.

Understanding and Applying Colour (ONLINE)

This course of illustrated lectures, exercises and still life painting studies is a detailed introduction to modern colour theory, tailored to meet the needs of art and design teachers and practitioners. David Briggs goes beyond traditional (early 19th century) colour theory based on red, yellow and blue "primary colours" to cover 'state of the art' understanding of all the aspects of colour that are vital for artistic practice. Topics covered include: hue, lightness (tone) and chroma - a framework for describing colour and colour mixing in paints; blackness/brilliance - another aspect of colours of objects; brightness, colourfulness and saturation - the attributes of colour relating to light; psychological, additive and subtractive hue systems; and digital colour spaces - understanding the frameworks available for choosing and manipulating colour in graphics programs.

• Mondays from February 7, 2022, 10.00 am to 1.00 pm AEDT (bookings open now)

• Mondays from May 2, 2022, 10.00 am to 1.00 pm AEST (bookings open now)

• Mondays from May 2, 2022, 6.00 pm to 9.00 pm AEST (bookings open now)

• https://sites.google.com/site/djcbriggs/tmct

• https://nas.edu.au/product-tag/dr-david-briggs/

Painting and Drawing the Life Model (ON CAMPUS)

This is my life drawing and painting evening class at NAS.. Make sustained drawings and paintings from a life model holding the same pose over several sessions. Students can choose whether to focus on the portrait or the whole figure as their subject. Beginning students will learn the basic skills of drawing and painting the figure, including how to handle oil paint confidently and expressively, how to analyse and paint a subject tonally (i.e. in grey scale values) and how to mix any colour they want quickly and accurately. Continuing or advanced students will learn new ways to apply these skills to painting in full colour. David Briggs teaches painting strategies ranging from painting in a planned series of layers to direct (alla prima) painting, and students may choose which of these strategies to apply in their own work. David's instruction has a strong emphasis on using colour and tone to achieve a vivid sense of light and atmosphere, and on the crucial planning stages that help to achieve this result.

Next offered Term 1, 2022. (sold out)

• Painting and Drawing the Life Model (weekly)

• https://nas.edu.au/product-tag/dr-david-briggs/

Oil Painting with Colour and Light (ON CAMPUS)

Learn to see past the bewildering details of your subject to gather the exact colour information you need to get your painting off to a great start! Discover how to think of colour in a way that enables you to mix the exact colour that you want confidently and directly, every time. This course in modern colour theory and its application to oil painting focuses on understanding how light and colour actually work, avoiding the confusion caused by colour myths. The approach has given great results with both beginning and advanced students.

Eight evening classes or five days, on campus at the National Art School, Sydney. "Earlybird"/ concession discount available (see NAS website for cost and enrollment details).

Next offered Term 2, 2022. For more information:

• https://nas.edu.au/product-tag/dr-david-briggs/

Anatomy for Life Drawing (ON CAMPUS)

Knowing artistic anatomy does not mean simply knowing a list of names, it means being able to visualize any part of the body, in any action, from any direction. This ability not only opens up the possibility of drawing from the imagination, it is also used continuously in drawing from life. Naturally it helps with drawing details, but even more so it helps with quick poses, enabling you to grasp the action in a few lines instead of twenty. For beginning anatomists we will focus on the skeleton first, but content is flexible for those with prior knowledge.

A five-day workshop offered in the Summer School (January) and Winter School (July) at the National Art School, Sydney. Earlybird discount/concession available (see NAS website for cost and enrollment details).

CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE PUBLIC COURSES :

JULIAN ASHTON ART SCHOOL, SYDNEY (classes suspended during coronavirus restrictions)

• Colour, Light and Vision (five-day workshop)

• Fundamentals of Life Drawing (weekend workshop)

• Evening Life Painting and Drawing (weekly)

• Beginning Life Drawing (weekly)

• Essentials of Anatomy (weekly)

CLASSES AT MY STUDIO, CLOVELLY, NSW

• Sunday Landscape Painting (2015)

• Digital Colour Workshop (2016)