COURSE CONTENT:

This course presents a unique approach to understanding and applying colour I've developed over the last 25 years for art and design practitioners and teachers as well as anyone just fascinated by colour. It consists of eight fully illustrated lectures that will interest students wanting a deeper understanding of colour itself as well practical guidance on applying colour in painting. These lectures are complemented by optional practical exercises that progress from mastering colour control in paint through to still-life painting studies.

My lectures are given live on an online platform with time allowed for questions and discussion but can also be viewed outside class hours as video recordings. Students undertake the practical exercises outside class and can submit photos by email for feedback and discussion. In addition to access to the video recordings, all participants receive a set of more than 500 slides from the lecture course, a mailout of a Munsell greyscale and hue circle, and ongoing access to my private online Illustrated Glossary of Colour containing illustrated definitions of about 200 terms related to colour and painting.

The course assumes no prior knowledge but goes far beyond other “colour theory” courses and has been given enthusiastic reviews by Australian and international students, ranging from beginning painters through to highly experienced artists and art teachers and eminent colour specialists in various disciplines.

Class sizes are limited to a maximum of twelve students. NAS Public Programs courses are NESA registered for professional development of teachers in NSW. Classes  are limited to 12 students per term. Short courses are open to students of ages 16 years and over. 

Oil paints are recommended for the optional practical exercises; please refer to the list of oil painting materials recommended for this course on the NAS website. Students who prefer to use other media can be accommodated but should contact me before the course using the form below.

Lecture topics (approximately one per 3-hour session):

1. Colours and their attributes. What exactly is a colour and what attributes can we use to describe colours? Colours of objects including paints can be described in terms of hue, lightness and chroma, as in the Munsell System, or in terms of less familiar attributes such as blackness, while colours of lights involve different colour attributes again. 

2. Artists' paints and paint mixing. Compare the most useful artists’ pigments and their physical properties including transparency/opacity, tinting strength, toxicity, and permanence. Learn the typical mixing paths in colour space of coloured paints with black, white, grey and other coloured paints, and learn how to use this knowledge to fine tune the colour of paint mixtures.

3. The Munsell system and colorimetry. Understand the Munsell system in depth by tracing its evolution from its 19th century forerunners through to its integration with colorimetry in the 1943 Munsell renotation. If colour is a perception, what does it mean to "measure" a colour using colorimetry? How does our framework of colour perceptions relate to colorimetry and to the colour spaces used by digital artists? 

4. Biology of colour vision. Explore the widely misunderstood physical and biological basis of colour vision at the level of the retina and its bearing on important visual phenomena including brightness and chromatic adaptation, afterimages, fading and coloured shadows. Colour vision deficiencies and other variations. 

5. "Colour mixing" processes and "colour theory". When we mix coloured paints or lights, are we really mixing their colours? How does understanding colour vision at the level of the retina help us to understand additive mixture, ideal subtractive mixture, averaging mixture, physical paint mixture and pointillism. Concepts of "primary colours", "split primaries" and "colour harmony" in the light of current science. 

6. Colour, light and atmosphere. Sources of light, metamerism, colour temperature, Colour Rendering Index and lighting for studios. Zones of light and shadow on and around an illuminated object.  Effects on these zones of variations in the direction, size, distance, colour and number of the light source(s), and of the material properties of the objects. Physical and perceived effects of coloured illumination and intervening atmosphere.

7. Perceiving colours of objects and colours of light. A closer look at how our visual system produces perceptions of objects having relatively stable colours under varying illumination. Learn how controlling colour relationships of saturation and blackness/brilliance in a painting can make an object appear to be consistently illuminated or to be emitting light.

8. Colour constancy and inconstancy. Our tendency to perceive objects as having relatively stable colours under varying conditions, called colour constancy, is very useful for our survival but can cause us difficulties as representational painters. We discuss how painters can contend with these difficulties, as well as with other difficulties presented by small departures from colour constancy known as simultaneous contrast and assimilation.

COMING SESSIONS

Enrollments  for  Term  Three and Four 2025 are now open on the NAS website. 

• 25  July - 12 September 2025, Fridays 10:00am - 1:00pm AEST

• 13 Oct - 1 December 2025, Fridays 10:00am - 1:00pm AEDT

• Enroll via https://shop.nas.edu.au/collections/online?filter.p.m.custom.course_lecturer=Dr+David+Briggs

Students planning to join the course from North or South America had best enroll in Term 3, while students planning to join from the UK, Europe, Africa or much of Asia will probably find it best to wait until Term 4. To avoid missing out, you can use the form at the bottom of this page to be placed on a mailing list be notified of future sessions as soon as they are offered on the NAS website.

Please note that it's important to book all NAS Short Courses at least TWO WEEKS in advance of the starting date if possible. Short courses at NAS are sometimes sold out many weeks in advance, but also can be cancelled up to two weeks before the start date if they have not reached the minimum required enrollments at that time. Leaving bookings to the last minute can lead to disappointment for everyone!

RESOURCES: 

• For links to further reading for each session, see this page.

• For the materals list for the optional practical exercises see this page.

• For the password protected zip files of slides from each session go to this folder.

• For a collection of images of paintings download this file (no password).

SAMPLE SLIDES

Selected slides from each of the eight theory sessions plus the practical exercises. Participants receive the full set of about 550 slides.

SAMPLE VIDEOS

My other classes at NAS

Oil Painting with Colour and Light (on campus, Thursday evenings and some Summer Schools)

This is my on-campus, practical oil painting class at NAS. It is often done by students who have previously done the Understanding and Applying Colour online course (or vice versa, the classes can be done in any order). New students work through a structured series of painting exercises progressing from tonal painting to full colour, but previous students (of either course) can choose among the exercises and work at their own pace. 

Drawing for Beginners (on campus, Saturdays)

In this course I cover the fundamentals of seeing and drawing your subject in an integrated way. We cover the use of different materials (pencil, chalk, and pen), proportions, perspective, composition, light and shade, and the expressive effects of the abstract visual elements of a drawing.  Subjects include the still life, the life model and the historic NAS campus. 

Anatomy for Life Drawing (Summer and Winter Schools)

Anatomy for Life Drawing is a five-day workshop held in the magnificent top floor studio in the Chapel at the National Art School in the Summer and Winter School for the last ten years. For beginning anatomists the focus is on the skeleton, but content is flexible for those with prior knowledge. 

To get in touch, please feel free to use my social media accounts or the form below: