Oil Painting with Colour and Light

Learn to see beyond the bewildering details of your subject to gather the colour information you need to get your painting off to a great start!

Discover how to mix the exact colour you want confidently and directly, every time.

The course progresses through a structured series of tutorials and still life painting exercises. Learn the key points of current understandings of colour and its attributes, oil paints and media, paint mixing, and light and colour perception. The course assumes no prior knowledge and has delivered great results with students ranging from beginners to advanced levels.

Former students of this course or of David’s online lecture course “Understanding and Applying Colour” (which can betaken before or after this course by those wanting additional theoretical understanding) can skip the introductory exercises and focus on the tasks they'd like individual help with.

* Short courses are open to students of ages 16 years and over.

* Drawing and painting short courses may be held in upstairs studios. If access to stairs is not suitable, please contact us at short.courses@nas.edu.au 

* What to bring? Please refer to the list of required materials in the Art Materials field below. 

Dr David Briggs is a classically trained painter, art educator and researcher who has taught colour, painting and drawing classes since 1996 and has created online resources on colour for painters since the launch of his website The Dimensions of Colour in 2007. His many publications and presentations, which include a chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Colour (2020), can be found here. David is Past President, Vice President, and NSW Division Chair of the Colour Society of Australia, Co-Chair of the International Colour Association (AIC) Study Group on Arts and Design and a committee member of the AIC/ISCC Colour Literacy Project and CIE Technical Committee 1-99. David has been teaching NAS Short Courses continuously since 2011 and has previously written and presented a NAS Art History and Theory elective on the history of colour theory and practice.

Students must supply their own art materials, please refer to the list below.

Brushes: An assortment of flat and round, bristle and/or synthetic sable brushes of various sizes from fine to large, in good condition.

Paints

Artist grade oil paints preferred, including:

• Titanium White or Zinc White
• Permanent Rose
• Bright Opaque Red (like Cadmium Red)
• Bright Yellow
• Yellow Ochre
• Phthalocyanine Blue (e.g. “Winsor” OR “Spectrum” Blue)
• Raw Umber
• Ivory Black or Winsor and Newton Charcoal Grey

Optional additional colours:

• Bright orange (like Cadmium Orange)
• Phthalocyanine Green (e.g. “Winsor” OR “Spectrum” Green)
• Ultramarine

Student grade paints are okay if you're not yet committed to continuing with oil painting, but don't buy boxed sets of tiny tubes. Substitutes for expensive paints such as the Cadmium colours are similarly okay. If in any doubt, just buy your basic materials and black and white oil paints for the first day.

Supports

For new students: pieces of acrylic-primed canvas, a bit bigger than A4 (most offcuts sold at Parkers are suitable)

For continuing students: two stretched canvases, at least 12″ x 16″

Other materials

• Pencil and notebook
• Ruler
• Tube of Matisse Carbon Grey acrylic paint for toning canvas
• Palette, either wooden (not white) or a small glass clip frame
• Stainless steel palette/mixing knife (not plastic)
• Screw cap container (“dipper”) for painting medium
• Linseed Oil (small bottle)
• Odourless solvent
• Old rags and paper towels

Enclosed footwear is essential in all studios on campus.