Image from www.z.about.com

You see, at first I didn't like colour--the subject seemed more like mathematics--boring, and a lot of rules. I could never figure out why Albert H. Munsell went to all that trouble to build a three-dimensional colour wheel. Further, the exercise of copying light and shade and reflected light on colour swatches on different colour grounds was evidence to me of student torture.

I had to repeat the course. Mad as a plucked Kiwi, I quit dating girls and worked my buns off. The second time around I got lucky and passed the course.

Nowadays there is no day I'm not thankful for that course, and nowadays there is no day I don't wish to better understand the subject. And looking at the colour work of others, I often note many are on page 4 of a 400 page book. I wish they had the benefit of the Art Center course. Understanding colour is illusive, and handling it properly has to be learned. There are just too many defaults in the old brain to get colour right on the first go.

That's why I was pleased to see subscriber and friend Richard Robinson of Ruakaka, New Zealand, has prepared an excellent downloadable video called "Mastering Colour." With candour and clarity this young painter has summed up in 125 minutes (plus printable lesson notes) the essentials of colour theory and practice: seeing and describing colour, colour mixing and manipulation, colour harmony and light effects. Particularly valuable is the difficult-to-master understanding of how adjacent colours affect one another. As well as answering many oft-asked questions, Richard aptly describes the jumpable chasm between amateur and professional colour. You can read more about it on his website here.

Actually, video is the ideal vehicle for this sort of knowledge. The medium releases valuable principles in a linear way into the reluctant head. At the same time, there is no substitute for the sort of dreaded exercises I had at Art Center. Richard invites you to try some of them, and he had me doing some again. I needed that.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "Colour is my day-long obsession, my joy and my torment." (Claude Monet)

Esoterica: In "Mastering Colour" Richard Robinson clarifies the usefulness of the Munsell Colour System with its emphasis on hue, value and chroma. The Nine Value Scale is well covered as is a clear understanding of oft-neglected middle values. Esoteric subjects every painter should at least know about, like Birren's Triangle and the Yurmby colour wheel are also explained. He also answers that most valuable of questions, "What makes a memorable painting?" I don't often recommend products in these letters, but this is a good one.