Myths and Mysteries
of Art Materials
offered by
Bob Williamson
Black Paint and Dark Values
There are three predominant black
paints in the art world, Carbon or Lamp black, Ivory or Bone Black and Mars Black or Black Iron Oxide.
They are each different pigments
with slightly different properties. Carbon was the first black use from ancient
times. It is basically soot from burning oils or gasses. Many manufacturers no longer offer it.
Ivory black is from the charred
scraps of ivory. Bone black is from the charred animal bones. These blacks are only about 30 percent carbon. The rest is
calcium phosphate. Ivory is a bit superior to bone black and is the most popular
black among artists. It is lighter, smother and more transparent than carbon
black.
Mars black is a 20th
century development. It is made from magnetite ore or the oxidation of ferrous
salts. In other words – “rust.” It is best used in water mediums,
but works in oils as well. It has a slight brownish undertone.
Any black can be a useful convenience
color when understood and used sparingly. It will darken the value of any other
color. With yellows it tends to make dull greens which can be helpful in some
landscape settings. It is also useful when a very dark color is wanted and you
can’t quite get it with the mix you’ve chosen to add a touch of black to darken it more. Black should almost never be used alone as a color because it is dull and without life. Besides virtually nothing in nature is pure black. There is
always some color, even in the deepest shadows. Even black fabric, wood or metal
will pick up some color from the surroundings. Even if you don’t see it
yourself, you painting will be improved with some color in the black. The next
time you hear an artist say, “never have black on your palette,” just smile and nod and think to yourself, “I
know something about black that you don’t know.”
Without black on your palate, a
very good way to darken a color is with its complement. The problem here is that
not all so called complements work as well as others. This is because every color
has a bias. That is, for example, Cadmium Red Light, Permanent Red and Napthol Red are all warm reds. That is they lean toward
yellow. Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Violet and Magenta and Permanent Rose
on the other hand are all cool reds. That is they lean toward blue.
If you mix a cool red with a cool
green compliment like Phthalo Green you will get near black or any value of the red or green depending on the ratio of one
color to the other. Then by adding white for acrylic or oil paint or water for
watercolor you can get nice grays. But if you mix a warm red with a cool green,
the dominant yellow bias in the warm red will reflect back either brown or a
dull grey depending on the amount of bias in each color. Ultramarine Blue, a
very warm blue, leaning toward red, mixed with Burnt Umber, a warm Orange, leaning toward yellow will make black with nice
grey undertones either warm or cool depending on the ratio of the mix. Ultramarine
Blue mixed with Burnt Sienna a warmer brown/orange make excellent grays especially useful in darkening cloud formations.
Hopefully this will help some get
off to a good start mixing and using darks, but like everything else in art, only practice and experimentation will make you
good at it. Play around with the favorite colors you use on your palette and
find out what they can do. The fewer colors you have the better. All you really need to mix any color in the spectrum is a warm and cool red, a warm and cool yellow, a
warm and cool blue and white if working with other than transparent watercolor. A
few convenience colors depending on the subjects you paint can be helpful also.
The next session I’ll cover
some of the convenience colors. Green for example is one of the most difficult
colors for artists to get right. So I’ve titled the next session, “It
Isn’t Easy Being Green.”
Happy color mixing,
Bob 
