Mike the Swede
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 27, 2021
- Messages
- 114
Dear Friends
I hope that you are all fine and staying healthy, it does feel lovely that several countries are opening up again. It is indeed time to move forward and to learn from this period for the future.
And here, finally, is the little article on my mix for the wonderful color of black!
(About time some of you may think, and yeah, it is about time!)
I have always been fascinated with black. It is mysterious, elegant and classy. It has also been one of the hardest color to create for fabrics in past times when no chemical or synthetics was available...
One can only imagine how quickly a black tunic might hade faded in the Holy land for example.
In the photo you will se a basic mix that I use to create the color of black. And one thing to remember is that black is a color but without any value. (the same as for white). So we need to add some value to black to create some depth, life and interest .
Otherwise it will appear very flat and lifeless.
I usually start by mixing Scale 75 Black with some flesh and a touch of brown, this will create warm and very dark tone of grey. From this I will add more and more flesh for the highlights, and sometimes a touch of brown. The flesh I use have a very pink tone which is great to highlight black. Do try different tones of flesh as there number of different ones, some having a yellow tone, some brown and some a pink one.
Experiment is indeed the key.(as always when it comes to painting)
For shading I like to use the Vallejo Black as it has a slight satin finish which will adds a lot of depth. And here I always use a touch of red or blue added to the black as we need to add some value, depth and punch to this really dark tone.
When painting black I usually have the base mix and add 4-5 tones tones of highlights and 4-5 tones of shading, depending on the subject, material etc.
Now, some of may say: "Hey, this looks like painting dark grey!"
And yes, it does. But when you paint these"black"tone next to another color, it will appear like black. And that is exactly the point here. All colors are relative to each other. Meaning that whatever color you paint next to another one will affect the other colors. They all work together creating what will look like"black" or "white" for example. So remember to adjust your color mix to the whole figure. Not just one oart of it.
View the figure as whole.
I have always enjoyed painting black and I always will.
And it is actually one of the easier colors to paint as well.
Now you guys try to create your own mix of black.
And remember to use several tones and mixes and to avoid using pure black!
More articles to come soon!
Stay safe and keep healthy.
Love
Mike
