Oil painting with Black

[Jaybo]

Why do you use the various shades of black oil paint (Mars, Ivory, Lamp and Payne's Gray) and for what purpose? It seems Payne's Gray is the most versatile of them since it isn't totally 'black'. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Robert Laclavik]

I use only naples yellow + black in oil painting, it seems to bé the best receipt for worn black in flesh

 

[pkessling]

Mars Black and Blue Black were my “go to” blacks. For me, the secret to painting black is the base color. Never use “black” as your base color. Start with a dark brown-black, green black, blue black, purple black, etc. Just mix a dab of one of those colors into Mars Black so that you now have a tinted black. I liked Blue Black as a shadow color for black because it looks “more black” as a shadow color. The highlights are most important when painting black as you can over do it. If you do, it no longer looks black. If the shadows are not “deep” enough after the paints dry, go back and apply the shadows in the wet on dry technique. Be careful because a tiny bit of paint goes a long way. Think about the article you are painting to pick your base tint.
Same painting white, never start with a white base color. Mix an off white so that you can use pure white as your highlight.

 

[Jaybo]

Thanks for weighing in on my question Phil. When you say never to use pure black or pure white ar you referring to the base oil color or the acrylic undercoat? While were discussing black, who did you approach painting black leather, boots for instance, in oils? Thanks and we do need to get together.

 

[pkessling]

Jay, both. Not as important with the acrylic undercoat since most black oil paints are opaque. I always liked the acrylic undercoat to be pretty close to the oil base color.
I discovered a really interesting technique for painting polished black leather boots. Kiwi neutral shoe polish. Paint the boots with a minimum of shadows and highlights. After the paint is dry, apply a thin coat of Kiwi neutral polish with a paint brush. Not a whole lot of brushing as it can “lift” the paint. Let the polish dry and lightly polish with a cotton swab. Very gently. If the shadows “get lost,” reapply wet on dry.

 

[grasshopper]

Mix ivory with yellows and get a green...as aside, remember interesting blacks can be mixed that in many case work better ..cold, warm blacks ...

 

[Ned Ricks]

One of the other gents on PF posted a useful tip on the subject of black. The tip was regarding mixing grays; he wrote that he told his art students not to mix tube black with white for gray but to create "chromatic black" such as:
Prussian Blue+ Alizarin Crimson + Burnt Sienna = Chromatic Black (+ white = gray). This was just one option.

As I am a learner here, and not a teacher, I toss that out in hopes that it helps someone else.

 

[grasshopper]

That’s correct Ned...there are plenty of videos, references , in 1/1 art to mixing blacks, desaturating with the rightngreys..the only real takeaway being the ability to mix warn, cold..blue, brownish blacks and greys..simply start yourself by placing your blacks on palette..adding yellows, other colours to see how each black works..then play with complementary colour mixes..thenidea being that opposing colours, pigments really, will mix to black. Fact being we mix pigments not colours means it’s imperfect and takes experience to figure out which work, and the proportions. But a very neat thing to learn..also shows how convenience greys have a use..saving time, retaining more colour in many cases...

 

[Jaybo]

Jay, both. Not as important with the acrylic undercoat since most black oil paints are opaque. I always liked the acrylic undercoat to be pretty close to the oil base color.
I discovered a really interesting technique for painting polished black leather boots. Kiwi neutral shoe polish. Paint the boots with a minimum of shadows and highlights. After the paint is dry, apply a thin coat of Kiwi neutral polish with a paint brush. Not a whole lot of brushing as it can “lift” the paint. Let the polish dry and lightly polish with a cotton swab. Very gently. If the shadows “get lost,” reapply wet on dry.

Thanks Phil for your insight. A votre sante mon ami.....

 

[fogie]

Pure black of whatever structure is too intense. Personally I never use it and prefer to darken shades with a touch of Paynes and Umber.
Indeed, I belong to the now rather ancient school of thought that believes we should slightly desaturate all our colours. In other words,
reduce the intensity - sort of 'scale' them down.

Mike