mixing black

[uncertainid]

Hello all. I'd like to ask what are your favorite "recipe"s for mixing rich blacks?
I am painting a still life that includes black velvet shoes. I would like a beautiful dark that leans toward the blue just slightly. I tried Ultramarine and burnt umber tonight and got a grey/navy which i was fairly pleased with, but it just wasn't rich enough. I try not to use tube black. I am painting with acrylics on canvas if that matters.
Thanks in advance
sara

[Einion]

I think the best results for this sort of colour can be achieved by just mixing something with black, it's probably impossible to get anything darker in value for a start. Depending on which blues you have in acrylics I would try this with a phthalo blue and a touch of violet or crimson, or Ultramarine.

Since you want a blue-biased dark you could try Dioxazine Purple with Phthalo Green BS, if you have these colours.

Einion

[Richard Saylor]

Sara, for some reason ultramarine blue + burnt umber just doesn't do it for me. Maybe it's the burnt umber (a hot, unpleasant brown, with bad associations from my oil days). Prussian Blue has fallen from favor since the rise of Pthalo, but it can make excellent darks, neutralized if necessary with burnt sienna. If you don't have any Prussian Blue hidden away in a drawer somewhere, you can make a resonable approximation with black + Pthalo Blue.

I understand the reason for the prejudice against tube black, but this should be tempered with common sense. It's all in the manner in which it is used. Indeed, black lowers the chroma of any color with which it is mixed, but so does white!!!! In fact, burnt umber mixed with ultramarine blue drastically lowers the chroma of each of the components.

[uncertainid]

When I read other artists posts about the space they work in I drop to my knees in gratitude for my basement space--however, permit me to whine just a little. I have no plumbing so I content myself with jugs of water and buckets for disposal. The major complaint however is the lighting. After my painting session last night I felt the ultramarine/umber combo had worked marginally well. I went down there today and groaned in horror. What a yukky color! God bless acrylic paint for its opacity. Think I may break with tradition and go with the ivory black mixed with some ultramarine.....sigh.
( Do I see an ott light in my future?)
Thanks for your suggestions.
Sara

[Einion]

Consistent lighting is a very important point if you work in a studio. That's one of the reasons I think if you have to work under artificial light some or most of the time, as most leisure painters do, I think you should cover the windows completely and just work under your lights all the time! OTT lights are definitely far superior to most normal lights in CRI (colour rendering index) so they are worth the investment if you aren't happy with how well you're seeing colour under your current lighting.

With regard to the Ultramarine/Burnt Umber mix, because these are mixing complements the colour they tend to lean towards in mixes is grey. I suspect you might have balanced them a little too much, just a little BU into the blue will give a good dark which is still definitely blue and not grey, but I think you'll like the mix of Payne's Grey better.

One thing that just occurred to me is which brand of Burnt Umber are you using? If it's Golden's or Liquitex's these colours aren't quite the way they're supposed to be so they'll give duller mixes with Ultramarine than others would expect, particularly the oil painters.

Einion

[Patrick1]

Sara, you might want to try quinacridone rose or quin. magenta + phthalo green (yellow shade or blue shade). This is my favorite reipe for a rich, blueish, transparent black.

Einion...are the Ott lites good enough that there won't be a significant colour shift from looking at colours under it to under daylight window illumination?

I currently use a 60W GE Gro-N-Sho incandescent plant light bulb for painting. Its glass has a slightly to moderate ultramarine-like tint to it. The light it produces seems pretty close to white. I thought it was blue enough to approximate daylight, but apparently not. I did a waterfall scene at night under it. The next day, under daylight illumination, the blues in the shadow areas of the waterfall are way too chromatic...more than they looked when I painted it. If the Ott lite will come close to eliminating this colour shift, I'll get one...probably the 17W compact fluorescent one.

[bruin70]

you should rid yourself of those "rules" your art teacher laid down with regards to black. they don't help,,,which is why you're posting here.

the quickest way to get to black is to use black. throw in some blue and you have a nice deep color.

you will have to make some common sense and personnal decisions....

is it really necessary to get BLACK,,,or can you get by with DARK.

if you need to get black, will black fit in your color scheme.

you will want to achieve a balance between what is real and what is artistic.

[Einion]

Hiya Patrick, you know colour discrimination is dependant on both the spectrum of the light and its intensity right? That's why we can't see colour very well under moonlight even though it has a full spectrum. Just a thought, your current light might be okay in the colour department but not bright enough; at 60W I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case even if the bulb has a temperature in the 5000-5500K range.

OTT make more than one kind of bulb, I'm not on my Mac at the moment but the better ones have CRI's in the upper 90s I think, which I'm sure is more than high enough considering that one's work is unlikely to be viewed under direct natural light.

Einion

[DuhVinci]

My two favorites:

1. Pthalo blue and cadmium red (or napthol red)

2. Ultramarine blue and cadmium orange. This one has the added advantage of giving beautiful browns when leaning toward the cadmium orange.

[uncertainid]

Einion, Bruin, Patrick, DuhVinci...all of you. Thanks ever so much for your thoughts and ideas. I intend to try all of your suggestions for "recipes" however,the black mixed with a little ultramarine was just what the doctor ordered for this particular piece. Thanks for giving me "permission" to use common sense.
Einion, you asked about brands. I am using Lukas at present with a dab or two of Liquitex here and there. I have been experimenting with the different brands in a limited pallette to see which I like the best. So far the Lukas has been pretty satisfactory. W&N finity is next on the list.
I wasn"t kidding about the Ott light either. My only source of natural light is through northeast facing glass doors. Its actually pretty weak light due to nearby trees. I like your suggestion, Einion, about shutting out the natural light, but I do like being able to see outside. Will it make a big difference if I leave the blinds open and just add the Ott light?
Sara

[Einion]

Hi Sara, glad the blue + black worked for what you wanted. Mixed natural ambient light and artificial task lighting can have some really odd effects; but try it, see what you think.

Einion

[A Few Pigments]

There’s one thing I haven’t seen mentioned here. Color harmony. Black is the most dramatic color next to white. If you want color harmony in a painting use colors from the palette you chose for the painting to create your darkest values. This is the best way to insure color harmony that I know of.

In this painting http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186104 Gray Garden Glove WIP, I used Raw Umber for the gray glove instead of Ivory Black. Ivory Black would have made the glove stand out like a sore thumb against the predominantly warm hues because Ivory Black has a blue tint so is therefor a blue black, not a warm black. I then used Raw Umber everywhere else I needed to darken the values in the painting.

The mind says the glove is gray because we’re conditioned to think if something looks gray(black and white) it must be gray(black and white). But art is all about tricking the mind into thinking it’s seeing one thing when really it’s seeing something different. Art is not what you “see”, art is what you “think you see". So, by using Raw Umber the gray glove exists in color harmony with the palette of colors chosen for the painting.

I have 14 colors in the palette I use including white. To make it easier to chose harmonious colors for a painting I mixed every color with every other color and white on wax paper, then glued these to mat board. There’s a pic below to show you what I’m talking about. Before I start a painting I use these to pick out colors that will work well together. It’s much easier than trying to remember all the possible color combinations. Also remember almost every pigment has a tint. Ultramarine Blue has a red tint and Alizarin Crimson has a blue tint so when you mix them you get purple becaue your mixing just red and blue. Knowing the tint a color has helps a lot in finding the right colors to get the color you want.

I’ve never found a “magic formula” for mixing black, so I no longer think “Black” but only dark values using only the colors I’ve chosen for a painting.

[A Few Pigments]

On the other hand if a painting is predominately blue than Ivory Black or Lamp Black might work.

[A Few Pigments]

On the other hand, as artists we learn the rules so we can break them, so please ignore my last 2 posts.

This message brought to you by The International Association of Artists Who Learn the Rules So They Can Break Them, Amalgamated. Not available in all states of mind. Not void where prohibited by anything.

[Susanabelle]

I didn't read all of the answers, so sorry if this combination has been covered, but I'm currently painting a dress that is very blue black and Pthalo Blue (red shade) and Cadmium Red is a great mix for this. When I mixed the Pthalo Blue with black it unfortunately went dull and lifeless. It looks dark blue on the palette, but almost black on the canvas.

Good luck!
Susan