Ivory Back is normally the “most chosen” of the W&N blacks. I don’t notice any difference when the paints are dense. The difference comes when they dilute. The Ivory back (from all manufactuers) is chosen for its interstering granulation when diluted.

The other day I did a WDE quickie (all W&N paints) https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711291&highlight=giant the blacks on the bird are all from a mixtures (red/green) where as the blacks and greys on the vintage car are all W&N Ivory back.

Excerpts from Dick Blick’s website:

“Mars Black is an opaque black with a strong and cool masstone, a slightly warm tint, and a warm brown undertone. It is not as black as Ivory Black, but it dries more quickly and has three times the tinting strength.”

“Ivory Black is a cool, semi-transparent blue-black with a slight brownish undertone and average tinting strength. It mixes well with any color, and creates a range of dull greens when mixed with yellow.”

“Lamp black is a very opaque, heavily staining black pigment that does not have much covering power. It is typically the most opaque black in watercolor form.”

Winsor & Newton’s Neutral Tint is made from Lamp Black, Phthalo Blue and Quinacridone Violet. The phthalo blue strongly increases the tinting strength of the mixture, while the quin violet balances out the color.

W&N Payne’s Gray is made from the same three pigments as their Neutral Tint, but is weighted on the phthalo blue side to give it the traditional blue-gray color.

Cathy,

I sure do appreciate your posting what Handprint had to say. Thanks.

But……Oops!
There’s that fugitive Dioxazine Violet in there……….I guess I wouldn’t use it just because of that.

But, what that description says about “stable” is confusing, esp. with that phrase: “unexpected whitening.”

I guess I’ll stick to mixing my own “black.”

Du brauchst überhaupt kein Schwarz – der selbe Effekt ist auch mit Complimentärfarben zu erreichen
Schwarz ist eine tote farbe
If you use compimentarie colors – you dont need black
Black is a dead colour

Donna, wait! Perylene Black doesn’t have any diox violet in it. The Handprint site means that if you want, you can mix Perylene Black with diox violet or quin violet to get more of a black black, because by itself, Perylene Black is a bit green. I know, it sounds kind of misleading the way it’s worded. But the W&N paint “Perylene Green” contains only PBk31, which has excellent lightfastness.

Cathy,

That’s what I get for reading much too quickly! Thank you for pointing that out to me.

When I looked at the WN color chart link from Roger, I did not see a Perylene Black. I did see a Perylene Green on the chart.

I do love “mixing” to get blacks (complements, etc) as the mix is so colorful, but that car (as opposed to the bird) was so subtle and gorgeous.