Black is probably the most controversial color an artist can have on their palette. Some artists swear by it and wouldnt dare paint without it, other artists will have nothing to do with it. We are going to explore the topic of the color black in painting and how to mix the color black without black paint.
The best way to mix the color black without using black paint is to mix transparent red oxide and ultramarine blue. You can also add a cool red like alizarin crimson for a deeper warm tone. The three colors mentioned can be substituted with pigments of similar color and value.
Lets dive in below and explore the color black, when to use it, and how to mix it.
Use secondary colors to create black paint. The three primary colors make black paint, or you can combine just two paints—a secondary color with a primary one. For example, you can mix burnt umber with ultramarine blue or alizarin crimson with phthalo green to create black. 2.
Mixing Black Without Black Paint
OK so now you are probably wondering how to actually make the color black without black paint. There are a number of color combinations that will achieve black. My favorite combination is Ultramarine Blue, Transparent Oxide Red, and Alizarin Permanent. All three of these colors are very dark and transparent.
In all my color examples I painted oil on canvas toned with N5 Neutral Gray made by Golden Acrylics so as to better see the color of the black. Each sample shows Ivory Black for comparison. If the mixed black is weighted more to a certain color I bolded and italicized that color. If two colors are bolded and italicized that means there is more of both colors.
You can substitute Transparent Oxide Red (Transparent Red Oxide as some manufacturers call it) with Burnt Sienna and Alizarin Permanent with Alizarin Crimson and achieve almost the exact same result. One caveat to this is some versions of Burnt Sienna (the more traditional Burnt Sienna) are more opaque and slightly on the pinkish side which will achieve slightly different results. And traditional Alizarin Crimson is a somewhat fugitive color that will fade over time.
Transparency is important because in order to make a paint opaque you usually have to raise the value just slightly. Also, you can make your black opaque by adding a touch of an opaque color, but you cannot make an opaque color transparent. Transparency is also important because if you want a #10 value black (or #1 depending on what type of value scale you go by), a transparent application and result can be more aesthetically pleasing and easier to build upon with subsequent layers of paint.
The great thing about using the color combination I listed above is that it will achieve a very dark, rich black that is very easy to manipulate in the way of color temperature. If you want a warm black (which is usually preferable in most situations) you just increase the amount of Transparent Red Oxide and/or Alizarin Permanent in the mixture. Transparent Red Oxide will give you a more earthy warm and Alizarin Crimson will give you a more atmospheric warm. And of course if blue dominates you will have a very cool black.
Many times I will just drop the Alizarin and use just Ultramarine Blue and Transparent Red Oxide. Being that Transparent Red Oxide is just a very dark, neutralized orange, and orange is the opposite of blue on the color wheel, these two mixed together are sufficient for creating a black that still has some color luminosity in it. If you drop Transparent Oxide Red and just use Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin, you will get a deep cool black that will reveal a purple tone as it gets more transparent.
Why Artists Like to Make Their Own Black
Artists in the never-black camp will usually cite their desire to mix blacks from other colors as their main reason for not using an actual black on their palette. This is a very valid reason (and I admit its my reason as well) because any black should function as a color within your painting in order to properly express the color relationships and temperature of light on your subject matter.
A representational artist paints what he sees. True black is the absence of all light and color, which means true black represents total darkness or blindness. But since as an artist you are painting something you can see, absolute, colorless black would not be able to truly represent anything in your painting, unless you are painting the inside of a film-developing dark room or what it looks like when you stand inside a dark room with your eyes shut. And even then we dont see absolute black but will still experience phosphenes, that sensation of light and shape produced by mechanical and electrical stimulation during the absence of light. So in essence colorless black is unable to represent anything in our visual reality.
But getting back to visual reality, in many cases, very dark accents within shadows will actually lean toward the warm side of the color wheel. You dont always notice this, but if you paint your darks incorrectly you will notice something wrong with your painting. And because of this, many artists want to be able to control the temperature of their blacks by mixing them.
Why Artists DON’T USE BLACK WATERCOLOR ! (and how to mix your own)
FAQ
What can I use instead of black paint?
What can be used as black paint?
Can black paint be mixed with other colors?
Black paint can be made by mixing primary colors, complementary colors, the primary colors used for printing, and even by mixing brown with other acrylic paint colors. You can even make your black paint cooler or warmer depending on what other colors you mix with it.
What type of paint can be used to paint black?
Any paint type medium can be used to do this method, from watercolor to acrylics and oil painting. You can easily create different shades of black by adjusting the different shades of primary colors in your mixture. For example, cadmium yellow, Prussian blue, and naphthol red will create a deep black color.
How do you make black paint?
I mean, there’s like a gazillion ways to make black paint which is awesome because it means you have options, friend! Black paint can be made by mixing primary colors, complementary colors, the primary colors used for printing, and even by mixing brown with other acrylic paint colors.
What can I use instead of acrylic paint?
Substitute acrylic paint colors you could try mixing together would be Phthalo blue with diox purple and a titch of black (warning: black can take over a mix in a heartbeat so tread lightly!) Another suggestion would be any paint color you have that mentions Midnight Blue, etc.