I was recently asked this question at an exhibition where I was exhibiting my paintings. I assume that my answer may be useful to many of you. So, please find below my explanation about black and shadows!
In my studio
On my shelves, the black tube is not very accessible. It is behind my colours, alone and abandoned…
Why? Because pure black is difficult to apply on paintings and often creates a mess beside colours when painting a figure,
skin tones, and shadows!
“There is not a black, but blacks.”
Yves St Laurent (French designer)
Black paint in the portrait
According to my experience, I’ve seen that black paint will increase the shadows on a face, and the composition quickly becomes dirty, and dull… I use black paint mostly for small details or tiny applications.
I advise painters who want to paint shadows not to use black paint, but instead use dark colour. Dark red, dark blue, and dark brown are much more interesting.
Replacing the black paint with
- Home-made black by mixing the 3 primary colours
- Dark blue
- Dark red
- Dark brown
Feel free to mix them and do some testing on your palette.
My favourites
Depending on what you would like to show: make the paint vibrant, full of bright tones or with velvety shadows, here are my favourites:
- Dark Indigo
- Prussian Blue
- Burnt Sienna
- Umber natural with Indanthrene blue and Carmine.
I love mixing Ultramarine with Quinacridone Magenta.
Examples of dark shades in some Brands
– AMSTERDAM ACRYLIC PAINT (Expert Series)
* * * * *
– AMSTERDAM ACRYLIC PAINT (Standard Series)
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– SENNELIER ACRYLIC PAINT
* * * * *
– LIQUITEX ACRYLIC PAINT (Heavy Body)
* * * * *
– WINSOR & NEWTON ACRYLIC PAINT
* * * * *
Your turn!
And you, when creating shadows on faces, do you use black paint or other colours? Which ones?
Do not hesitate to discuss your preferences or your pictorial habits in comments!
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