Of all the colors we deal with in painting, black is one that can easily throw us off our game. The available tube colors alone can be daunting- Lamp Black (made with carbon), Perylene Black (made by a chemical process), Spinal Black (made of copper chromite), Ivory Black (made with bone or tusks), Mars Black (made from iron oxide), Chromatic Black (made with complementary mixtures), and the list goes
on.
Each of these blacks has a unique character and behavior. Not only are some warmer and some cooler, but some are more transparent than others, dry with a varying surface quality, react differently when mixed with white or other
colors, vary in transparency or opaqueness and contain distinct brushabilities.
If you are fascinated with what various blacks can do, buying a small tube of each and giving them a good workout might be worth doing. At lease this would inform you which black you prefer to use. But when painting images that
are black, your best bet is to use a mixture of complements and reserve using black to change the character of other colors.
Any two transparent complements will make black. Here are three examples:
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