Do you use black?

 

Q:  Do you use black in your paintings?

I was taught that you should make your own blacks and dark colors with mixtures.  Donna, Kamloops

A:  If you have seen my paintings you know I like dark colors and you bet I use black!  For those of you who have read my article “light rules” or taken my workshops, you also know that I rarely mix colors.  For hundreds of years great painters, right up to the Impressionists, did their best to avoid mixing colors if they could use pure pigment colors instead.  Rather, they achieved their effects by applying pure colors directly on the canvas, either superimposed in transparent and translucent layers (glazes and scumbles, or veils) or by mixing them minimally directly on the canvas with the brush or palette knife.  All the secondary colors and beyond were done in this way.  They would make exceptions and mix together two or more colors in certain areas of the painting that they wanted, for aesthetic reasons, to look dull, or brownish and grayish.  Any mixture of browns and blues or whatever you like to approximate black will produce a dull, heavy color.  A pure pigment black like Carbon black will give a crisp intense black.  Mixing colors will never get the same clarity, transparency and definition you will get by using a pure black.  For shadows and transparent glazes, a black will have an incomparable effect.  The different blacks all have different properties as well.  The Mars Black and Carbon Black are more opaque, while the Bone or Ivory black are more transparent with less tinting strength as well.  The Mars black tends to be the warmest of the three.  So, of course, I have all of them in my palette.  Then again, I like black. 

Q:  with your acrylic paintings do you mix the gel mediums with the paint for achieving the textured effects?  Linda, Vernon

A:  There is no technical reason why you cannot do that, but I rarely do, preferring instead to apply the gel mediums and texture before I start to paint.  Here again, the ’Light Rules’ apply.  I don’t like to add anything to the paint that will take away from the light or intensity of my colors, unless of course I have a reason for wanting a certain color to be dull or muted.  I start with the drawing on the white canvas or panel (‘Light Rule” no. 2) and then I put on the various mediums and textures to achieve the effect I want (I can still see the drawing underneath), I let it dry for at least a day, then I paint over top of the textured surface. 

Thanks for the questions, David