Artists Reference: Adding Depth with Rich Blacks

Swap Flat for Rich
Using black straight out of the tube will always leave your work looking flat.

Instead, mix your own rich blacks in oil painting by using variations of Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine, Burnt Umber and Windsor Green.

With these four colors you can experiment to create:

• warm blacks
• cool blacks
• reddish blacks
• bluish blacks
• greenish blacks
• brownish blacks
• gray blacks

Try glazing to create rich blacks to enhance your paintings by adding depth and glow to your work.

What is your favorite color combination for creating rich blacks?

Wind Racer, New Horse Painting by Froshay

"WIND RACER" ©Wendy Froshay

                 

               "Give yourself room to fail. . .

                                          and then fight like hell to achieve." 

                        ~ Irwin Greenberg

The Artist's Recipe For Success

Guest post written by Tien Frogget

Take 1/2 cup of pure, unrefined inspiration and mix it with 2 cups of passion in a saucepan over medium heat. 

Stir occasionally. Add 1/2 cup discipline and let simmer.

After it begins to thicken, pour through a fine strainer to remove as much negativity, doubt, and self-criticism as you can. Do this a few times if necessary.

Return to heat and continue to stir occasionally.

In a large mixing bowl, combine equal parts books, classes, and life experience. 

Knead together gently until a soft dough forms.

Be careful not to over-knead it however, you still want your dough to be nice and flexible!

Put your dough on a clean surface and roll it out into a circle. Take care to keep from rolling it out too thin; you want an even foundation.

Once your sauce has become thick and aromatic, add 1 cup of innovation and 3 cups of mistakes.

Remove from heat and pour evenly over your dough. 

Congratulations! You now have your talent. 

A lot of people try to skip some of these steps (especially the mistakes!) and then give up. If you’ve made it this far, you’re doing great.

Next, you’re going to want to sprinkle your talent with plenty of patience, and a lot more passion. Don’t worry about measuring; just go ahead and eyeball it. Then put it in the oven, and bake it for as long as it takes.

Every talent takes a different amount of time to cook, and you can’t rush it. Check the oven occasionally, and if you notice any bubbles of negativity or self-criticism popping up, be sure to scrape them off. Sprinkle with more patience if need be.

If you give up and walk away too soon, or if doubt bubbles take over your talent, it can completely collapse and never see its full potential. The key is endless loving care and the willingness to stick with it for as long as it takes.

You will know when your talent has finally baked into a success when people begin crowding around the oven, asking you if they can have some to take home with them.

Understanding Color: Why Black Is Not Really Black

Black isn't black?
Remember that white vase from a previous post White is Everything but White? Let’s resurrect that vase, cast some shadows on it and study those shadows. Go back outside and take the vase into the shade. Better yet, take it only half way into the shade.

Notice what happens to the white now? It's gray - not black, but it's a gray made of color.

Given a set of paints and a brush, a novice will automatically think, "black" for shadows. An Artist however, sees what I can only describe as the idea of “opalescence”.

The Impressionist Painter Renoir was quoted as saying “No shadow is black. It always has a color. Nature knows only colors … white and black are not colors.”

Chromatic Black
Black tends to dirty colors rather than simply darken them and so, many artists use a mix of rich, deep color that appears to be black. This type of black is referred to as chromatic black and can be mixed in several ways.

My beloved watercolor instructor, Kathy Sutherland taught me this years ago and I love the method. I always mix up a puddle she referred to as “soup” prior to starting a watercolor painting.

Soup Mix
The mix involves a red and a blue mixed with an earth color. I use Ultramarine Blue and Permanent Alizarin Crimson.

Next, depending on the tone of my shadows, I’ll add either Van Dyke Brown, Burnt Sienna, or Burnt Umber. (Some artists prefer Prussian Blue over Ultramarine, but I’ve found Prussian Blue to be too staining for watercolors).

I can adjust the shade to more reddish by pulling in more Alizarin, more bluish by pulling in more Ultramarine or more brownish by pulling in the earth color.

Mixing a small amount of this ‘soup’ into my colors will darken them without killing the color, as a regular black will do.

Thinning this mixture with water will give you that beautiful opalescent look I spoke of earlier.

This concept works for oils as well. Mix it with any color to tone your oils.

Video: A Peek into Froshay Fine Art Painting Classes

The BEST Adult Fine Art Classes in Orange County!



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