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.