Monday's Art Tip 5 - Alternatives to Black

Now, this tip applies to artists that use lines in their work (as I do with my illustrative style), as well as people looking to paint darks and shadows...

The background story - my mother, Diana Battle, is a very talented artist. She can paint beautifully in both oils and acrylics, and is also very confident in pastel and watercolour. The next two paintings (with their enlarged sections on the right) are by Mum.

 

She's always told me there's no need to use black straight out of the tube (in the actual painting, that is - it's still ok to use it as an underpainting or base colour).

She'll choose to use Paynes Grey (which is a very dark navy) or a dark mix of colours, but feels that black out of a tube, like Carbon or Mars Black, is too flat and uninteresting and unneccessary.

So the message is, that using a 'black-substitute colour' creates life in a painting, adding interest and movement.  Here are three black-substitutes that I use often, compared to black, on the bottom right.

Now this tip definitely applies to a realistic-style of painting like Mum's, but it's something I also remember when painting murals - like this recent one here...

At a glance the lines look black, but they're actually painted in Dioxazine Purple (which is my black-substitute of choice). Take a closer look.

Here's a pic of the bottle. I use A LOT of this colour.

And here's a painting I did years ago, where the lines are done in Ultramarine Blue.

In this next painting of proteas (done for a handbag, that's why half is upside down!) the shadows are deep greens and a mix of green with a touch of red (that's another tip - add the complementary colour (from directly opposite on the colour wheel) to darken a colour - ie. add a touch of red to your green and vice versa, add a little purple to your yellow, or blue to your orange... you'll be amazed at how much better it works rather than using a totally different colour from another tube).

I hope that's been interesting! If you're an artist, I'd love to hear about your experiments, and if you're an art-lover, you'll have something more to look for when you see an artwork that you love.

Next week I'm chatting a little about composition. I'm jumping a bit all over the place, but I didn't want to do all the pre-painting tips first. I wanted to give you ideas to use straight away. I certainly hope that is the case!

It's also your REALLY VERY LAST CHANCE to be included in my poppies painting giveaway. Just leave a comment on the Art Tip #3 post here, and I'll be doing the draw this afternoon. Good luck!