TheArtistApril2016__

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PRACTICAL

April 2016 59

Looking at black

Now we need to look at black. I still emphasise that black must be

used with care as it will deaden many colours. Having said this,

black added to yellow produces some excellent olive greens, as

you can see in Figure 4 (right), where I have used ivory black and

added water to tone it down gradually, and then used ivory black

to darken each yellow – new gamboge yellow, raw sienna and

lemon yellow – to produce various shades of olive green. I have

chosen ivory black as it is a less dense black than lamp black. The

effect of darkening a colour with black and with blue are shown in

Figure 5 (below right).

Figure 2

A composition with horizontal tonal bands of light, medium and

dark tones

Winsor red + Winsor violet

Indian red + Winsor violet

Light red + Winsor violet

Next month: “E” is for Experiment

Figure 5

These colour swatches compare the effect of darkening a colour

with black and with a blue

Figure 3

This is very

similar to

Figure 2, but

with greatly

reduced

contrast in

tone

Winsor orange darkened with blue

Winsor orange darkened with black

Figure 4

Ivory black with water added to tone it down

Ivory black used to darken new gamboge yellow

Ivory black used to darken raw sienna

Ivory black used to darken lemon yellow

‘Using your dark and light to

create contrast in tone is crucial

to the success of a painting’

TA

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