Mixing Black - a simple painting lesson

A way to give beauty and depth to an oil painting - or even acrylic or water color - is to mix your own black rather than just use "lamp black" out of a tube. This gives a beautiful depth and richness to the painting. Some places have a little more red, some a little more green, but it all looks black when you stand away from it. You also get more depth and more interest by using criss cross, overlapping strokes rather than long-straight-all-the-same-direction strokes.

The black in the background of this painting was made with alizarin crimson and veridian green. (You can get the same effect by using any two colors opposite each other on the color wheel.) If you look at it up close you can see glimpses of red and green. I also dropped in a bit of blue here and there. (everything needs a little blue! - and you don't really see it unless you study the background)

This was my very first oil painting. We had a picture of it to go from. The class was made up of a lot of people doing various things. Three of us painted this picture. I used oils and one lady painted with water color and the other painted with acrylics. It was very interesting to see the process used to paint this picture using different mediums. I really like the look of oil the best. At least for this painting.

I haven't figured out how to photograph oil paintings yet. The oil is so shiny that it reflects back any light. I turn the flash off, but even bright room light makes a glare. If anyone knows the best way to photo oils let me know. The best I've done is outside on an overcast day. I'll try that later with this painting. Here it is hanging in my dining room.

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