Painting Dark Colours in Art

Frosted glass mug with an image of my painting, Cherries, available at my Zazzle internet shop. Click on title of post to go to my Zazzle shop.

Dark colours are richer when they are transparent and warm. I started out painting with watercolours and I learned to mix vibrant dark colours, i.e. pthalo green and crimson. I did not use black paint. When I started painting with acrylic paints, I found I could achieve black local colours best using black paint. (Local colour is the object’s colour, i.e. red apple, black coat.) I use Ivory Black paint over a blue underpainting to achieve a rich black as a local colour. I then add strokes of colours over the black, i.e. red, green. I do not use black paint to make shadows, cast shadows, shades or darker colours.

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