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FT Pro, Mem SOG,'08 Cert Excellence PSA, '02 Schroeder Portrait Award Copley Soc, '99 1st Place PSA, '98 Sp Recognition Washington Soc Portrait Artists, '97 1st Prize ASOPA, '97 Best Prtfolio ASOPA
Joined: Jun 2001
Location: Peterborough, NH
Posts: 1,114
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Whew...this is a tough one to straighten out in mere words but I'll try.
My infamous "Royal Robe and Globe" that Peggy shows is my workshop exercise of "the painting that explains everything you need to know about painting in one quick lesson."
I show my short-cut underpainting method here...flat areas of paint approximating the final colors (sort of like a poster) with light and shadow delineated. I used acrylic for this base coat to make it "flat" as it needed to dry before stage 2 and workshop time is short. Oil works too, but requires several coats.
In the underpainting for this picture I used black acrylic (or black gesso) for the black area (under the table) and black + white for the background.
If you paint black oil paint straight from the tube don't expect it to look good...it will be "dead", take forever to dry and always look dull. It is better to use a flat black underpaint in these areas.
Beyond the initial layer in Peggy's example above (i.e., underpainting), black must be built up in thin glaze layers. You can glaze other dark earth colors into the layers of black in order to build it up (i.e., prussian blue, burnt umber) to a sparkling and clear black. You must not use any pigmented colors beyond the first coat (underpainting) or you will get mud.
As to making blue from black + white, you can probably use any black paint that you have handy and here is how it works: The color "blue" is relative. That is, the colors that surround it make it appear blue.
When you surround black + white with earth tones, it will appear blue. If you use modern chemical or "neon" colors, it can look like gray. Elsewhere on this forum, I have listed my "Old Master Earth Palette" and have indicated the glaze colors vs. the opaque colors.
"The Pot and Peach" still life below (sorry for the crummy photo) is an example of a painting done entirely without blue paint. In fact, the background has a lot of yellow ochre and raw sienna painted into the black + white. But you probably wouldn't know unless I told you so.
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