Black goes matte

[Karin Wells]

Here is yet another approach to a deep, rich, glossy black....it can be so delicious in a painting!

To get an area of black...most especially a large one, I begin with a mix of raw umber and a little Indian red (for opacity).

When this is dry, I mix dark colors like burnt umber and prussian blue to get the darkest mix possible. I use this mix to (thinly) cover the area I wish to be "black" and let it dry. (I may add more "dark mixed" paint thinly if need be.)

When the area is really dark (and dry), I finally glaze it with ivory black. Sometimes one glaze will do the trick, sometimes it takes more. Ivory black paint will crack and be dull if you paint thickly with it. The key is to use black paint very thinly (no turp, just medium).

OR....HERE IS MY GOOF-PROOF SHORTCUT!

Use black gesso on the clearly defined area of your blank canvas that you eventually intend to be solid black.

When you begin to paint, glaze over this black gesso with alizarin crimson and let it dry. Then glaze it with prussian blue and let it dry.

You're done.

It will be deep, rich, glossy, black and beautiful. If you want to play around with this, continue glazing dark colors into it for even more richness...what the heck, you might even want to glaze a thin layer of ivory black here too.

[Karin Wells]

Zabie's black hair and black jacket are underpainted with black gesso and are an example of my "goof-proof shortcut to black" as described above.

[Karin Wells]

To paint the black dress (and neckband) on Halle, I used the first -and longer- method described above.

In these paintings, you cannot tell which method is which by looking at the finish...

I usually use this method when I am not sure EXACTLY where my black is going to be in a painting.