11 Mix blacks

This really shows how to enliven black as a colour. I never use a tube of black paint, preferring to mix one instead. Here I mixed a “black” using Prussian Blue, Vermillion and a little Phthalo Green. This meant I could modulate the black, adding slightly more of one colour in places to push the mix into subtle changes of hue. Black itself is a beautiful colour but even a mixed black has to be handled with care and subtlety or it can completely deaden a painting.