Detail of black on black pottery in painting #2
Painting black on black pottery on canvas is tricky, in that, the darkest coolest black is quite dark and dense. For this I used ivory black with just a tiny addition of burnt umber dark to facilitate the drying. The Burnt Umber Dark from Cypress is the darkest I have found. As you remember, black is a very poor dryer, so an addition of a faster drying pigment such as raw or burnt umber is always propitious.
To create the lighter black, which creates the crisp lines of the design on the pot, I used a combination of raw umber and green earths. This was just light enough which prevented the addition of white until the very end, otherwise it will look just milky and not really like a lighter black. The single added white is in the highlight where the light was bouncing off the closest point of the pot.
How do you make a lighter black? Do you have another formula that works well? Please leave a comment and tell us about it.