It’s true. I don’t use the color black in my paintings. It’s true. Black paint can have a tendency to be flat and cold. It can also easily decrease the vibrance of colors when mixing.
So, it’s not entirely true that I don’t use black paint. I have a small (very small) tube that I keep on hand. I use it in my pet portraiture work. BUT! I only use small dots in the pupils of the eyes and in the nostrils of the nose and that’s it. This is because those areas are the absolute darkest parts of the subject. I don’t mix with it, I don’t apply it in the fur (even with black labs, rottweilers, dobermans, etc.) Even in the shaded areas of the subject, there is still some color vibrance no matter how dark those areas can be.
In my abstracts, I definitely don’t touch the stuff. In order to keep my paintings full of celebration, I want there to be vibrant color in all areas.
How do I get my darks, you ask? That’s coming up in a future post, so stay tuned!
What do you think about the new Kiss Before Midnight series of Abstracts? Do any emotions, feelings or memories come to your mind?
