Black is a commonly used paint color, but you may not have one on hand or you may want a shade of black that leans slightly toward another color. To get black paint, you can mix equal parts of red, yellow, and blue paints on a palette. You can also mix complementary colors like blue and orange, red and green, or yellow and purple. Also, mixing blue and brown can result in a deep black color.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Mixing Black Paint
Step 1. Gather red, blue, and yellow paints
Black is the darkest color, but there are still degrees of blackness that you can achieve with paint. The exact shades of red, blue, and yellow you use will determine the color black. Use your choice of oil, watercolor, or acrylic paint.
- Using Aureolin, Genuine Chaff Pink, and Cobalt Blue will result in a smooth black color, while using Winsor Yellow, Permanent Alizarin Carmine, and Winsor Blue will result in a deep black color.
- If you have a basic paint set, any red, blue, and yellow you have will do. Magenta and cyan are commonly used red and blue colors.
Step 2. Squeeze or dab a little of each color onto the palette in separate spots
It works best to put the colors one by one on the palette before mixing them. Place the paint drops on the palette about 1/2-inch apart. To get a basic black color, use equal amounts of each color.
- Use a little more than one or two of the colors to add a different touch to the color black.
- If you use a brush to put the paint on the palette, be sure to use a different one for each color so that you don't mix the paints except on the palette.
- Chances are you won't be able to create the same shade of black the first and second time, so make sure you prepare enough to paint what you want.
Step 3. Mix the paint
You can use a paintbrush to blend the colors, but some paints blend better with a putty knife or some kind of metal scraping tool. Stir the paints for at least 15 seconds to make sure you get a full color without traces of any individual color.
If you are using a paintbrush to mix the paint, move it gently and do not press too hard. If you press the brushes too hard against the palette, you can ruin them
Step 4. Adjust the value and hue of the black color
How you want black to look will depend on how you use it. You can add a little white paint to lighten the black, or you can add one more blob of blue to create a black color for a night sky.
- If you have time and paint to spare, experiment with color. Add a little brown or green to black to paint pine trees at night or add a little yellow for the sun that reflects off the black metal.
- Generally, mixing the paint by hand will not result in an exact black color, but your shade of black will have more character than a pure black.
Method 2 of 3: Mix Complementary Colors
Step 1. Combine red and green paints
Mixing paint colors facing each other on the color wheel basically neutralizes the properties of each other and results in a dark hue. You can choose any red or green depending on how you want the black color to look. Phthalo Green and Naphthol Red are great add-ons to combine for a simple black color.
Step 2. Combine blue and orange paint
Place a blob of blue paint, like cobalt blue, and a blob of orange paint, like translucent orange, on the palette. Gently stir the colors until a vibrant black forms. If equal parts of each of the colors doesn't create a dark enough black, add a little more blue to the mix.
Step 3. Mix yellow and purple paint
Create a mixture that is about 60% purple and about 40% yellow and adjust this ratio to get the black color you want. Cadmium yellow is a common paint that works very well and you can mix it with a violet.
Method 3 of 3: Mix Blue and Brown
Step 1. Start with ultramarine blue
On the palette or surface to be painted, place a small drop of ultramarine blue. Blue should make up about half of all paint, so use whatever you need to do whatever you want to paint.
Step 2. Place some burnt shade soil near the blue one
Do not apply the two colors in the same place. Rather, place them an inch or a half inch apart. Then gently mix the two colors. Adjust it with a little more of each color to get the black you want.
Step 3. Add a drop of Prussian blue
If you want to intensify or darken the black color you mixed, add just a small drop of Prussian blue. This new mixture works very well to get a black color that shows the darkness of the night.