What colors need to be mixed to get black

Even a beginner knows that all shades can be made with only three basic colors available - blue, red and yellow. You only need to know the rules for combining paints and the necessary proportions. But in practice, everything can be more complicated, and instead of the required color, a grayish, achromatic tone is obtained. It is also difficult to mix the colors to find the right way to get black. Finished paints will be similar to it, but not 100%.

Content:

• Features black
• Color models and color synthesis
• Subtractive mixing method
• The combination of paints to obtain coal
• Shades of black

Features black

Natural black (carbon) is, in fact, the lack of color - as scientists say. This achromatic tone is the exact opposite of white. If the latter reflects the overwhelming amount of light rays, then black, on the contrary, has the property to absorb them. There is absolutely no black in the world, while the darkest carbon vantablack is very close to the “ideal” - it absorbs 99.965% of the rays of the sun, microwaves, radio waves. That is, this material reflects the minimum possible amount of light, therefore it is considered the blackest on Earth.

Black dye is made from various carbons, it is these substances that allow you to get all kinds of paints of the desired tone. Most often used soot, graphite. Previously, artists received matte black from burnt bone, and no darker tone existed. Today, the production of minerals is put on stream, because in any art store you can buy paint, pencil, plasticine or felt-tip pen of a dark tone.

Color models and color synthesis

Scientists have "brought out" two basic color models that allow you to create all kinds of tones and shades. Color synthesis involves the use of one of the models:

1. RGB, or additive. It implies the imposition of light rays on each other in a certain order, with a specified intensity. The main range of colors fits into the standard (basic) - red, blue and yellow. Additive synthesis is used in monitors, but it will not work to make black the same way as the rest. Black, according to RGB, is the lack of reflection.
2. CMYK, or subtractive. All tones are obtained by mixing paints in a physical way. Black is created by adding all the other tones, and white in this system is the lack of color. This model is used in printing, its main colors are cyan (cyan), yellow, magenta (magenta).

Subtractive mixing method

This method of adding colors involves creating fewer tones than is possible with RGB. In theory, such a model involves obtaining a black color if you mix a number of other colors. But with the actual mixing of the pigments, not a black tone comes out, but a dark brown one with a brown tint, which will be very noticeable when diluted.

Therefore, in the printing house, where the subtractive method is used, a key tone is added to this mixture - real black in finished form. Not a single ink obtained by mixing colors replaces the true black pigment, which has long been known to printers.

The combination of paints for coal

If you read the manuals for beginner artists, everywhere you can find an indication: no combination of colors will give 100% black.But there are tables with information which paints need to be mixed in order to create the darkest shade close to black.

The easiest way is to mix red, blue and yellow inks. Gouache, oil are best suited, and the watercolor will be too transparent, will not give the necessary depth. Any basic set of colors is suitable, although artists more often take cyan, magenta, yellow cadmium, royal blue and alizarin red.

The instruction is as follows:

• put on a white palette a drop of each paint (take an equal amount of all colors) at a small distance from each other;
• gently mix the colors with a brush, spatula;
• materials must be mixed for at least 15 seconds so that there are no streaks using circular motions.

If you need to lighten black a little, a drop of white paint is introduced into it. To give the tone of the natural sky add a drop of blue or purple pigment. To paint the night forest, they add a little green to black, and a little orange to draw the rays of the sun on a dark surface. Of course, the expressiveness of such blackness will be less, for a rich tone it is better to buy a ready-made color in the store.

There are other methods to get the right color:

• red + green;
• purple + brown;
• blue + orange;
• purple + yellow;
• blue + brown.

All received tones will be close to black, but not ideal; upon closer examination, it is easy to identify a "fake". In the first option, it is better to take red alizarin and emerald. But the finished color can still have a shade of one of them or become olive, purple, brown.

According to artists, the best color is obtained by mixing blue and brown paint, regardless of its brand and specific appearance. Moreover, the more brown, the “warmer” the blackness will be. On the contrary, blue strongly cools the finished color scheme. Dilution of this color with water gives an excellent gray tone.

Shades of black

Professionals highlight a lot of shades of the darkest dye. Not so long ago, artists designated such tones:

• aspid (with an admixture of gray);
• anthracite (with shine);
• bovine blood (mixed with red).

Now colorists and artists create completely different colors, their range has seriously expanded. With the introduction of different colors, the coal will not be so dark, but brownish, bluish or with a purple glow. Many shades are obtained by the introduction of white. Here are some interesting variations of the dark tone:

• soft coal - to create it mix turquoise, pink, yellow, add a drop of finished black;
• medium coal - combine ultramarine, reddish, light yellow, add a little black;
• black and blue - combine brown and blue, and the second color should be 2 times more.

Mixing paints is easy, and experimenting is always fun. It is possible in practice to select the necessary proportions to make the required color scheme for the drawing - even a schoolboy can do it.