How Can I Make Black Paint? Assumptions to Drop

To make black paint without tube black, mix artist-grade Burnt Umber (PBr7) and Ultramarine Blue (PB29) in the same medium; for GOLDEN Heavy Body Acrylics, the maker’s Virtual Paint Mixer calculates a neutral-dark starting mix of 52% Burnt Umber and 48% Ultramarine Blue by mass. Tint a small sample with 10 times its weight in Titanium White: add blue if the tint is brown, or umber if it is blue-purple. This produces a near-neutral chromatic black. Choose tube Carbon Black or Mars Black when repeatability, speed, or an opaque mark matters more than a responsive undertone.

The tidy beginner’s rule says that three equal primaries make black. Pigments have unequal strength, neighboring hue biases, and different covering power. GOLDEN’s mixer, built from physical mixtures and spectrophotometer readings, predicts that this 52:48 formula dries near RGB 33, 33, 34. The result belongs to one product line.

What kind of black does the painting need?

Gamblin’s guide distinguishes black oil colors by opacity, tinting strength, and temperature because those properties alter their palette behavior. A blue-evening passage needs a different dark from a solid silhouette.

A neutral dark loses an obvious hue cast when spread thin and mixed into white. A warm dark can lean brown, red, or violet; a cool one can lean blue or blue-green. Gamblin identifies Payne’s Grey as its coolest black because it contains Ultramarine Blue, while iron-oxide-containing Van Dyke Brown is the warmest black on its palette.

Glazing changes the decision. Gamblin rates its PG36/PV19 Chromatic Black as transparent and recommends it with other transparent colors. An opaque shape calls for a covering pigment: the company rates Mars Black PBk11 “very opaque,” and GOLDEN rates both Heavy Body Mars Black PBk11 and Carbon Black PBk7 opaque. A chromatic mix can be tuned toward any temperature, but the ingredients decide whether it can glaze or cover.

Which pigments are actually on the palette?

The tube’s Color Index entry is more useful than its color name. GOLDEN says the codes are assigned through the Society of Dyers and Colourists and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists. PB29 identifies Ultramarine Blue’s pigment family; “blue” does not.

The current GOLDEN and Gamblin technical pages give these comparisons:

| Paint or pair | Color Index | Maker’s opacity rating | Published tint-strength figure | What the specification permits | |---|---|---|---|---| | GOLDEN Heavy Body Carbon Black | PBk7, C.I. 77266 | Opaque | 56.55 | A consistent tube black; GOLDEN describes Carbon Black elsewhere as cool and very strong in mixtures | | GOLDEN Heavy Body Mars Black | PBk11, C.I. 77499 | Opaque | 67.81 | A warmer, covering tube black | | GOLDEN Heavy Body Burnt Umber + Ultramarine Blue | PBr7, C.I. 77491 + PB29, C.I. 77007 | Opaque + semi-transparent | 75.50 + 79.94 | A two-pigment dark whose temperature can be shifted during mixing | | Gamblin Chromatic Black oil | PG36 + PV19 | Transparent | Gamblin calls it subtler than its strong tube blacks | A ready-made complement mixture suited to transparent glazing |

GOLDEN defines tint strength as one color’s ability to change another and tests it with the same amount of Titanium White. Its chart gives no units; the figures compare colors within that line. Gamblin uses another measure, reporting that its Mars Black has approximately three times the tinting strength of Ivory Black PBk9.

Opacity needs an edition check. GOLDEN’s chart note describes an eight-point scale from 1, most opaque, to 8, most transparent, while its live cards expose categories such as “opaque” and “semi-transparent.” GOLDEN says no standard governs these judgments; it compares similarly prepared samples. The category cannot be converted to a coverage percentage.

Read every tube for its medium, maker, line, Color Index, and opacity. GOLDEN’s Permanent Green Light contains PY175, PG7, and PW6. The PW6 is Titanium White, which raises opacity and can limit the depth of a red-green mixture.

Which black paint mix should a beginner try first?

Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue make a forgiving first pair because both are already dark and their warm-cool imbalance is easy to see in white. When GOLDEN’s acrylic mixer is restricted to Heavy Body PBr7 and PB29 and asked to approach neutral RGB 30, 30, 30, it returns 51.88% Burnt Umber and 48.12% Ultramarine by weight. Rounded for a one-gram trial, that is 0.52 g and 0.48 g. The predicted result is RGB 33, 33, 34, with a CIE76 distance of 1.89 from the requested gray.

Those decimals belong to GOLDEN Heavy Body Acrylics. Greg Watson, a GOLDEN Material and Application Specialist with an MFA from Indiana University Bloomington, says, “The weight ratios are helpful when using a gram scale to make your mixtures.” He reports that the oil mixer required about 2,000 mixtures and 11,000 spectrophotometer readings. GOLDEN says the screen cannot fully model particle size and transparency.

When Burnt Umber is absent, GOLDEN applications specialist Scott Fischer reports that equal parts Fluid Permanent Green Light and Quinacridone Red produce an achromatic gray approaching black. The former is PY175/PG7/PW6; the latter is transparent PV19. Gamblin separately lists Burnt Sienna with Ultramarine Blue, and Sap Green with Alizarin Crimson, as oil combinations. Every brand still needs a swatch.

How does a white-tint test expose the undertone?

Dark paint hides disagreement. White makes it testify. GOLDEN’s mixer shows tints through 1 part color to 10 parts Titanium White. That test contains 90.9% white by measured parts and exposes blue, violet, green, or brown bias.

Use a controlled trial before the mixture reaches the painting:

1. Read the labels and choose two paints from the same medium and product line. Record PBr7 and PB29, rather than “brown” and “blue.”
2. Zero a scale with a palette cup. Add 0.52 g Burnt Umber and 0.48 g Ultramarine Blue for the GOLDEN-specific one-gram test.
3. Mix until no separate streaks remain. Brush one thick mark and scrape a second mark thinly across a white ground; GOLDEN calls these views masstone and undertone.
4. Move 0.10 g of the mixture aside and add 1.00 g Titanium White. This 1:10 dark-to-white test is 90.9% white by mass.
5. Let the swatches dry under the conditions in which the painting will dry. Compare the full-strength mark, thin drawdown, and white tint under the same light.
6. Correct the main pile in measured 0.02 g additions, remixing and repeating the tint after each addition. Stop when the bias serves the picture; perfect neutrality is only one possible destination.

The pale tint shows the undertone. How much the white changes shows the mixture’s practical tinting strength on that palette.

How does chromatic black compare with tube black?

| Property | Mixed chromatic black | Tube Carbon or Mars Black | |---|---|---| | Opacity | Inherits the pigments and film thickness; a transparent pair can glaze, while PBr7/PB29 combines an opaque and a semi-transparent paint | GOLDEN rates both PBk7 and PBk11 Heavy Body colors opaque; Gamblin also rates its Mars Black very opaque | | Tinting strength | Changes with the ratio; the white-tint test measures the actual pile | Fixed for that formula; Gamblin says its oil Mars Black is about three times as strong as Ivory Black | | Undertone | Adjustable toward warm or cool and tied to colors already used in the work | Product-specific: GOLDEN calls Mars warmer than Carbon; Gamblin calls Ivory slightly warm in transparency | | Mixing behavior | Small ratio changes can alter hue as well as value | Fast, repeatable value reduction; a strong black can overwhelm a small mixture | | Reproduction | Requires weights, exact products, and a dried record | Easier when the same line and color remain available | | Glazing | Available when both pigments and the chosen medium are transparent | Depends on the tube: Gamblin rates Chromatic Black transparent, Ivory semi-transparent, and Mars opaque |

Gamblin acknowledges that mixed blacks can have subtler mixing characteristics and relate closely to the palette. Its counterweight is unusually plain: “limiting the use of tubed blacks can make the work of color mixing much harder than it needs to be.” An opaque black line, a deadline, or repeated batches are sound reasons to open a tube. A shifting landscape shadow is a sound reason to mix.

Why do equal-parts primary-color recipes fail?

“One part red, one part yellow, one part blue” measures paint volume, while the visual result depends on pigment behavior. GOLDEN’s technical chart puts Heavy Body Carbon Black at 56.55 and Ultramarine Blue at 79.94 in its tint-strength field. Its product cards rate Burnt Umber opaque, Ultramarine semi-transparent, and Quinacridone Red transparent. Equal daubs do not carry equal coloring power or hide the ground equally.

Primary names also leave the crucial hue bias unstated. A warm, orange-leaning red and a warm, green-leaning yellow reinforce orange before blue is added, making brown likely. A cool red and blue reinforce violet. Fischer’s GOLDEN article on neutralizing color advises finding actual complements and notes that pigments do not fall neatly on an idealized color wheel. The mixer ratio therefore has to follow the paints in hand.

GOLDEN maintains separate acrylic and Williamsburg oil mixer data sets, and Watson says the data come from physical colors. A 1:1 recipe copied from fluid acrylic into heavy-body paint, student paint, or oil changes pigment load, density, and handling. Color Index codes narrow the uncertainty; a dry swatch settles what remains.

How can a muddy brown or purple mixture be fixed?

Fischer’s complement method turns the mistake into a diagnosis. A brown result shows that the warm orange-red side is winning; add the existing blue in small measured increments. A blue-purple result shows that red and blue are winning; add the palette’s yellow or yellow-green cautiously. If the mixture is green, add its red complement. Repeat the 1:10 white-tint test after every correction.

Depth imposes a limit. A pale yellow containing much PW6 may neutralize purple while making the pile lighter and chalkier. GOLDEN’s label data show PW6 inside Permanent Green Light, for example. When all available ingredients are light or opaque convenience mixtures, hue correction can produce a neutral gray without producing a deep black. The available palette then calls for its darkest suitable pigment or a tube black.

Do not rescue a half-cup of mud with unmeasured additions. Set aside a 0.20 g sample, correct it, and scale the successful addition to the main pile.

How long does mixed acrylic black take to dry?

GOLDEN does not publish one dry time for all acrylic paint because thickness, substrate, airflow, temperature, and humidity alter the result. Michael Townsend, a GOLDEN Materials Specialist who began in its quality-control department in 1989, tested standard films and writes, “Touching a paint film is the best way to determine how dry it is.” His tests found that 10-mil films become touch-dry in minutes but take about three days to reach a solid state.

The study used Heavy Body Titanium White and Regular Gel, and Townsend says pigments can behave differently. GOLDEN’s application guidance assumes 68–72°F and 30–60% relative humidity; thick acrylic can feel touch-dry in less than an hour, while an overnight wait reduces color lifting. A dried color check and a solid film are different milestones.

For the recipe card, record the actual touch-dry time beside room conditions and film thickness. A future batch painted thickly on a sealed panel should not inherit the timing of a thin swatch on breathable canvas; Townsend’s testing found the breathable support dried faster because moisture could leave through two surfaces.

What palette record makes a custom black reproducible?

Watson’s mixer supplies ratios by weight because a gram scale can return to them. GOLDEN’s Color Index guidance supplies the identity that a color name omits. Combine both in a record that includes the manufacturer and line, medium, Color Index codes, each mass, total mass, correction additions, support, application thickness, white-tint ratio, room conditions, touch-dry time, and a dried swatch.

A usable entry looks like this:

> GOLDEN Heavy Body Acrylics; Burnt Umber PBr7 0.52 g + Ultramarine Blue PB29 0.48 g; 1.00 g total; neutral-cool; tint test 0.10 g mix + 1.00 g Titanium White PW6; two 0.02 g PBr7 corrections; white acrylic ground; thin drawdown and heavy stroke; dried swatch attached.

Keep the first formula visible when adjusting the next batch. If a replacement tube carries a different Color Index, opacity category, or product line, make a fresh one-gram trial rather than silently treating the changed formula as the old paint.

Frequently asked questions

Which two colors make black?

Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue are a dependable two-color starting pair. For GOLDEN Heavy Body Acrylics, its Virtual Paint Mixer calculates 51.88% PBr7 Burnt Umber and 48.12% PB29 Ultramarine by weight for a near-neutral dark. Other brands need a fresh white-tint test because pigment load and bias vary.

What colors can I mix to create black paint?

Gamblin lists Burnt Sienna with Ultramarine Blue and Sap Green with Alizarin Crimson as black-making pairs. GOLDEN also documents equal parts Fluid Permanent Green Light and Quinacridone Red as an achromatic gray approaching black. Choose dark complements already on the palette, then adjust their ratio after a white-tint test.

How can I make black paint without black paint?

Mix complementary artist paints from the same medium, beginning with 0.52 g Burnt Umber and 0.48 g Ultramarine Blue for GOLDEN Heavy Body Acrylics. Test 0.10 g of the mixture in 1.00 g Titanium White. Add blue to a brown tint or umber to a blue-purple tint.

What can I use if I do not have black paint?

Use the darkest complementary pair available: brown plus blue, green plus red, or purple plus yellow. Gamblin and GOLDEN document examples of the first two pairings. For a transparent glaze, choose transparent pigments; for a covering mark, the available chromatic mixture may require several layers or an opaque tube color.

How can I mix black using acrylic paint?

Keep both colors within one acrylic line, weigh the recipe, and test it dry. GOLDEN’s measured Heavy Body starting point is 52% Burnt Umber PBr7 and 48% Ultramarine Blue PB29 by mass. A 1:10 mixture-to-Titanium-White tint reveals whether the result needs more blue or more umber.

Can brown be mixed into black paint?

Yes. Brown can warm a tube black or combine with blue to make a chromatic black. GOLDEN’s mixer pairs PBr7 Burnt Umber with PB29 Ultramarine Blue at roughly 52:48 by mass for a near-neutral dark. Add brown incrementally because too much shifts the white tint toward orange or red.

Do I want a warm, cool, opaque, or transparent dark?

Choose by function. A warm dark supports earth colors and warm shadows; a cool dark suits blue light and cool shadows. GOLDEN rates Carbon and Mars Black acrylics opaque. Gamblin rates PG36/PV19 Chromatic Black transparent for glazing. Test the intended mixture both thickly and as a 1:10 white tint before deciding.