Black watercolor paint should be outlawed. That's right, I said it. 

At least the premixed, manufactured kind should be. 

Why?

Because it’s dull. It’s flat. No pizazz at all. 

Have you ever looked at Raven’s feathers in the sunlight? There’s nothing dull or flat about those black feathers. They’re a mix of gold and violet with hints of red and green. 

Nature’s black is never dull or flat, it is a swirl of colors when the light hits it, yet it’s still seen as black by your eyes.

You can’t get that kind of brilliance out of a tube or from a pan of paint. You have to mix it. 

For many years, I used black straight out of the tube. I’ve since mended my ways.

Once I started mixing my own blacks I never looked back. 

Blacks or as fancy watercolor artists like to say, “darks” are easy to mix and give a far better result than premade. 

The easiest way to make a black is to combine complementary colors (colors directly across from each other on the color wheel).

For Example:

Red + Green

Blue + Orange

Yellow + Purple 

Experiment with mixing those and see just how many darks you can get from the three combinations. If you want more “recipes” for mixing black then download my Recipes for Mixing Black Cheat Sheet!

Oh, and by the way, we should probably outlaw Payne’s Gray too. You can just add a little water to your black mixtures and get beautiful full-bodied grays.

I’m just sayin’.