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To many, black paint is black paint. They aren’t necessarily that different. But for an artist, you might want to get to understand the different versions of black paint available to you so you can make a worthwhile choice for your palette. In this post, I’m getting to know bone black and ivory black acrylic paint.
I’ll test out how the two colours mix with some common acrylic paint colours, but first, let’s talk a bit about each.
Bone black
I’m using Golden Artist Colour’s bone black. It uses PBk9, which is carbonized, essentially burned, bones. It is a traditional pigment where people would burn the bones leftover from their meals. It would not have been the easiest pigment to work with because it would take an exceptional amount of grinding to develop a small pigment size. It tends to be a fairly warm black.
Ivory black
The other type of black I’m looking at today is Liquitex’s ivory black. The pigment in ivory black is also PBk9. Historically, it was made using ivory but, of course, that isn’t acceptable or legal today. It may be made from horns but can also be made from animal bones. While it has the same pigment number as bone black, sometimes manufacturers will add additional carbon to make it darker. It tends to lean a bit brown compared to some other blacks.
Before the ivory trade was outlawed, ivory black was considered a far better quality black than bone black, which was seen as inferior.
Considerations
SInce both are made from animal bones or horns, neither type will be acceptable to anyone who does not want to use animal products in their paintings. There are other black acrylic paint options available such as carbon black or mars black.
Mixing with bone and ivory black
Let’s take a look at how they work with other colours. I used the following colours to test out some ivory black and bone black colour mixes:
- Hansa yellow lemon
- Cadmium-free yellow medium
- Cadmium-free red medium
- Quinacridone magenta
- Ultramarine blue
- Phthalo blue (green)
- Dioxazine purple
- Sap green hue
- Cadmium orange
Watch me mix with bone black and ivory black on my YouTube channel.
Thoughts
Both colours are very similar – not surprising because they use the same pigment. I found that ivory black is a touch warmer although that is so minor that I don’t know if I will ever be particular enough to be concerned with the difference. I also didn’t find ivory black to be much darker than bone black. Again, maybe just a hint darker but nothing dramatic. Both are quite inexpensive, so either will be a fine choice.
I also found it to be pretty middle of the road, pigment strength-wise. Neither overwhelmed the mixes, like carbon black can. Nor did either seem weak, like Mars black can be. I would say either is an excellent choice if you’re interested in adding a black acrylic paint to your palette. If you’re interested in learning more about other black acrylic paint options before you make your decision, check out my post comparing carbon black and mars black.
Learn more
Check out a listing of all my colour mixing blog posts and videos on my colour mixing roundup article.
Get your own
Pick up your favourite shade of black at your local art supply store or on Amazon:
US
Canada
