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Black acrylic paint is controversial in the art world. Some artists won’t touch them, saying it deadens their paintings. Others love having them on their palette, using them as a shortcut to create deeper colours from others on their palette. I’m taking a close look at carbon black and mars black in this post, looking at differences, similarities, and how they can be used.
Black is one of the oldest paint colours – think burned wood or bones that ancient artists would have had easy access to with little effort.
Carbon black
I’m using the fluid version of Golden’s carbon black. It’s much more liquid than the heavy body but is still heavily pigmented. I regularly use fluid and heavy body paints together, just knowing that I won’t be able to apply the fluid paints thickly.
Carbon black is very opaque and lightfast. It’s made using PBk7, which is traditionally created from burning plant matter but is often synthesized today. Some carbon black paints are PBk6. It can range from neutral or can lean a bit cool or blue. It’s very inexpensive.
Mars black
The version of mars black I’m using today is from Kroma Artist’s Colours, a tiny acrylic paint company out of Vancouver. It’s a very affordable colour, generally around the same price as other black pigments.
Mars black uses PBk11, which is an artificial iron oxide, replacing an earth pigment. It’s typically neutral, not leaning cool or warm. When adding white, which is a cool colour, it can be a tad cool as well.
Mixing colours
I’ll test how the two black hues mix with a few other colours that are commonly found on artist palettes, including:
- 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 carbon black and mars black on my YouTube channel.
Thoughts
Both carbon black and mars black are very suitable additions to an artist’s palette, if you want a shortcut rather than mixing your own very dark colours. If you do choose to add a black to your palette, I recommend only using it to mix darks with other colours, rather than using it as a pure colour in your painting. This allows you to have darks that still have a hint of colour and life in them, rather than a very heavy pure black.
Carbon black is a very, very opaque colour and you only need a tiny bit to mix a dark. Mars black, on the other hand, is quite transparent and not over-powering in a mix. If you can restrain yourself from mistaking putting in too much paint, I recommend the carbon black because a tube of it will last you a long time. But if you struggle with adding just a tiny bit of paint, you might end up making your mixes too dark and need to add more of the mixing colour. This can make the seemingly frugal choice of carbon black very expensive.
Mars black is great for anyone who wants a more forgiving and less over-powering black to use as a mixing colour. It’s also less opaque, which some artists may prefer.
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
