Should you use Black or White in your Painting?

[@Bright-It]

Emma, loving your pastel painting. Appreciate that you speak clear and good speed. Looking nice with head scarf, too. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@michaeljohnangel6359]

Thank all the gods that nobody told Rembrandt or Velàzquez not to use black paint!!!!! What a lovely pastel painting you are working on here.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Thanks Michael! And for all your recent comments. I love using black although must admit the dark Terry Ludwig pastels are making me enjoy using alternatives in some paintings recently. Rules are only suggestions in art.

[@anniedarkhorse6791]

That looks exactly like my dog. Lovely painting, as usual. I wish I had your skill.

[@kevinlloyd2589]

Thank you Emma, your the best. I wish I could move to Spain and be one of your students.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Thank you Kevin. I don't actually do many in person classes so online is the best way to learn from me anyway wherever you are. Check out my Patreon channel if you'd like to access my tutorials library. www.patreon.com/emmacolbertart

[@dougg1075]

Holy Moses on the mountain top that’s an awesome painting of the dog! Beautiful

[@elainewhiteside7181]

Thanks Emma. I recently was following a ‘master’ expert and she adamantly called everyone out, when critiquing their work, for using black and white. Like you, I see black very useful, especially in pet portraits, but I also fully understand that it looks flat just on it’s own, so I try to either use it to help create darker hues of other pastels like burgundy or green or blue if my darkest pastels aren’t dark enough or a black pastel pencil can be very useful for outlining a dog’s eye or for parts of the nose or mouth,, but used along side other darks. As for white... if you have a good range of ‘lights’ in your pastel collection, then the need for pure white, as you say, becomes almost redundant. Well said, Emma 😊

[@EmmaColbertArt]

I hear it condemned all the time. I get it for plein air painting and certain styles. But used in moderation and as a tool to darken and lighten things it's totally acceptable. I always get people who are shocked to see me use actual black. Even on a black dog! :-)

[@anniedarkhorse6791]

I really hate it when artists insult other artists. Advice or ideas are valid but some people claim their way is the only way. Isn't freedom the whole point of art?

[@okdanhe]

oops! I just did my very first pastel drawing of my dog (berner sennen) and i almost only used black and white... i watched your videos religiously for 2 weeks while waiting for the materials to arrive and tried it myself. it isnt perfect but i'm very happy with the result. Thank you for all the helpful videos.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Well done! How exciting. Enjoy the process and seeing your work improve over time. Glad you've found my videos helpful :-)

[@418SurferGirl]

Great advice Emma. I must be on the right track. I try to use white as my lightest highlight, but prefer to use tints. Getting good darks makes the painting more interesting!

[@claritzairosario68]

Very interesting Emma! is very curious to know that we have to use black at times and mostly use dark brown colors. I bought a set of Unison half pastels, for portraits, and it had no white, only colors like light gray, light yellow, and I found it curious. I painted my kitten, tricolor, but all mixed, and I used black a lot, as well as brown and green for dark areas, and only used a little pure white. I will keep this video for reference. Thank you very much Emma🥰😊❤❤❤

[@karenhinson9582]

Very helpful. Beautiful paintings.

[@scrappysinger]

You’re so pretty.💝 (thanks for the video!! As always...very helpful!)

[@claireb2394]

Ce portrait est sublime. Admiration.

[@amywellerart]

Emma, this was another great and helpful video! Thank you 😊👍🏻💕

[@joyellis3354]

Thank you Emma

[@2209009pm]

The choice is up to you.

[@lynnrushton7458]

Thanks Emma! Really helpful advice 👍 xx

[@douglasrice8548]

Absolutely correct when it comes to watercolor. But here's my 2 cents about black and white in paintings, my paintings are not NATURE. So, I will use my ARTISTIC license and use them at will. In my opinion, art is a way to see things you're NOT USED TO SEEING.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

I completely agree, there really is no right or wrong in art.

[@katrikinnunen8969]

We should put this challenge to artists out here on youtube to do the paintings they're doing, take a photo before adding black of white highlights and then taking another picture once used them. I don't know if that'll work out since many artists can make out their values by painting one section at a time and evaluating them and the layers wouldn't make such sense as they do... But that'll be fun to show some teacher that said that white and black doesn't exist. Paintings would lose so much contrast that this "no black and white" minded people should come to their senses. :D

[@itsnotakuma]

thanks, great reminders!

[@TheArtAcademy1]

Nice video Awesome

[@sylvianblue]

Really useful thank you!

[@tinalandrey5104]

i ove videos like this thank you

[@DS40764]

Thank you for sharing this with us: Informative and interesting (watercolor hobbyist) . Someday, I may try pastels,but if I don't I still learn things from you. To be a better Artist, would you say respecting the values is the greatest factor in elevating you as an Artist?

[@EmmaColbertArt]

That's great to hear Deborah as I am no watercolorist but do believe a lot of art theory crosses all mediums. I would definitely attribute my most progress to seeing values more clearly and being more strict with my colour decisions.

[@shamsart]

Great video thanks 🙏

[@katrikinnunen8969]

I think that the majority of art teachers see so much different kinds of levels of talent and understanding of colors, that the main reason they say "don't use black" is the wrong way of teaching about colors, mixing and layers. Black and white paintings and drawings should be THE FIRST thing to teach and then move on to colors. They should teach contrast by using only "no colors" so that would be a challenge for most. XD I don't know, that's just my opinion.

[@valcuiicuiicolibri]

Et en français possible ?

[@EmmaColbertArt]

You can turn on subtitles on all my videos. I know many people watch from other countries :-)

[@trondsi]

"Don't use black" was virtually the only thing they taught me in art class in junior high. Then I realized that Velazquez used black, so I threw that rule out the window. :)

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Haha! Very true...most of my favourite painters use it.