Three sources and their blacks: a bone becomes bone black, soot from a lamp flame becomes lamp black, and charred vine twigs become vine black. Carbon gives each its color; bone black is mostly bone mineral.

Concept · The Painter's Colors

Blacks

Painters' blacks get their color from carbon: soot collected from a flame, or charred vine twigs or bone.

Lampblack is soft and bluish and can leave oil slow to dry, so umber was often mixed in to speed it up.

  • "Ivory black" today is almost always bone black, which is mostly bone mineral (calcium phosphate) with only some carbon.
  • Cima da Conegliano used vine black for a cool gray robe and bone black for warmer areas (1502–04).
  • Carbon blacks barely change in light.

See

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