Artist pigments are ever-changing, with new pigments being discovered and old ones falling out of use, but despite this many black pigments have changed relatively little. The earliest black pigments were made using charcoal, soot, and charred animal bones, and today we still use similar carbon-based black colours. Whether black is a useful colour in a palette is a topic of debate among artists – it has a reputation for making ‘muddy’ mixtures and for drawing the light out of a painting, especially when used neat. However, some find it essential – it can make some surprisingly vibrant greens when mixed with yellow. It is also one of the four colours in the Zorn Palette, a limited palette used by the Swedish artist Anders Zorn.
Here is a guide to the black pigments used in artist paints today according to the Pigment Colour Index, identified by the prefix PBk. Find out more about the Colour Index and why it is useful to artists in this post.
Each swatch is an example of an artist paint that uses that particular pigment, and the actual colour may vary. You can click on each swatch to go to the paint that is pictured.
PBk 1 – Aniline Black
Colour Description: Neutral black
Transparency/Opacity: Semi-transparent
Aniline Black is an azine dye lake, it isn’t considered to be a reliably lightfast pigment – particularly in thin glazes and washes.
PBk6 – Lamp Black
Colour Description: Neutral to cool black
Transparency/Opacity: Semi-opaque to opaque
Today, Lamp Black is made from the burning of gas or oil, but its name comes from its original source – the sooty residue collected from oil lamps. PBk6 often has a cool undertone, giving a bluish-grey when mixed with white. In watercolour, it is staining and usually non-granulating, while in oil it is a slow dryer. In all media it has a high tinting strength. Try mixing it with a strong Lemon Yellow pigment like Benzimidazolone Yellow (PY 175) to make acidic greens.
PBk7 – Carbon Black
Colour Description: Ranges from warm to cool black
Transparency/Opacity: Semi-opaque to opaque
PBk7 is traditionally derived from carbonising plant matter, like in the production of charcoal, but it is made today by burning coal or natural gas. Paints made with PBk7 are usually very opaque and have a high tinting strength thanks to the small, dense pigment particles. Mix with Quinacridone Magenta (PR 122) and Indanthrene Blue (PB 60) to make violet-grey.
PBk8 – Vine Black
Colour Description: Ranges from warm to cool black
Transparency/Opacity: Semi-opaque
Vine Black is so-called because it is traditionally made from charred vines, but today it is made by carbonising any plant matter. It has very similar to Carbon Black (PBk 7) and Lamp Black (PBk 6).
PBk9 – Ivory Black (animal origin)
Colour Description: Warm black
Transparency/Opacity: Semi-opaque to semi-transparent
As the name suggests, Ivory Black was originally made by carbonising ivory, but now it is made from animal bones as a by-product of the meat industry. It is usually lower in tinting strength than the other carbon-based black pigments. This pigment’s uniqueness lies in its warmth – it often has a yellow or brown undertone which can be seen in glazes, and in tints with white. Any black paint containing the pigment number PBk 9 is not vegan, and many paint ranges that are otherwise free from animal products also include an Ivory Black.
PBk 10 – Natural Graphite
Colour Description: Silvery grey/ black
Transparency/Opacity: Opaque
Using PBk 10 is like painting with graphite. It is highly lightfast and has a metallic sheen.
PBk 11 – Mars Black
Colour Description: Warm black
Transparency/Opacity: Opaque
Unlike Lamp Black, Carbon Black, and Ivory Black, Mars Black is not carbon-based. The Mars family of pigments, which also includes Mars Yellow and Mars Violet, are synthetic iron oxides and were developed in the 20th century as alternatives to natural earth pigments. Mars Black, along with Carbon Black, is one of the most opaque of the black pigments, so it is ideal if you need good coverage. It is often warm in undertone, and in mixtures it has a high tinting strength and can easily overwhelm other colours. Mars Black dries much faster than the carbon-based black pigments, so it is better suited to underpainting than Lamp Black, Carbon Black, and Ivory Black. In watercolour, PBk11 is a very granulating black pigment.
PBk 14 – Manganese Black
Colour Description: Warm black
Transparency/Opacity: Opaque
A fast-drying pigment like all other colours containing manganese, so PBk 14 is excellent for underpainting. It is a warm black with yellow undertones.
PBk 19 – Slate Grey
Colour Description: Ranges from greenish grey to blue-grey
Transparency/Opacity: Semi-opaque
Made using powdered slate, PBk 19 has a steel-grey finish. It is rarely found as a single pigment paint, but it is a key component in Winsor and Newton’s Davy’s Grey paints, a colour named after artist Henry Davy that contains slate, Yellow Ochre, and Carbon Black.
PBk 31 – Perylene Black
Colour Description: Deep black with a green undertone
Transparency/Opacity: Semi-transparent
A very unusual pigment that is black in masstone, but is a rich green when diluted. It is very high in tinting strength and makes excellent landscape greens when mixed with yellow.
To find out how to get the most out of using black in your palette, read this article.
This post is part of an ongoing series about the Pigment Colour Index.
- White Pigments (Codes beginning PW)
- Yellow Pigments (Codes beginning PY)
- Orange Pigments (Codes beginning PO)
- Red Pigments (Codes beginning PR)
- Violet Pigments (Codes beginning PV)
- Blue Pigments (Codes beginning PB)
- Green Pigments (Codes beginning PG)
- Brown Pigments (Codes beginning PBr)
You can also read our Pigment Stories series to find out about the history behind some widely used pigments.
Shop pigments at jacksonsart.com
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