Anyone use Sepia vs Black and White?

[thebryce]

Is sepia and ivory background any good for a value study or pen and ink or just a painting? What is the best technique?

[dennis]

I don't recommend the use of any Black or Paynes Grey out of the tube either for oils, acrylic as well as watercolours. The reason?
1. Beginners over use it and actually "kill" the nice vibrant transparent colours. I don't even use it. The preferred method is to mix what you need and to match the mood of the painting, eg, a warm black or a cool black. I prefer to call them very dark colours as very seldom do you get a pure black in nature. Don't be mislead by the "blacks" in a photograph.
2. It is OK to use sepia but also be very careful with these colours for the same reason as above.
3.Chinese what should also NEVER be mixed into the watercolours to lighten them - all you will get is a very chalky  and dull look. Being extremely opaque it takes away the transparency of the colours because transparency is what watercolours is all about.

[thebryce]

I guess I am using the waterpaint too much like  color pencils or crayons. I continually overpaint. My 12 yr old daughter, a decent water colorist, has demanded that I get her approval before I lay down too many washes or scrape paint any further.

[dennis]

 

[Val]

Geez Bryce... you have your very own inhouse critic!    You thought we were bad?! 

[thebryce]

I fiddle with black and red, black and yellow and black and green often with carried results. I like the resulting hues but as you have said, Dennis, as a beginner I can't control the outcome to do exactly what I want. I was thinking sepia would have been the answer to some of my woes. Now with white, I never have success with it. I always ruin my paintings when I assume it will make a pink or cover an error.  My daughter notices this and made the previous comment.