Dark Blue

Most of these colors also appear on other color slot pages based on their hue. But dark blue is such a uniquely useful and common color slot, with artists choosing the blue for its darkness rather than its color bias, that I thought I would make it its own color slot page.

Dark Blue Comparison with Indigo, Payne’s Gray, Neutral Tint

Color List

From most violet to most cyan:

Mixes:

My thoughts

Necessary slot? Yes. Having tried many times to get away with having only bright colors in my palette, I conclude that it’s much, much more convenient to have a dark color of some kind. And having tried various dark colors, including black or gray, brown, violet, and dark red (e.g. crimson or maroon), I have concluded that blue is by far the most useful dark color. Here are some reasons:

  • Blue is the darkest primary color. Typically, dark blues are darker than dark reds, and certainly dark yellows.
  • Cool tones feel shadowy to me. Blue (specifically violet-blue) feels to me like the right base color for shadows.
  • Dark blues can chameleon in mixes quite well. Blues can be mixed with oranges, earth oranges, or browns to make neutral blacks and grays.

Favorites: DS Indanthrone Blue (PB60), being more violet-toned and darker than other types of Indanthrene I have tried. I can’t quite seem to get Ultramarine Blue as dark in mixes, and many of the others are too cyan. I have also been known to use Payne’s Gray, especially Holbein’s very neutral version.

Mix your own: Add a complement or black to a bright blue. Phthalo Blues have a wide value range and so are most handy for mixing darker blues. Commercial Indigo is already usually a mix of Phthalo Blue and black or gray. Another good mix is Phthalo Blue with maroon.

See Also

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