The Character of Mars black
It’s a dense, opaque pigment with a warm brown undertone. It’s a good choice if you need full coverage, to layer or block out. It’s a powerful pigment and a little goes a long way when mixing - its high tinting strength can easily overwhelm other colors. Because of this, some artists like to premix their tints to save time.
Not all artists like to use black from the tube or pot and prefer to mix their own. It’s totally personal, but the debate has been raging for decades. When Claude Monet and John Singer Sargent were painting together, Sargent was surprised by the lack of black in Monet’s kit. Monet reported “I gave him my colors, and he wanted black, and I told him ‘But I haven’t any.’ ‘Then I can’t paint’ he cried, ‘how do you do it?’”
